Crimson Performs Well at Regionals

The Harvard fencing team, led by three individual event winners, enjoyed a successful day yesterday at NCAA Northeast Regionals, hosted by MIT.

Though no official selections have been made, the Crimson could send as many as nine fencers to NCAAs in two weeks.

“I think we have achieved what we set out to do,” Harvard coach Peter Brand said. “It’s all ended up pretty much the way we anticipated things [would] end up. We’re looking for a positive outcome in the selection process, which will be announced on Tuesday.”

The No. 4 women’s team continued its dominant season, taking the top spot in two of the three weapons.

In the épeé, freshman Noam Mills and senior Maria Larsson finished 1-2 in the final standings, with senior Lisa Vastola also making the final pool of 12.

Mills went a perfect 11-0 in the finals to take the top spot.

“That was great,” Crimson co-captain Emily Cross said. “Noam and Maria have been very strong consistently throughout the season. It wasn’t a surprise, but still good.”

Cross earned a win of her own in the foil, as the second-seeded fencer led after each of the day’s three rounds and went 10-1 in the final pool.

“It’s a long day, and I haven’t been fencing all that much recently,” Cross said. “I viewed this as kind of a warm-up to NCAAs, and I felt like I was fencing well. The fact that I managed to make it through to the end of the day was promising.”

Top-seeded Nicole Ross of Columbia was second, but freshman Shelby MacLeod was right behind, taking third place with a 7-4 record in the finals.

Freshman standout Caroline Vloka, recovering from pneumonia, was second heading into the final pool in the sabre, but her 7-4 record was only good for fifth place in the final standings.

However, with ten fencers advancing to NCAAs from the sabre field, Vloka should have no trouble qualifying for the national tournament.

Junior Anna Podlosky and freshman Hayley Levitt also fenced for the Crimson, but were eliminated in the second round of foil and sabre competition, respectively.

On the men’s side, an outstanding performance from junior Karl Harmenberg highlighted a solid team showing for No. 9 Harvard.

Harmenberg, who was seeded eighth entering competition, won the épeé after going 10-1 in the final round.

“It’s an amazing result for Karl,” Brand said. “I’m really happy for him, because he puts so much time and effort into getting better.”

Co-captain Benji Ungar, the top seed, wound up in sixth place, and freshman James Hawrot placed ninth. Eight épeé fencers from the Northeast regional will advance to NCAAs.

Freshman Valentin Staller continued an impressive rookie season by taking second place in the sabre event. He was tied with top-seeded Daryl Homer of St. John’s, after each posted identical 8-3 records in the final pool, but Homer took home the title in a fence-off.

Co-captain Kai Itameri-Kinter was third in the foil, finishing with a 7-4 record in the finals.

Sophomore Hao Meng and junior Long Ouyang were both eliminated in the second round of foil competition, and senior Scott DiGiulio failed to advance to the finals in the sabre.

The Crimson now waits to hear from the NCAA on Tuesday to determine which of its fencers will advance to compete for a national title.

“We anticipate that the top fencers we have will qualify, and overall, we’re looking for some strong individual performances at NCAAs,” Brand said.

Though the men will be sending only a few individual stars, the depth of the women’s team—Harvard will likely send five of a possible six fencers to the national championship—will put it in contention for a team title.

“I think we’re optimistic,” Cross said. “We’ve got a lot of good shots for individual titles, and I think we can make a strong showing in the team as well.”

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.