Fencing Fans, Unite!

Have you always harbored a desire to be the next Inigo Montoya? Well, whether you’ve been a fencing fan forever or you think foil’s just something to wrap your sandwich in, this weekend is your chance to gain a better appreciation for the sport.

Gordon Track has become a mecca for modern-day swordsmen, as Harvard is hosting the 2010 NCAA Fencing Championships.

Women’s competition opened this morning with the first four rounds of each weapon. After one day of bouts, sophomore co-captain Noam Mills is sitting pretty atop the epée standings with 13 wins and 68 touches.

One of those wins came against Penn State’s Anastasia Ferdman, the senior who beat Mills in last year’s gold medal bout at NCAAs. Mills and Ferdman are both natives of Israel, and Mills competed for the Israeli Olympic team in Beijing in 2008.

Sophomore co-captain Caroline Vloka is in fifth in the sabre with 11 victories, while sophomore Shelby MacLeod and senior Artemisha Goldfeder are 11th and 12th, respectively, in the foil.

The Crimson women are fifth as a team with 46 total victories—12 off the pace set by leader St. John’s.

Day 2 of the women’s tournament begins at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow at Gordon Track. Can’t make it in person? We’ve got you covered—check The Back Page tomorrow for all the live-blogging action you could want. But in the meantime, you can see full results from the first day of competition here.