Last term, the Lawrence fencing team had its first meet at Northwestern University. The Women’s Epee team, consisting of senior Chiara Terzuolo, Captain Elise Pfaltzgraff, and junior Meg Bonham posted a 5-5 record, beating Indiana, Minnesota and Purdue, among others.
The Women’s Foil team, consisting of senior Melanie Kathan, sophomore Dorothea Schurr and freshmen Sara Rosson and Catie Hoglund, also posted a 5-5 record, beating Wisconsin, Minnesota, University of Chicago, Michigan State and Purdue. The women did not field a sabre team due to team illness.
The Men’s Foil team, consisting of Captain Bryce Schuler, junior Joe O’Halloran and freshman Jian Gong posted a 2-8 record, beating Iowa and Minnesota and narrowly losing by one bout to Northwestern.
The Men’s Epee team consisting of sophomore Jordan Severson and freshman Tom Boyer, playing a man down, posted a 0-10 record. However, they were able to gather crucial individual victories over Northwestern, Michigan State, and much of the rest of the field.
The Men’s Saber team consisted only of junior Peter Kilkuskie. Other members of the squad were unable to attend due to illness and scheduling. However, Kilkuskie still posted a 2-8 record, beating Minnesota and Illinois. He also proved to be tough competition individually, getting individual victories over at least two of the three fencers from Michigan State, Iowa, Wisconsin and Chicago.
This was the first of many tournaments for the fencing team, and the team is showing strong potential for the rest of year. Based on these results against most of the Big 10, the fencing team is excited for the rest of year and is anticipating a great season.
The team has organized a new training regimen that should prove to be very successful in prepping the team for some fierce competition. The fencing team will travel back to Northwestern Jan. 31 to face off against more schools, including 2008 National Champions Ohio State, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Johns Hopkins and Penn State.