William & Mary Fencing Club

Last weekend was the third and final installment of this year’s MAFCA regular season.  The team traveled to NJIT to take on a series of varsity teams and service academies.

Highlights:

• First victories over varsity fencers for: Ben Clark ’21 and Troy Cullen ’21,
• Other victories over varsity fencers for: Jonathan Griggs ’21, Faisal Alami ’20, Daniel Bachman ’20, Ben Coleman ’19, and Steven Pressendo ’19

Men’s Saber: Troy Cullen, Daniel Bachman, and Steven Pressendo took on their toughest competition of the season and still managed to post an impressive showing. Troy opened the day with his first ever victory over a varsity fencer, which he quickly followed up with several others against Stevens IT and Yeshiva. His beautiful disengages were so effective that referees and spectators alike laughed at his opponent’s unsuccessful attempts to slow him down. Daniel showed incredible progress throughout the day, closing out with a victory over a dominant Hunter College squad. His speed and aggression surprised even the most experienced opponents, winning crucial bouts for our school. Steven had his most successful MACFA showing to date, featuring a clean sweep of regular season champions NJIT. This trio will look to build off their regular season success when they return to MACFA Championships next weekend.

Women’s Saber: Emory Magner, serving for her first time as acting squad captain, led Madeline Myers and Susan Sun in a day of hard work and excellent fencing. Although the lack of available strips and relatively few competing women’s squads led to long delays between bouts, the trio never lost momentum throughout the day, and ultimately defeated Army eight bouts to one in the final round. Susan found her footing as the day went on, and struck a balance of speed and control that her opponents could not keep up with. Madeline secured many a well-timed counterattack, and won all three of her bouts against Army.

Men’s Foil: Faisal Alami, Ben Clark, and Ben Witman took to the men’s strips this weekend in the last MACFA of the season. The day started against tough opponents in NJIT and Stevens but by the second half of the day all three fencers found their footing. Faisal beat Hunter’s foil captain with quick absence bladework, Ben Clark overwhelmed Yeshiva with his aggression and fast coupés, and Ben Witman had a good sense of distance to land party ripostes against Army. High spirits all around moving into champs!

Women’s Foil: Women’s foil last weekend was a motley assortment, but they still managed to take MACFA AvC by storm. Epeeist Cecilia Hoover ’18 and freshman saberist Julianne Cook ’21 joined Elizabeth Sutterlin ’20 to take on some difficult bouts with NJIT and to win a thrilling victory over Navy. Cecilia was a powerhouse, fencing for both foil and epee squads. Her quick lame-changes between bouts surprised her opponents, almost as much as her great distance and offensive touches. Hazel came in to the tournament as an underdog with only a week’s worth of foil experience, but showed the other schools she was not to be discounted. It was incredible to watch her learn on the strip throughout the day, improving her footwork and bladework to win an impressive bout against Navy. With the lessons from last week’s competition still fresh in her mind, Elizabeth focused on playing to her strengths. She swept Navy and used her defensive game to score beautiful parry-ripostes on all her opponents.

Men’s Epee: Having survived the New Jersey snow, Ben Coleman, Jonathan Griggs, and William Clements feared nothing their opponents could to do them. Persevering through his tournament debut, William counterattacked opponents who underestimated him to remarkably improve throughout the day. Johnathan’s counters earned him considerable success, but truly shone in recognizing his opponents styles to aid himself and his teammates against them. Ben supplemented his strong parries with increasingly active footwork to have his most successful MACFA yet.

Women’s Epee: Despite the weather’s multiple attempts to keep William and Mary’s women’s epee from surviving long enough to take names, they came out of swinging last Sunday. Sarah Sues and Ruoying Hao, led by Cecilia Hoover came to New Jersey to drink coffee and fight, and they were all out of coffee. Sarah quickly adapted to adversity, and with her quick use of parries, confused her opponents into getting too close to her where she finished with fast extensions. Ruoying made use of tempo changes to drive her opponents down the strip, and finished with fast disengages. Cecilia, despite fencing both epee and foil, fought back exhaustion to beat two of the varsity NJIT fencers, and finished the day only dropping a single bout. Women’s epee is looking forward to taking more names in the coming months!

