Fencing Grabs Fourth Consecutive Beanpot Title

With an impressive outing at the Beanpot Invitational, Harvard’s men’s and women’s fencers put their teams on solid footing as the Crimson heads into national play at the NCAA Northeast Fencing Regionals in March.

In last night’s competition, Harvard squared off against local rivals Brandeis, MIT, and BC in a one-night marathon-style tournament in Waltham, Mass.

In last year’s Beanpot, the Crimson fencing squads dominated their local opponents, posting blowout wins against all three schools. This year proved no different, as the Harvard men and women slashed their way to a fourth consecutive Beanpot title and proved themselves to be the undisputed fencing force in the Boston area.

By night’s end, the Crimson easily came away with both titles, as the men’s team defeated the Judges, the Engineers, and the Eagles with scores of 20-7, 19-8, and 19-8, respectively, while the women won all three matches as well, 22-5, 18-9, 20-7, respectively.

“It was tough to get motivated right after winning the Ivy League championship, but everyone really stepped up and performed really well overall,” said junior sabre specialist and co-captain Valentin Staller.

With many starters resting after last weekend’s grueling competition and with many fencers seeking their final wins in order to qualify for the NCAA tournament later this month, last night’s starting lineup for the Crimson was filled with many new faces. But this did not prove to be a problem for either squad.

“We had some players who don’t really start often for the team really step up and fence very well against BU, Brandeis, and MIT,” Staller said. “So it was really nice to see how much depth we have when we have guys who aren’t regular starters win some matches.”

Harvard performed impressively as a whole, dominating its local rivals in all three weapons—foil, epee and sabre.

On the men’s side, senior foil Hao Meng, sophomore foil Tommasso di Robilant and Staller led the Crimson with strong individual efforts, each going 8-1 for the night.

On the women’s side, freshman foil Alexandra Kiefer and junior foil Shelby MacLeod each went a perfect 9-0 against opponents for the night.

“I’m especially proud of Shelby and [sophomore foil] Katherine Chou,” Keifer said. “They’ve done great this entire season, and today they had good performances.”

Kiefer’s performance at the Beanpot served as the cherry on top of what has already been an electric season, during which she has posted only four losses in over 50 matches.

Additionally, Keifer has been named one of the week’s “Primetime Performers” for Jan. 31-Feb. 6 by CollegeFencing360.com after the MIT Eric Solle Invitational in January. And just last weekend in the Ivy League Championships at Princeton, Keifer finished second overall in the foil individual standings.

“I’ve had a really great season so far, I think better than expected,” Keifer said. “It’s been really beneficial practicing with the team and gaining the support of my teammates.”

Heading into yesterday’s competition, Harvard’s history of past successes in the Beanpot served as a challenge to the team overall.

“We are sort of expected to win the Beanpot every year, but when put in a situation like that, it’s easy to get complacent and drop a few bouts,” Staller said. “But over the past week, we worked hard [and] got pumped to make sure that we would keep that trophy in our fencing room.”

This year’s Beanpot held special significance for Harvard, not only as the traditional test against local foes, but as this year’s regular season finale.

So far this season, the Crimson has shown through victories against nationally ranked teams and a men’s Ivy League title, that winning is the dominant theme and trend for this program.

With the end of the regular season, the Harvard fencers now begin a four-week long training regimen as they prepare for their next challenges during the NCAA Regionals and the eventual NCAA Championship.

“With all the tough teams we’ve faced and the tough victories overall, I’m very confident that we will be able to qualify many people for the NCAA Nationals,” Staller said. “So I’m really optimistic about Regionals next month.”

“We are going to take two days off from practice, but after that, we are heading back into the office,” he added. “We’re going to be watching video, pouring over past meets, just to work out all the kinks and make sure that we are in top form by next month.”

—Staff writer Oluwatoni A. Campbell can be reached at oluwatoni.campbell@college.harvard.edu.