This past weekend, the Hopkins men’s and women’s fencing teams both brought home a collection of hardware. On Saturday, the women competed in the 89th National Intercollegiate Women’s Fencing Association (NIWFA) Championship. The men would wait until Sunday to compete in the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Fencing Association (MACFA) Championship.
For the women, the day’s highlights began with the Sabre competition. The Sabre squad, made up of sophomore Shiaomeng Tse and her freshman teammates Alicja Tomaszewski, Erin Chen and Natalie Martinez brought home the Jays’ first ever Giorgio Santelli Trophy. Finishing with a combined record of 45-3, the quartet claimed the Sabre title.
To add to the team victory, Chen would finish with an impressive 20-0 on the day to claim the individual NIWFA Sabre Trophy. Before going into the finals, Chen would remain undefeated in the B strip, finishing with a 16-0 mark. She would move onto the finals, where she would claim the title after going 4-0.
Chen’s 20 wins bring her to 100 total wins on the season, the most by any freshman in any weapon in school history. Most impressively, the freshman already ranks eighth in Hopkins history in career Sabre wins.
The women’s Epee squad would have another successful team performance, taking second place with a 43-5 record. Hopkins finished just one point shy of the win behind the first-place Temple University Owls. Senior Katherine Couch led the Epee squad, winning the A strip with a 15-1 record and then moving onto the finals where she would place fifth.
The senior would end her day with a total of 103 wins on the season, breaking the program’s all-weapons single-season and career wins records, which previously stood at 99. Chen (who also broke the previous record) and Couch are now the only two fencers in Hopkins history to reach 100 wins in a single season.
The Blue Jays ended the day with two women, Chen and Martinez, earning First Team All-NIWFA honors and three more, Couch, Tomaszewski and freshman Foil Katherine Xiang, grabbing Second Team honors.
Moving onto Sunday, the men’s team faced tight competition in the MACFA Championship. The Jays were looking to redeem themselves after a heartbreaking second place finish last year by one win to the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).
“Going into the day, the goal was always to win,” junior Epee Denis Routkevitch said. “Before the day started Danny [Dembner], our captain, gathered us and made sure we knew each point and every point mattered and to fence hard for every touch, which ended up being crucial.”
Ultimately, the Jays were able to edge out NJIT this year in a tiebreaker. Both teams finished with 102 total victories, leaving the championship title up to the tiebreaker.
The tiebreaker was decided by total number of indicators, or the difference between touches scored and touches received. Hopkins would claim the championship crown with 300 total indicators, 43 more than NJIT.
“We were really excited to win this time by an even closer margin,” Routkevitch said.
In addition to the team title, the Blue Jays would also take the individual titles in the Epee and Foil Championships. The Foil squad won its 17th MACFA title with a total of 36 wins.
NJIT finished behind the Jays in second with 32 victories. The Jays’ squad was led by freshman Adam Katwan, who finished second in the A strip with a 12-2 record. Katwan would make it to the semifinals, where he finished tied for third overall.
The Epee squad would record its 25th MACFA title on Sunday, with 32 total wins, while NJIT would again sit in second. Freshman Tiger Gao finished 10-4 in the A strip and went on to finish tied for third after losing to the eventual champion in the semifinals. Meanwhile, Routkevitch would finish the day with 161 career Epee wins, moving him into ninth place in school history.
The Blue Jays will compete next on Saturday, March 11 in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regional in Easton, Pa.
