After a long break from competition, the Lawrence University fencing team hit the road and traveled to the University of Notre Dame for the DiCicco Duals for a weekend of competition on Jan. 28 and 29. Over the course of two days, the Men’s team faced four different opponents while the women’s team faced five. This gave the fencers many opportunities to compete.
Overall, the Vikings collected five victories compared to only four losses throughout the competition. The women went 3-2 while the men were 2-2. Both teams lost to Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish topped the Vikings 25-2 on the men’s side with the only Viking victories coming in foil and epee. The women fared only slightly better as they lost to Notre Dame 24-3 picking up one lone victory in each event. The Northwestern women also proved to be too strong for the Lady Vikes as they lost 23-4. Lawrence picked up two victories in sabre and one each in foil and epee. The other Viking loss came the men dropped a close round against Detroit Mercy 15-12. Lawrence dominated in sabre winning 7 of the 9 bouts, but went 4-5 in both foil and epee to eventually lose the round.
However, the Lady Vikes dominated Detroit Mercy winning 21-3. They went undefeated in epee, 5-1 in foil and 7-2 in sabre. The other Lady Vikes victories came against Florida and Wayne State. Lawrence beat Florida 17-10 with very strong performances in each event going 6-3 in both sabre and foil and 5-4 in epee. The Lady Vikes’ 16-11 victory over Wayne State was led by a strong 8-1 performance in foil. Sabre and epee both went 4-5.
On the men’s side of the competition, the Viking victories came against Florida and Wayne State as well. Lawrence was led by a strong performance in sabre against Florida as they went 8-1. Epee went 6-3 and foil went 4-5 to give the Vikings the 18-9 win over Florida. Lawrence topped Wayne State 16-11. There were strong performances in foil and epee as the Vikings went 6-3 in each while going 4-5 in sabre.
Going forward, the team is looking to build off of the solid performance this past weekend. They do not have much time to rest; however, as they are back in competition next weekend as they travel to Northwestern University for the Northwestern Duals on both Saturday, Feb. 4 and Sunday, Feb. 5. The Vikings look forward to getting even better as they enter the final stretch of their season.