William and Mary’s men’s team will be competing in MACFA Championships at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania on March 4th. Join us in cheering for them over spring break!

The William and Mary team headed up to Johns Hopkins to take on the second MACFA of the season. Competition was tough but every squad fenced valiantly and several new faces made their competitive debut with the team.

Highlights:

• First victories over varsity fencers: Jonathan Griggs ’21, Morgan Blackwelder ’21, Matt Cusick ’20, Daniel Bachman ‘20, and Julie Vu ’20
• Other victories over varsity fencers: Nikki Petzer ’19, Pulak Raj ’20, Eric Alpert ’18, Robert Catlett ’18, Nathan Robichaud ’18, Gabriella Carney ’18, and Cecilia Hoover ’18

Men’s Saber: Eric Alpert led the charge this week with Robert Catlett and first-time MACFA fencer Daniel Bachman close behind. Nothing stopped the trio from pushing themselves to adapt against new fencers throughout the day, proving that quick thinking and constantly learning pays dividends at the end of bouts. Eric stood tall and won a number of bouts against talented opponents with a variety of actions that kept opponents guessing. Robert’s long lunges and quick feet keep his opponents exactly where he needed them so that he could score touch after touch. Daniel, despite a tough fall early in the day, rallied and learned to trust his parries to carry him through bouts even against the fastest of opponents.

Women’s Saber: All three teammates, Gabriella Carney, Riley Aiken, and Mary McCants, beautifully demonstrated the result of hard-work and determination from practice in each MACFA bout.  Mary won her first bout against Navy in her very first tournament.  Throughout the day, she acquired many touches with aggressive but patient long attacks and deep lunges.  Riley performed very well with quality parries and ripostes along with on point remises, that especially caught TCNJ off-guard.  Gabriella is proud to have won all three bouts against Navy, but she is even prouder of her teammates’ progress throughout the day.  The three fencers returned to Williamsburg stronger than ever.

Men’s Epee: Men’s epee had a great all-around performance. Pulak Raj led Nathan Robichaud, John Griggs, and Greg Quigg, John and Greg making their MACFA debuts in a big fashion. They had a rough start but finished strong with a perfect 9-0 victory over Lafayette, John and Pulak even defeating opponents 5-0. John used a combination of counter attacks and long attacks to take down his opponents while Greg used his defensive arsenal to prevent opponents from scoring on him. Nathan’s opponents could not dodge his wrist attacks while Pulak closed out his bouts with foot touches.

Women’s Epee: Last weekend, Nikki Petzer, Morgan Blackwelder, and Cecilia Hoover, came to MACFA looking to take names. Defeating 3 out of 4 schools, women’s epee proved once again that William and Mary is a force to be reckoned with. Nikki, ever slow and steady, used her lefty tricks to pick off the wrists of her opponents, and won key bouts against Johns Hopkins and TCNJ. Morgan, using her patience to outwit her opponents, handily beat the TCNJ captain, and kept her head about her against much more aggressive fencers. Cecilia finished out the day by winning a bout with three foot touches, ending the day undefeated. Women’s epee is looking forward to take more names in the upcoming semester!

Men’s Foil: Matt Cusick brought Ben Clark and Ben Witman to the first MACFA event of the semester. Every school was contentious but the guys fenced well even against more experienced teams, winning bouts from every school through hard work and clean actions. They each learned valuable lessons from their bouts, and even implemented what they had learned in later bouts to great success. Matt Cusick defeated the captains of Cornell and TCNJ. This MACFA was difficult, but it left the squad with plenty of knowledge about how to improve in time for MACFA Champs.

Women’s Foil: Women’s foil came up against some real challenges at last weekend’s tournament, but each girl found something to take away from each bout, and the squad refused to be discouraged or intimidated by the stiff competition. Jennifer Chen ’21 scored impressive touches against her opponents with the excellent distance and clean bladework. Julie Vu ’20 showed just how much she has improved her offensive game over the last months, furiously pushing her varsity opponents down the strip. Her excellent fencing won the squad an important bout against Drew. Elizabeth Sutterlin ’20 had a number of contentious bouts, using her sense of timing to score touches on varsity women with height advantages. Her focus on improving the mental game of her fencing culminated in a huge win against TCNJ in the final round. At the end of the day, women’s foil emerged proud of the effort they put in, and determined to train even harder in preparation for our tournaments later this semester.

