Led by senior Mary Vitale, the women’s fencing team went 4-2 at Stevens Tech on Sunday. The squad beat Stevens, Queens College (NY), Fairleigh-Dickinson and Tufts. The two losses came at the hands of Temple and Brandeis.
The Hopkins men’s fencing team traveled to Durham, N.C. for the Duke Invitational on Sunday. The Jays lost to Duke, Notre Dame and North Carolina.
The Lady Jays began the day by defeating host Stevens 18-9 while sweeping all three weapons. Freshman Katherine Simeon was 3-0 with the Sabre and fellow freshman Kathleen Rand also had a pair of wins. The Epee against Stevens was a tight 5-4, but Hopkins took the win behind three bout victories from junior Lauren Chinn. Freshman Jackie Heath and junior Marion Trumbull combined for six wins in the 7-2 Foil victory.
Nationally ranked nineth Temple handed the Jays a 22-5 loss. The Owls swept the Foil 9-0, but in the Epee Chinn took another three victories and in the Sabre Rand and Simeon each won one.
Queens College turned out to be no match for Hopkins. Rand and Vitale each won three bouts in the 9-0 Sabre skunk. Hopkins also picked up a decisive 8-1 win in the Epee with three win showings from freshman Liz Caris and sophomore Komal Kumar. Heath also won three bout in the 7-2 Foil match against Queens.
Hopkins continued the pattern and dropped a very close 14-13 match against Brandeis. The Sabre went to Brandeis, 6-3, despite two wins from Simeon. Hopkins won the Epee 5-4 with three wins from Chinn. And in the Foil, Heath had three bout wins and Hopkins took the weapon win 5-4.
Against Tufts, the Jays took another win 16-11. Vitale added another two wins in the Sabre, which went to Hopkins 5-4. At the Epee Kumar and Caris each won two of three bouts and Hopkins again won 5-4. Hopkins shut the doors on Tufts with a 7-2 win for the Foil.
Fairleigh-Dickinson was the final victim of the Jays who won their final matchup of the day 23-4. Vitale and Simeon combined for six bout wins again to take the Sabre 8-1. Chinn finished the day undefeated with three wins in the Epee against FDU. And Hopkins swept the Foil 9-0 with Heath adding another three bout wins.
Vitale crossed the 200-win milestone in her second bout against Fairleigh-Dickinson University.
The men’s team faced three of the nation’s top fencing teams in Durham. Notre Dame entered the weekend as the top-ranked team in the country and subsequently swept Hopkins at all three weapons. Hopkins lost the Duke match 21-6 and the Tar Heels beat the Jays after tight scoring for all three weapons.
Against the Duke Blue Devils, Hopkins dropped the Sabre 5-4. But seniors Max Wieder and Mike Fellows each notched two wins. Only senior Nick Krywopusk had a win in the Epee portion of the matchup, which Hopkins lost 8-1. The Jays also lost the Foil 8-1. Freshman standout Evan Stafford had the only Hopkins win.
Wieder one a single bout in the Sabre against Notre Dame — as did sophmore Sid Menon. But Hopkins still took a 7-2 loss in the Sabre. In the Epee, freshman Jay DeYoung took the only win an 8-1 Fighting Irish victory. Stafford had the only win in the Foil for another 8-1 Hopkins loss against Notre Dame.
Against the Tar Heels, the Jays lost the Sabre 7-2 with bout victories coming from Menon and sophomore Nicolas Barbera. In the Epee against North Carolina, Hopkins pulled out a 5-4 victory. DeYoung won two bouts and so did freshman Richard Bram who clinched the win in the eight and final bout of the Epee. The Tar Heels bounced back to take the Foil from the Jays with a 6-3 victory. Stafford had a pair of wins to end the end the day while sophomore Ben Wasser notched a win as well.
Wieder has dropped only 34 bouts this season and leads the team with 50 victories. He also has an impressive collegiate career record of 310-150.
The final even of the year for Hopkins’s men’s fencers will be Feb. 27th at the U.S. Squad Weapon Championships in New York City.
The women’s team travels back to Hoboken, N.J. over the next two weekends to compete in the team and individual EQFC Championships along with the U.S. Squad Weapon Championships.
