W. Fencing Takes Silver in Foil at IFAs

The Harvard women’s fencing team narrowly missed a top-three finish, ending up just three points back of Princeton in fifth at the 105th Intercollegiate Fencing Association (IFA) Championships this weekend in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

The women moved up one spot from last year and ended Saturday’s team competition with 69 points, narrowly being edged by Yale (70 points), Princeton (72), and Penn (76). Perennial powerhouse St. John’s ran away with the women’s event, claiming first with 98 points.

Harvard took silver in the women’s foil and qualified three in the foil and one in the epee for the individual championships yesterday, where the top-12 women and men from each of the saber, epee, and foil team events advanced.

“Our foil squad has had a good season, but we turned it up a notch on Saturday,” said co-captain Ellen Shulz. “Winning some unexpected bouts gave as a real boost.”

The men’s team had a disappointing performance in the team event, and failed to qualify a fencer for the individual tournament.

“I’m a little disappointed in how the men performed,” said co-captain Ben Schmidt. “I think there were a couple of individuals who had the potential to do a lot better, myself included.”

The Crimson women’s strongest overall showing came in foil, where three Crimson fencers made it through to yesterday’s individual championship.

Sophomore Liz Blase finished fourth with a 4-3 record in the final round. Blase was edged on points for the third spot by Yale fencer Jennifer Joseph.

Both fencers finished tied with 4-3 records, but Joseph won the tiebreaker by the slimmest of margins on points with a 26-26 score (touches scored to touches received) compared to Blase’s 26-27 score. In head-to-head competition, Blase defeated Joseph 5-4 in the final round.

Co-captain Ellen Shulz finished second out of six fencers in pool B qualifying with a 3-2 record and 19-11 score.

Shulz could not repeat that performance in the finals, however, struggling to a 1-6 record. In the finals, Blase got the better of Shulz with a 5-2 win.

After returning from a possible seasoning ending injury just a week ago, fellow co-captain Nicole Jarrett had similar problems in a strong pool B field. In head-to-head action between the two co-captains, Shulz took the match 5-0.

Despite some difficulties in the finals, Harvard was the only college to place three fencers in the women’s foil individual championship.

In the women’s epee, senior Tamara Knutsen placed third with a 5-2 record and a score of 32-20 in the individual finals.

Knutsen finished first with a 4-1 record and 22-16 score in pool B qualifying.

In the finals, Knutsen lost only to the top two finishers, St. John’s Emese Takcs and Princeton’s Maya Lawrence, while narrowly overcoming Princeton’s Lindsay Campbell 5-4 for third place.

The NCAA regional takes place next weekend at Columbia.

“We’re going to be working hard to next week to prepare,” said co-captain David Wollenberg. “It’s the event that we’re working towards all season.”