Mixed Results for Fencing at St. John's Invitational

Coming into Sunday’s St. John’s Invitational, the Harvard men’s fencing team had not beaten No. 2 Penn State since 2010, having fallen to the Nittany Lions in early December.

Although the squad eked out the 15-12 win to break its losing streak to Penn State, No. 5 Harvard couldn’t find the winning touch against other top-tier opponents, losing each of its subsequent matches.

Also in the Taffner Field House, the second-ranked Crimson women’s fencing team began the day strong with wins over Penn State, Columbia, and Notre Dame. But Harvard could not continue its success, falling by a single bout to both Ohio State and host St. John’s to cap off Sunday’s competition.

The Crimson’s win over the Fighting Irish was the first in the squad’s 39-year history. It had been over three years since the last time the Harvard men’s team (5-5) defeated the Nittany Lions, and the significance of Sunday’s victory over the second-ranked team in the NCAA was not lost on even the newer fencers of the squad.

“Definitely the highlight of the day was that we crushed Penn State,” said freshman épée fencer Ace Eldeib. “[Penn State is] typically a very strong team, but we just crushed them today, which was excellent. It was pretty solid because they beat us earlier in the season.”

But after Eldeib and senior épéeist Michael Raynis went undefeated against their Penn State opponents to secure the win in the opening match, the Crimson couldn’t pull out another victory.

In the second match, the No. 1 Lions took all three weapons en route to a 18-9 match result over the Crimson. Sophomore Michael Woo was the only Harvard fencer to win two bouts against Columbia, which came into the invite as the top-ranked team for the first time in the 14 years that collegiate squash has had rankings.

The Crimson men also fell to No. 4 Notre Dame, 14-13, in a nail-biter. Despite victories from junior Alexander Ryjik, who went 12-3 on the strip fencing sabre and led Harvard to a 6-3 sabre advantage against the Buckeyes and the Fighting Irish, the Crimson was defeated by sixth-ranked Ohio State, 14-13.

“[Ryjik] did very well today,” Eldeib said. “One of [the bouts] was with…a very strong Hungarian fencer, and he just went into the bout and said to one of the teammates, ‘You know what, I’m going to beat him,’ and he did that.”

In the fifth and final match of the day, the Crimson lost to the 10th-ranked Red Storm squad. In the first match of the New Year for the second-ranked Crimson women’s team (6-2), the group finished the day with a 3-2 record thanks to the 28-15 result of the sabre squad on Sunday afternoon.

“On Sunday, I thought everyone was doing fine, and though people were making mistakes, there were also some really good moments,” freshman foilist Hali Nelson said. “We have stuff to work on, but we have a very strong team.”

In a fashion similar to the men’s team, the Crimson women handled the fourth-ranked Penn State team, 15-12, buoyed by a 6-3 victory by the sabre squad. Freshman sabre competitor Adrienne Jarocki joined senior foilist Alexandra Kiefer as the two Harvard fencers to go undefeated against the Nittany Lions.

The women moved on to beat sixth-ranked Columbia, 15-12, with the Crimson also posting a win in sabre. Jarocki and Kiefer finished the match undefeated. The former posted a 13-2 mark on the day, while the latter ended with a 12-3 record.

Though Harvard walked into the Taffner Field House higher in rank than the Fighting Irish, there was little doubt that history wasn’t on the Crimson’s side. Since the two sides first met in 1983, Harvard has lost to No. 3 Notre Dame eight times and in each of the past four seasons.

Yet again, the Crimson sabre fencers stole the show. This time it was a 7-2 victory, and the épéeists, led by sophomore Sarah Tillman’s three bout wins, clinched the monumental triumph with a 6-3 win of their own.

From there, Harvard was caught off guard by No. 5 Ohio State and No. 10 St. John’s, dropping both by a single bout, 14-13. Sophomore épéeist Nina van Loon posted a 3-0 record against the Buckeyes and went 9-6 for the day, but the Crimson came up just short.

“There were a bunch of 5-4 [individual] bouts [in the two losses],” Nelson said. “[We] know we could’ve beaten them, and we were so close. It’s motivation because we know we’re as good as them—we just need to prove it to everybody else.”

—Staff writer Caleb Lee can be reached at caleblee@college.harvard.edu.