Fencing cuts through Eric Sollee Invitational

The Hopkins men's and
women's fencing teams
headed up to Waltham,
MA for their first competition
of the spring semester
last Saturday, Feb. 4th. The
Eric Sollee Invitational,
hosted by Brandeis University,
featured a plethora
of schools including Penn,
currently ranked seventh
nationally, Brown, MIT
and Brandeis.
While the men's fencing
team ended the day
with a 1-4 record, all were
close matches, with losses
to Boston College, Brandeis
and Brown by no more
than three points. The
highlight of the Invitational
for the men's team was
their 14-13 victory against
MIT. While Hopkins only
won one of the three weapons,
their outscoring of
MIT, 7-2, with the Sabre
helped them to secure the
overall win.
Junior Nicolas Barbera
won all three of his bouts
against the MIT Engineers
with a total of four wins in
the Invitational. Freshman
Robert Goldhirsch also
helped to secure the Jays'
win against the engineers
winning two out of three
bouts. Goldhirsch also had
seven wins overall in the
Foil, improving his season
record to 21-9.
The tournament comes
on the heels of an impressive
showing at the Stevens
Invitational a week prior,
where Hopkins bested
Army, Stevens, NJIT, Yeshiva
and Hunter. Without
question the top performer
for the Blue Jays was sophomore
Evan Stafford, The
News-Letter's Athlete of the
Week, who finished 13-0
on the weekend.
Other key contributors
included freshman
Aravind Menon, who
went 13-2, freshman Alex
Szigeti, who went 11-1, junior
Ben Wasser, sophomore
Jay DeYoung and
freshman Zach Goodman
and Paul Vitale.
The JHU women's team
took the Invitational by
storm, losing by one point
only to Brown University
and winning all other
matches to produce a 4-1
record.
Hopkins swept Brandeis
and Tufts and also beat
Boston College, claiming
both the Sabre and the
Epee and losing the Foil
by just a single point. The
Black and Blue also beat
MIT with overall wins in
the Foil and Epee bouts
and a loss in the Sabre by
another one-point margin.
Along with an overall
winning record, several
Lady Jays also reached
personal goals. Sophomore
Jackie Heath ended the
day having won her 150th
career bout while fellow
sophomore Kathleen Rand
achieved her 100th career
victory.
The week prior at the
Philadelphia Invitational,
Hopkins downed the
Fords of Haverford, the
high-note in a weekend
that also included losses
to four Division I schools.
Senior Lauren Chinn,
Epee, and freshman Rachel
Kalina, Sabre, paced
the Lady Jays with nine
wins apiece.
Stay tuned for more
news on the JHU men's and
women's fencing team next
week as the men's team
heads to Durham, N.C. on
Feb. 11 for the Duke Invitational
and the women's
team heads to the Eastern
Women's Fencing Championship
on Feb. 12 in Madison,
N.J. The women's team
will be defending their
two-time champion title
against the tournament's
host, Drew University.