 

Last weekend the team traveled to Haverford for the first MACFA meet of the year. Spirits were high and the competition was awesome all day long.

Highlights

• Our first school-wide victory over Navy in MACFA
• First victories over varsity fencers for: Polala Wang ’21, Liam Hyde ’20, Madeline Myers ’20, Gaetan Poirier ’19, Ruoying Hao ’18
• Other victories over varsity fencers: Steven Pressendo ’19, Pulak Raj ’20, Benjamin Coleman ’19, Chrysanthi Stevens ’19, Gabriella Carney ’18, Cecilia Hoover ’18
• Highest rated defeated opponents: #15 defeated by Hyde, #2 defeated by Pressendo

Men’s Foil: The competition at Haverford was extremely tough, but Faisal Alami ’20, Matt Cusick ’20, and Stuart Thomas ’21 fenced very well regardless. Matt 3-0’d Navy, and even scored a back touch on an unsuspecting opponent. Faisal’s energy and aggression were key in his victories. When it looked like the odds were not in Stuart’s favor, he would land strong counterattacks to even things up.  All three men’s foilists managed to score a number of great touches against Johns Hopkins and Haverford. Pushing hard through the highs and lows, the squad is eager to continue to sharpen their skills at future MACFA events.

Women’s Foil: Elizabeth Sutterlin ’20, Julie Vu ’20, and Polala Wang ’21 arrived at Haverford on Saturday pumped up and ready to take on the stiff competition. They defeated Navy 6-3 in the first round, Elizabeth winning her last bout in a contentious 4-4 overtime. But the biggest win of the day for foil squad wasn’t against another school at all, but our own equipment. Broken foils abounded, but after the only lefty foil stopped working, Julie was unfazed, calmly using her armory skills in a pinch to swap grips with a team weapon and continue fencing. The match against Haverford on their home turf was full of close, nail-biting bouts. Polala shone under pressure, winning the squad’s only victory for that round 5-4. The final bouts against Johns Hopkins were, as Julie put it, “insightful.” All three girls returned to Williamsburg having learned a lot from the day, excited to keep practicing in preparation for our spring competitions.

Women’s Epee: Ready to show the MACFA schools what they got, Morgan Blackwelder, ‘21, Ruoying Hao, ‘18, and Cecilia Hoover, ‘18 rolled into Haverford ready to win. Despite it being her first tournament, Morgan showed how hard she’d been training, with well-timed counterattacks. Ruoying, with her non-stop aggression, pushed opponents to the limit, nearly running several girls off strip. Cecilia showed off her new ability to flick, defeating Haverford’s A-strip in a tough 4-5 match.

Men’s Epee: With some new blood, men’s epee, consisting of Ben Coleman, ‘19, Pulak Raj, ‘20, and Gaёtan Poirier, ‘19, was ready to show what William and Mary could do. Ben used his steady tempo to his advantage, luring opponents too close then finishing them with a devastating 8-parry. Pulak, fresh off of earning his B, used his active footwork combined with crushing 4 parry to wreck all opponents in his way. In his first collegiate tournament, Gaёtan got into the spirit of competition and showed how well he handle himself on the strip. In all, men’s epee is looking forward to crush the competition in the upcoming MACFA’s!

Women’s Saber: At the start of the day, W&M saber was put up against Navy, one of our most challenging competitors.  However, our women’s saber fencers were fresh and ready to put up a good fight.  Madeline Myers, ’20, beautifully sky-hooked her flabbergasted opponent.  Chrysanthi Stevens, ’19, repeatedly made her opponents taste the rainbow (aka the term for a sassy parry five and immediate repost). Our next competitors, Maryland, didn’t bring their women’s fencers, but that certainly didn’t stop Emory Magner, ’19, from bouting the men’s squad and beating one of them with killer lunges.  Finally, as her proudest moment, Gabriella Carney, ’18, won 5-3 against Hopkin’s varsity lefty, which was her last bout of the day.  Overall, our women’s saber fencers had a great time and learned a lot.

