This past weekend, the Lawrence University Fencing team travelled to the University of Notre Dame for the Northwestern Duals, which was hosted by Northwestern University at Notre Dame due to renovations of their own gym. Together, the men’s and women’s teams were able to steal four wins in the competition throughout the weekend. Lawrence went up against some intense competition against bigger schools such as Northwestern University, Stanford University, Penn State University, Princeton University, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), University of California- San Diego, Temple University, University of the Incarnate Word and Fairleigh Dickinson University.
The men’s team had a record of 3-3 throughout the weekend. The Vikings came out on top over Incarnate Word and Caltech by a score of 19-8. During the Vikings’ match against Incarnate Word, sabre won 9-0, foil won 6-3, and epee lost 4-5. In the match against Caltech, the Vikings had a record of sabre 7-2, foil 6-3 and epee 6-3. The Vikings won against Northwestern 18-9 with a record of sabre 5-4, foil 8-1, and epee 5-4. The Vikings fell to UC- San Diego 22-5, Penn State 22-5, and Princeton 20-7.
The women’s team had a record of 1-6 throughout the weekend. The Vikings defeated Caltech 22-5 with an excellent outcome in sabre 9-0, followed by foil 7-2, and epee 6-3. The Vikings had close matches with UC- San Diego, Incarnate Word, and Farleigh Dickinson, falling 16-11 in both matches. Princeton dominated the match against the Vikings 27-0. Temple and Penn State came out on top of the Vikings, 24-3 and 23-4 respectively. Despite the losses on both sides of the team, they were able to have fun and compete to their fullest potential.
The main goals for the Vikings combined was the determination to win as many matches as possible and put an enormous amount of effort into the bouts, especially in the matches against the tougher schools. As the season heads more into the practice dominated section leading up to the Midwest Fencing Conference Championships and the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships, the team has their own personal goals, along with focusing on blade work, foot work and other techniques that will be useful for competitive environments. Another goal is the recruitment of new members for next year.
The focal objective for the weeks leading up to the Midwest Fencing Conference Championship is to focus on technique as well as honing down the skills that are already trained. “We will be practicing very hard for these upcoming events,” said sophomore Ariana Calderon-Zavala. “We will go up against schools like Notre Dame and Ohio State, so we will have to focus immensely on those areas if we want to achieve our goals.” After Regionals there is Nationals, but only those who place top five out of the ample competitors of fencers will go, so the end of the season will probably rest in the hands of the Regional competition. The Midwest Fencing Conference Championships will be held on the February 25th and 26th in Columbus, Ohio.
