Fencing ends seasons on high note at regionals

Both the men’s and women’s fencing teams competed in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regional competition at Lafayette College this past Sunday.

The Regional included fencers from 13 schools, including Division I ranked schools such as Princeton University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Pennsylvania and Duke University.

Although Hopkins is ranked Division III for fencing, both the men’s and women’s teams competed well, showing they could match up against some of the top teams in the country.

For regionals, each team was allowed to bring up to 12 players. It was up to the teams to decide which category they wanted their players to enter.

The men sent a total of nine competitors to regionals.

In the Foil, entries included freshmen John Petrie and Glenn Balbus, sophomore Robert Goldhirsch, and junior Evan Stafford.

In the Epee competition, the men from Hopkins were freshmen Mark Zimmerman, Brent Schottenfeld, Andy Huang, and junior Jay DeYoung.

Finally, in the sabre, sophomores Aravind Menon and Paul Vitale competed.

Overall, the men performed well, with Mark Zimmerman finishing 10th overall in the Epee. His strong finish certainly supplied the team with a strong sense of pride.

"The NCAA Regional Qualifier draws the best athletes from across the Mid-Atlantic and South, including Division I powerhouses Penn State, Princeton, UPenn, and Duke,” Zimmerman said. “It is always really challenging day, but also very fun to test your skills against the best in the nation. Fencing against Olympians, reigning NCAA Champions, and other top notch fencers really pushes everyone to do there best.

“Everyone on the team bonded together and supported each other even after they themselves were eliminated. As for me, I finished in 10th out of 37 epeeists, which was the highest finish of a DIII fencer in my weapon. Other especially notable performances were Jay Petrie (12th) in foil, and Paul Vitale (17th) sabre.”

As Zimmerman stated, Petrie finished 12th in the Foil. He complimented the team on their strong performances stating, "The team fenced very well. The day was long and very physically demanding but it was an accomplishment to have two members of our team make it into the final round of regionals. Our goals for next season would be to advance more fencers to the final rounds of regionals and hopefully qualify people on our team to compete in the NCAA championship so that we can continue to go head to head with the Division I schools in the country."

With such a strong finish the team will certainly have high expectations for next season.

Paul Vitale, Glenn Balbus, and Jay DeYoung also finished in the top 20 of their respective competitions.

Final qualification to the NCAA Championships in San Antonio is based on two primary factors. 40 percent is based on each fencer’s mathematical season prior to regionals, while 60 percent is based on regional finish.

Although the men competed well against the Division I schools, none are advancing to the NCAA Championships.

When asked about the season, Aravind Menon said, “After reclaiming our conference title, we moved to regionals, which was probably our last tournament. Consisting of mostly Division I schools, Hopkins held its own and even had two fencers make it to the final round of 12.

Overall, it was a great way to end the season, and we have our coach, Austin Young, to thank for leading us to success this season. Next year is full of even more promise, and we are excited to look forward to it.”

As for the women’s team, Hopkins took eight to compete in Regionals.

Freshmen Rachel Viqueira and Ashley Lau, and junior Jackie Heath competed in the Foil.

For the Epee entries, sophomore Gianna Puzzo and freshman Kelly Seeger competed.

Finally, in the women’s sabre, sophomore Rachel Kalina, junior Katherine Simeon, and freshman Isabella So competed.

The women also did well, with Viqueira, Lau, and So finishing in the top twenty in their respective competitions. Lau was proud of her finish and will ultimately take the experience into future bouts.

"After a grueling day of sweating and bouting, two of our fencers made it into the final round,” she said. “It comes to show that as a team we have made great strides of progress. Though winning the gold is always the ultimate goal, learning from our mistakes teaches us so much more. As we have already shown our ability to compete with other Division I schools, we only hunger for more challenges to show our potential."

So commented on the difficulty of this year’s competition.

“We had to work three times as hard to compete on the level of the schools we were up against,” she said. “To go against Division I schools being a division 3 school, it was a huge challenge. We were grateful for the opportunity to go to regionals. The hard work really paid off.”