We’re really getting into the fall season now, and with that comes tournaments! Next week (10/12-10/20) is our fall break (already??). On Saturday October 19th, we’ll be heading to our first tournament of the year, Chaos Invitational down at University of Maryland, College Park, in Maryland. Many of our returning fencers as well as many of our new members- 17 individuals total- will be attending (at least, those who will be around then). Fencers of all levels can be found at Chaos, including a large number of fencers who are new to the sport, as much of our team is. We’re all looking forward to it!

The weekend after that, a smaller number will be headed to Temple Open on Saturday October 26th, at Temple University in Philadelphia. Temple Open is a bit more serious event, so the students going to this tournament are those with more experience. Other fencers, especially the beginners, are highly encouraged to attend so they can observe and learn more about the sport and about how tournaments work!

Fall Meet will also be happening at some point in late November-early December, at a date that has yet to be determined.

Yesterday the fencing team attended the BWCFC (Baltimore-Washington Collegiate Fencing Conference) 2013 championship tournament on the campus of the Universtity of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), in Baltimore, MD. The bus left at 6:30AM from campus; we stopped in Philly to pick up members of the Drexel fencing team, with whom we were sharing the bus, and headed straight down to UMBC. The épée squad was composed of Marianne Wald ’14 (épée squad captain), Megan Guntrum ’16, and Elizabeth Vandenberg ’16. The foil squad consisted of Emily Maroni ’15 (foil squad captain), Raija Heikkila ’15, and Brittani Ivan ’16. The sabre squad included Anna Kalinsky ’15 (sabre squad captain), Carolyn Jacoby ’14, Elizabeth Anne Newberry ’16, and Maho Okumura ’16. For juniors Marianne and Carolyn, this was their third time at BWCFC Champs, and for sophomores Emily and Anna this was their second time. For the rest of the team members, this was their very first time competing in this tournament. Also in attendance in support of the team were Ali Raeber ’13, Abby Hochman ’13, Rorrie Mankins ’14, and Maddie Dubin ’16, as well as our coach, who also spent the day coaching his Drexel team and assisting with the tournament.

There were over 120 fencers in all, split by gender, with women starting off first. Everyone fenced in 5-6 person pools in 5-touch bouts, and the results from those pools were used to determine the brackets for the direct elimination (DE) rounds. In DE rounds, the bouts go to 15-touches, or the 9-minute time limit mark.

Sabre captain Anna Kalinsky ’15 won her first DE bout 15-9, and her very exciting 15-13 second bout landed her in the semifinals, where she defeated the first-seed Kimberly Chan (from Drexel) 15-14. In the final bout she lost 5-15, earning the silver medal for women’s sabre!  Epee captain Marianne Wald ’14 was seeded first among the women epeeists from the results of her pool, allowing her to pass in the first round of the DE bracket. In her first DE bout, she won 15-12, and went on to earn 3rd place in women’s épée overall, with a score of 7-15 in the semifinals. We’re all extremely proud of both Anna and Marianne for their medals, and for the entire team’s hard work and dedication!

Everyone had an exciting time and gained a lot of important experience. We hope to do even better next year overall and will continue to work even harder towards this goal! While this may have been our last tournament of the year, practices will continue on through finals. We’re all looking forward to a small alum tournament on May 4th, the annual writing and performance of the St. George and the Dragon play on May Day (which is going to be held this year on Sunday, May 5th), and our team dinner on Wednesday the 8th!

UPDATE: We were featured on the college athletics page, found here!