Men’s Saber: The men’s saber squad had a great day, toppling each club and taking bouts off each varsity team that we met.  Troy Cullen ‘21 went undefeated against Maryland, leading the squad to victory.  His fancy flunges and unbreakable focus impressed schools throughout the entire day.  Despite trouncing his first opponents, he still managed to fence more intelligently as the day progressed.  Andre Coscia ‘19 opened the day with a 5-0 victory over a rival from Navy.  With Andre’s win, men’s saber beat Navy resoundingly and clinched WM’s first school-wide MACFA victory over Navy.  With his sneaky counterattacks, Liam Hyde ‘20 surprised opponents all day.  After a series of speedy ripostes, Liam launched a quick attack off the line to score his first victory over a varsity fencer.  Steven Pressendo ’19 had fun reuniting with (and beating) old friends at other schools.  His biggest victory of the day came when he upset the silver medalist from last year’s MACFA Championships.  After a great kickoff to the MACFA season, our squad can’t wait for our next shot at competition.

Et La!

 

The competitive season has begun and we were tremendously excited to show off all of our new freshmen at UVA last weekend. They certainly made us proud, showing a tremendous level of sportsmanship, and even bringing home a number of prizes.

Foil:

On Saturday, Faisal Alami, Stuart Thomas, and Ben Witman took to the strip. Faisal started strong and kept his energy up throughout a tiring day of contentious matches. Stuart and Ben shone with potential at their first tournament (or maybe that was just their shiny new lames.) Despite only a few weeks of training, they intimidated even the most seasoned of the other team’s foilists. The trio faced some challenging opponents, but only grew stronger as the day went on, learning from every new bout. At the end of DEs, men’s foil took 4th place. There was no individual men’s foil event.

On Sunday, Elizabeth Sutterlin, Jennifer Chen, and Polala Wang came prepared to put up a fight. After a rocky start to the day, each of the girls found her element and showed the other schools just what she could do. Polala overwhelmed her opponents with speedy attacks, and Jennifer’s adroit footwork made her a force to be reckoned with. Elizabeth went undefeated in the DE round. The squad lost in the ninth bout to UVA in the semifinals, but rallied just in time to steamroll JMU and win third place. There was no individual women’s foil event.

Epee:

After a long year of preparing to return to this tournament, Xiaopeng Sun, ‘19, Francis Winn, ‘20, and Robert Catlett took SIFA North by storm. Winning 3rd place overall, men’s epee proved that William and Mary can send a saberist and two sophomores and still make a wave. Francis, using his height for his advantage, tricked opponents into falling victim to his crafty upper-the-wrist touches. Xiaopeng honed his fleche, surprising opponents with fast touches, wrecking opponents who were slower than him. Despite his previous sabre experience, Robert proved that a long lunge and tip on target can win bouts just as well as fancy bladework. Congrats to the William and Mary Men’s Epee!

Women’s epee this weekend was made up of Kirsten Clamann ’19, Nikki Petzer ’19, and Chrysanthi Stevens ’19. Women’s epee had a fantastic tournament despite the lack of other schools fielding women’s epee squads. Chrysanthi shamelessly pushed her opponents down the strip with the agility of a saberist, scoring some very nice touches with some pretty parries, and surprisingly to all who watched, a flèche. Nikki reminded everyone how important the balance between passive and aggressive fencing is as she beat every one of the other team’s fencers, despite GW bringing their A squad. Kirsten had a good day as well, remembering that lunging is a good way to get touches. She won 3rd place in individuals. Women’s epee won second place at SIFA.

Saber:

The saber tournament squad was filled to the brim with new fencers, eager for their debut tournament. The men hit the ground running with our brand new fencers Daniel Bachman and Ephraim Kozodoy being led by tournament first-timer Liam Hyde. The faults of inexperience quickly gave way to an impressive display of adaptability as Liam learned to counter attack in the middle of a bout to keep his opponents on their toes. Daniel’s impressive bursts of speeds defeated many opponents while Ephraim developed an effective strategy of alternating between short attacks and pulling opponents short. Of the five schools present, the squad finished second place overall. In the men’s individual event Liam took fourth place after three grueling DE bouts in which he and Ephraim established a rivalry that is sure to push both of them to greater heights.

