This past weekend, the Hopkins Women’s Fencing Team headed to Philadelphia for the 2016 Elite Invitational. The competition was fierce, and the Jays certainly had their work cut out for them facing North Carolina, Northwestern University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, Temple and Yale.
Despite disappointing losses across the board, Hopkins was able to walk away with a few key triumphs and excellent individual performances. Most notable was senior épée Katherine Couch’s match against Temple in which she garnered her 200th career win.
Remarkably, Couch is one of just nine Hopkins fencers to achieve such a feat, and with her current record it will take just eight more victories for her to move into second place for career épée wins at Hopkins. For this historic performance, Couch is this week’s Athlete of The Week.
To say that Couch has an impressive resume would be an understatement. In both her freshman and sophomore seasons, Couch was named to the First Team All-Eastern Women’s Fencing Conference (EWFC) and was honored as the EWFC Épée Fencer of the Year.
Additionally, last season she was named to the Second Team EWFC. Throughout her Hopkins career, Couch has been a dominant force, consistently placing in the top 20 at NCAA Regionals.
Following her impressive weekend, Couch sat down in Colwell’s Court to discuss the 200 win milestone and share the inside scoop with The News-Letter on the Hopkins fencing team.
The News-Letter: 200 career wins is certainly an impressive milestone. How did this accomplishment feel?
Katherine Couch: Honestly, I knew I was getting close, but I did not realize that I was at my 200th win until after the tournament was over. Fencing for the team motivates me more than anything else.
The rush that I get when I am fencing with all my teammates and having all my coaches there to watch gives me so much adrenaline. It pushes me to fence better because I have other people relying on me. Since high school, I have always been more driven by the team’s performance than by my own.
N-L: How much of a mental game is it when you are fencing?
KC: It is everything. With five touch bouts, there is limited time to adapt and change your strategy to come back and beat your opponent. Having the mental strength to come back from a deficit is essential.
People will do all kinds of things to get in your head at fencing tournaments — scream in your face, stomp, anything to try to throw you off — it can be extremely difficult to rise above it and stay focused.
This is where you fall back on your training and technique to get you through. But if you are not able to clear your head and focus your emotions in a productive way, even the best training and technique can fail you.
N-L: When you first started fencing, were you drawn to épée right away, or did you start off with a different sword?
KC: I have fenced French-grip épée since I walked on to my high school team in Montgomery, N.J. as a freshman. It was only because I was tall and it was what my coach told me to do, but now I could not imagine fencing another weapon.
Patience is key in épée, and with my height, I often have the advantage of having a longer reach than my opponents. Well-timed counter attacks and wrist touches are a couple of my go-to moves.
N-L: How does team dynamic differ across the foil squad, the épée squad and the sabre squad? Do you guys view yourself as one cohesive team or as three distinct units?
KC: We have always been one team, including the guys as well. The guys are weird, but we are a family, so we accept them. I am lucky to be on a team at Hopkins with such amazing people — it has shaped much of my college experience over the past four years.
Hopkins fencing is such a supportive group of people, and our team bond is far stronger and more positive than that of many D-I schools of similar academic caliber.
N-L: What is the team looking to improve upon in the next two weeks when the Jays travel to the Columbia invitational?
KC: It is so early in the season right now, and we have only had one team tournament so far, against all D- I schools. The team had a really challenging day on Saturday, but over the next two weeks we will be training hard and working on improving our endurance.
We have some really great fencers on the team, and I believe we have a huge amount of potential.
N-L: What are your personal goals for the remainder of the season?
KC: I really want to improve my strength and my speed, and I could really use some work on improving my explosion. I have been sick for a couple weeks now and have been out of practice, which I really felt on Saturday.
I am extremely excited for the rest of the season, and look forward to putting the work in to make this year a great culmination of my college fencing career.
The News-Letter looks forward to seeing Couch and the Jays back in action on Nov. 18 at the Columbia Invitational.
