Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Ivy "South" Competition
Players Mentioned
Fencers Sweep Way to Twin Ivy League Titles
February 28, 2010 | Men's Fencing, Women's Fencing
PRINCETON -- Princeton's fencing teams left Penn's Hutchinson Gym Sunday even better than the way they entered. The Tigers remained undefeated and now have two Ivy League championships to show for it.
The titles are the first for either Princeton's men's or women's team since 2001, when the women won an outright title and the men a tri-championships. Both teams were outright champions the year before, in 2000.
While the Ivy championship trophies are certainly the first for any current Tiger, they are also the first for Princeton's coach, Zoltan Dudas, who took over in 2006 after five years as an assistant coach at Notre Dame.
"It was really four years of work to be at this stage," Dudas said. "I think we were much more ready now. We had a little luck and we had a good performance."
Princeton's women started the day with an especially key match against then-fellow undefeated Columbia, edging the Lions 15-12. The Tiger women then held serve against Cornell, winning 20-7 to clinch at least a shared title.
Then came the final match against Harvard, which already had two losses but could still allow the winner of the Penn-Columbia match, going on at the same time, to join in on the Ivy title party.
After Princeton's foilists played a big role in carrying the Columbia match, it was the epeeists' turn to propel the Tigers to a win over Harvard. Princeton kept it close in the saber and foil, absorbing 5-4 losses, but won the epee 6-3 to reach the clinching number in a 14-13 win.
As it played out, however, victories by the foilists were the ones that put Princeton's women over the top against the Crimson. Freshman Joanna Cichomski won the 13th point, and Andrea Oliva made it 14 victories.
There was no such drama for the Princeton men, who had two matches Sunday and rolled to victory to finish 5-0. The Tiger men eased past Columbia 23-4 to clinch at least a share of the title and made it an outright championship with an 18-9 win over Harvard.
Accordingly, Princeton was also the school with the most All-Ivy honorees, and many of them will have the chance to win a few more All-Ivy plaudits in the years to come. Men's first-team honorees were sophomore foilist Alexander Mills, freshman epeeist Jonathan Yergler, and junior epeeist Graham Wicas. Women's first-team winners were freshman foilist Brianna Martin, sophomore foilist Lucile Jarry, and sophomore epeeist Susannah Scanlan. On the second team were senior saberist Thomas Abend, sophomore foilist David Mandle, freshman saberist Eliza Stone, and freshman epeeist Phoebe Caldwell.
It took a whole team to get the Tigers back to the top of the Ivy League, competing against five or six other teams with various strengths in different weapons and every program in the conference ranked or receiving votes in the USFCA national top-10 coaches poll.
Princeton has its strengths, too, but the league-best 10 All-Ivy selections didn't include all of those who contributed to the team titles.
"I was very pleased with foil, both men's and women's, and men's epee was our strongest weapon basically both weekends," Dudas said. "I didn't even think of (All-Ivy) when I made substitutions."
Martin also had the highest winning percentage at the Ivy championships of any regular fencer, male or female, winning 15 of 16 (.938) bouts. Wicas, who applied the clincher last Sunday in the closest win for the Princeton men, 14-13 over Yale, was named the men's national fencer of the week by CollegeFencing360.com.
The Ivy championships now behind them, Princeton will move on to NCAA competition with the Mid-Atlantic/South Regional event at Drew University on Mar. 13.
Here are the individual results from today's matches:
Men: Princeton 23, Columbia 4
Saber 6-3: Abend 3-0, Limoli 1-1, Stogin 1-1, Liss 1-0, Boswell 0-1; Foil 9-0: Mills 2-0 (plus one forfeit win), Malcolm 2-0 (plus one forfeit win), Mandle 2-0 (plus one forfeit win); Epee: Wicas 1-1 (plus one forfeit win), Yergler 2-0 (plus one forfeit win), Elfassy 2-0 (plus one forfeit win).
Women: Princeton 15, Columbia 12
Saber 3-6: Stone 2-1, Cabrera 1-1, Cichomski 0-3, Merz 0-1; Foil 9-0: Martin 3-0, Jarry 3-0, Rothenberg 3-0; Epee 3-6: Safford 1-2, Scanlan 2-1, Caldwell 1-2.
Women: Princeton 20, Cornell 7
Saber 6-3: Stone 3-0, Cabrera 0-2, Cichomski 2-1, Merz 1-0; Foil 8-1: Martin 3-0, Jarry 1-1, Oliva 3-0, Petsche 1-0; Epee 6-3: Caldwell 1-2, Safford 3-0, Scanlan 2-1.
Men: Princeton 18, Harvard 9
Saber 4-5: Stogin 1-2, Abend 2-1, Limoli 1-2; Foil 7-2: Mandle 2-1, Mills 3-0, Malcolm 1-0, Howard 0-1, Flanders 1-0; Epee 7-2: Yergler 3-0, Wicas 2-1, Kelley 2-1.
Women: Princeton 14, Harvard 13
Saber 4-5: Cabrera 0-3, Stone 2-1, Cichomski 2-1; Foil 4-5: Rothenberg 1-2, Martin 1-1, Jarry 1-1, Oliva 1-0, Petsche 0-1; Epee 6-3: Safford 1-2, Scanlan 3-0, Caldwell 2-1.