On Sunday, Hannah Cooper led our starry-eyed freshmen Julianne Cook and Riley Aiken into the fray. Cecilia Hoover had come as an alternate in case of injury and joined a composite team with JMU in order to give the girls an extra school to fence. Hannah showed her experience and relentlessly dominated her opponents at the mid-range. Riley took to the strip every time with a plan and was able to improve so much that opponents who beat her at the beginning of the day could not stop her by its end. She also broke her first saber which was a sad moment but one to remember. Julianne fought through exhaustion and opponents much larger than her to score numerous points on clean parries and beat attacks on over-confident opponents. Cecilia did her level best on the composite team and thanks to a combination of adaptability and experience held her own against every opponent. In the end, she powered through a series of exhausting bouts in the individual DE’s and ended up winning first in women’s saber individuals.

William and Mary Fencing is back and looking forward to a great 17-18 season!

This past week, we began full team practice with our new fencers. You can check out team photos from these and other events on our Facebook and Instagram pages.

Our annual Halloween Open USFA event will take place the weekend of October 28th and 29th, and is now posted on AskFred! Click here to preregister for the tournament.

Stay tuned for more updates about our competition schedule for the year, which will be posted soon.

As the year comes to a close, we would like to thank everyone who has supported us throughout the 2016-2017 season, whether by coming to our tournaments to coach, donating to get us to Michigan, or offering their time and guidance to the team. The William & Mary fencing team would not have enjoyed such a successful year without you.

Our fencers worked tirelessly on and off the strip this year. Those efforts were rewarded with some truly excellent results at our last two tournaments of the season: USACFC and the Virginia Cup.
USACFC:

Saber: Steven Pressendo, Eric Alpert, Robert Catlett, Gabriella Carney, Chrysanthi Stevens, Hannah Cooper

Epee: Jack Maes, Bill Stergios, Pulak Raj, Quang Huynh, Cecilia Hoover, Kirsten Clamann, Nikki Petzer

Foil: Seth Daily, Kamran Rahman, Ian Lickers, Julia Burzynski, Cierra Filla, Kelsey Mathern

Men’s Team: 5th place
Women’s Team: 9th place
Combined Team: 7th place

Individuals:
2nd place Men’s Foil: Seth Daily
4th place Men’s Epee: Jack Maes
With this finish, William and Mary improved our all-time ranking to 10th in the nation!

 

Virginia Cup

Saber: Misha Shender, Steven Pressendo, Eric Alpert, Robert Catlett, Gabriella Carney, Chrysanthi Stevens, Hannah Cooper, Madeline Myers

Epee: Pulak Raj, Quang Huynh, Xiaopeng Sun, Nathan Robichaud, Cecilia Hoover, Ruoying Hao, Kirsten Clamann, Nikki Petzer

Foil: Seth Daily, Matt Cusick, Kamran Rahman, Julia Burzynski, Marilyn Vaccaro, Cierra Filla, Elizabeth Sutterlin

1st place Men’s Saber 
1st place Women’s Saber 
1st place Men’s Foil 
1st place Women’s Foil
1st place Men’s Epee
1st place Women’s Epee

Individuals:
1st place Men’s Saber: Misha Shender
2nd place Men’s Saber: Steven Pressendo
1st place Women’s Saber: Gabriella Carney
2nd place Women’s Saber: Chrysanthi Stevens
1st place Men’s Foil: Seth Daily
2nd place Men’s Foil: Matthew Cusick
3rd place Men’s Foil: Kamran Rahman
2nd place Women’s Foil: Julia Burzynski
3rd place Women’s Foil: Marilyn Vaccaro
1st place Men’s Epee: Pulak Raj
1st place Women’s Épée: Cecilia Hoover
2nd place Women’s Epee: Nicole Petzer
3rd place Women’s Epee: Ruoying Hao

 

As we watch the Class of 2017 graduate, we want to thank them for all the time and energy they have poured into the club over the past four years. We wish them the best in their future endeavors and hope they cherish the friends and memories they made fencing with us!

Now at the close of an excellent season, we have high hopes for next year’s team, and we cannot wait to resume competing in the fall. Be sure to check back here for more updates and information about the 2017-2018 tournament schedule as it is finalized, and in the meantime, check out our Facebook and Instagram!