Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
NCAA Regional Ahead Saturday for Fencers
March 12, 2010 | Men's Fencing, Women's Fencing
In the region, Princeton will compete with Drew, Duke, Fairleigh Dickinson (women's), Haverford, Johns Hopkins, Lafayette (men's), NIT, North Carolina, Penn, Penn State, Princeton, Stevens Tech and Temple (women's) for seven automatic berths each in men's foil, men's saber, women's epee and women's foil, and six auto berths in men's epee and women's saber.
In addition, two at-large berths per weapon will be awarded across the country's four regions.
A school can have a maximum 12 competitors at the NCAA finals, with two per weapon. Once on the national stage, each fencer will duel the other 23 competitors in his or her weapon, with each win counting for a team point toward the combined men's-women's championship. Getting more fencers qualified, of course, makes chasing a high team finish much more feasible, and the qualifications happen at the regional meets.
Last season, Princeton qualified eight fencers to the NCAA finals and finished eighth nationally, fourth among Ivies. This season, the Tigers won their first Ivy League championship for either program since 2001, sweeping both crowns, and qualified 10 fencers for All-Ivy spots.
Among the All-Ivy honorees were four rookies, including first-team foilist Brianna Martin, first-team epeeist Jonathan Yergler, second-team epeeist Phoebe Caldwell and second-team saberist Eliza Stone. That foursome complemented four sophomores - first-team foilists Alexander Mills and Lucile Jarry, first-team epeeist Susannah Scanlan, and second-team foilist David Mandle - junior first-team epeeist Graham Wicas and senior saberist Thomas Abend.