In their second Northwestern University (NU) Duals tournament of the season, the Lawrence University fencing team registered their first losing record in a competition.
Coming into this weekend’s NU Duals, Lawrence carried a lot of momentum from the dominating performance at the season’s first Duals in early November. However, the team was only able to pick up five victories, with the women finishing 3-11 and the men 2-9.
The women got their three wins against the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Cleveland State University (CSU) and the University of Detroit Mercy (UDM). Against the Caltech Beavers, a resounding 8-1 record in foil helped guide the Vikings to a 17-10 win.
Next, Lawrence defeated the CSU Vikings 15-12 behind a 9-0 record in épée matches. Finally, the women’s team won against the UDM Titans by going undefeated in the foil competition and 6-3 in sabre matches.
On the men’s side, the Vikings were also able to beat Caltech and UDM by winning sabre and épée in both matches. LU won against Caltech with a record of 16-11 and UDM behind a 17-10 record. As has been the case all season long, sophomores Moses Zarkin-Scott and Ian Pelton, along with senior Graham Jones, performed particularly well for the men.
Despite the record displaying only moderate team success, individuals did perform very well. “There were some major upsets when [we] beat fencers from bigger schools like Ohio State University, Duke, Northwestern, Notre Dame and Caltech,” said sophomore foil fencer Katherine Ling. “Of the 20 [teams] who competed, 15 actually qualified for regionals.”
The LU fencing team is currently about two thirds of the way through their season and have faced 25 opponents thus far. With only the Midwest Fencing Conference Championships and NCAA Midwest Regional competition left to participate in, the fencing team hopes for a strong finish to the season.
“We can’t wait to get on the road again and compete.” said Ling. “We’re hoping to crush at conference. Regionals will be significantly more difficult. If we fence well, though, we might qualify a fencer or two for nationals!” The Lawrence fencers will head to the Midwest Fencing Conference Championship at Notre Dame over the weekend of March 1 and 2.