Fencing team hosts Eric Sollee Invitational
Eleven East Coast schools bout at MIT; women’s sabre boasts 36-17 record
The MIT Men’s and Women’s Fencing teams both won two matches at Sunday’s Eric Sollee Invitational Fencing Tournament, held at MIT. The women’s team scored a 25-2 thrashing of Yeshiva University and a 22-5 victory over Hunter College, while the men’s team took care of Yeshiva by the same score and Hunter by a 17-10 tally.
The biggest victory for the women may have been in their 20-7 defeat at the hands of defending national champion Penn State. Sabre Molly A. Kozminsky ’12 came through with a 3-0 record in the match, including a 5-2 victory over World Junior Championships bronze medalist Nicole Glon.
The women’s sabre team cruised to a 36-17 record, losing only one match, a 5-4 loss to Penn State. Kozminksy had 14 victories, including another sweep of Yeshiva, while Robin S. Shin ’12 went 15-3 in her bouts, posting sweeps of Penn State, NYU, and Yeshiva.
Women’s foil won 19 of their 54 matches, v8-1 win over Hunter. Jenna G. Caldwell ’11 and Julia A. Hopkins ’12 each posted perfect 3-0 records in both of those matches, while Ana S. Escalante ’12 added one in the win over Yeshiva. The epee team posted a 24-30 record, including 7-2 and 8-1 wins in the squads two victories.
On the men’s side, the best record was posted by the sabre team, who went 26-28 in winning three of its matches. Maximilian L. Brand ’11 posted 9 victories for the Engineers, including sweeps of NYU, Hunter, and Yeshiva, and Tech’s only two points in a loss to Penn.
The epee squad won 24 of its 54 matches, led by Jackson T. Crane ’13. The sophomore finished the afternoon with a 13-5 record, shutting out opponents from Penn, Hunter, and Yeshiva. The foil team won 18 matches. Benjamin N. Nield ’12 took eight points for MIT, sweeping all of his competitors from Penn. Daniel S. Levine ’12 also pitched in several important points for the men’s foil.
The Engineers’ women dropped their other three matches, a 14-13 heartbreaker to NYU, a 20-7 loss to Penn, and a 21-6 defeat at the hands of Duke. Tech’s men also fell in its four other matches, losing 24-3 to Pen State, 15-12 to NYU, 18-9 to Penn, and 25-2 to Duke.
The Eric Sollee Invitational, named after the long-time MIT fencing coach, featured 11 schools from across the East Coast competing in seven rounds of competition on both the women’s and men’s side. Joining MIT were Penn State, Brandeis, Penn, Boston College, Hunter, Yeshiva, NYU, Duke, Harvard, and Brown.
The Engineers will have a week and a half to recover from the long day of competition and will hit the strips again on Feb. 16 at Brandeis to compete in the mid-week Beanpot, starting at 6 p.m.