October 27 -- The Big One
Men's Foil
7. Mike Desenna
12. Tan Trinh
23. Allen Chen
31. Grant Gould
37. Ben Vandiver
Women's Foil
3. Leejee Suh
9. Aimee Wiltz
22. Oriana Hunter
28. Aladdine Joroff
48. Beth Manoogian
Men's Epee
4. Dave Lewinnik
23. Matt Duplessie
25. Mark Chen
30. Dale Earnest
39. Grant Emery
Women's Epee
1. Kari Backes
3. Nora Szasz
8. Sara Perry
22. Sylwia Daniszewska
44. Alison Novak
Men's Sabre
6. Brian Bower
7. Lanny Chiu
12. Ruben Brown
27. Evan Efstafhiou
35. Ira Gerhardt
November 2-3
Tufts,UMass,Dartmouth,Bates
Men's Team
----------
MIT claimed victories over all 4 schools.
MIT 17 - Dartmouth 10
MIT 16 - UMass 11
MIT 19 - Tufts 8
MIT 21 - Bates 6
Women's Team
------------
MIT 29 - Bates 3
MIT 22 - UNH 10
MIT 15 - Tufts 17
MIT 19 - UMass 13
MIT 28 - Wellesley 4
November 23
Men's Team
----------
Harvard 20 - MIT 7
Women's Team
------------
MIT 10 - Harvard 22
November 16-17
Penn State Open
Four MIT fencers, Kari Backes, Nora Szasz, Oriana Hunter,
and Brian Bower packed into Brian's Nissan Altima
along with BC sabre fencer Luke Mountain and headed
for State College, PA. Miraculously, they survived
the 9 hour trek. (Hey Luke -- keep it under 110 mph.)
After crashing at Brian's fraternity brother's
place (thanks JPK), the group competed in
the Penn State Open on Saturday.
The format of the tournament was unlike anything
we had ever seen before. There were approximately
50 fencers per weapon. There were three rounds
of pools, with a percentage of the fencers
dropped after each round until at the
end of the third round, 16 remained. Then there
was repachage from 16 to 8, 2 out of three 5 touch bouts.
The final 8 was fenced as a direct elimination,
2 out of three 5 touch bouts.
Both Oriana (foil) and Nora (epee) were eliminated
in the 2nd round. Kari(epee) and Brian(sabre)both fell in the
third round, with Brian missing the round of 16
by only one indicator. Luke(Boston College) fared
far better than the rest of us, finishing 3rd.
The Penn State Open was essentially a preview of
the NCAAs, with the best fencers from all over
the country competing. Next year, MIT will
return with hopefully a larger contingent.
December 3rd
BC, Brown, St. John's
Men's Team
----------
The men's team fought hard against defending
New England champions Boston College and against
Brown University, defeating both by the narrowest
of margins. However, we were unable to overcome
Brandeis and St. John's.
MIT 14 BC 13
MIT 14 Brown 13
MIT 9 Brandeis 18
MIT 6 St. John's 21
Women's Team
------------
MIT 22 - Brandeis 10
MIT 17 - Brown 15
MIT 23 - BC 9
MIT 14 - St. John's 18
January 28th
BC,BU,Brown,Brandeis,UNH
Men's Team
----------
No exact scores. But the engineers fell to Brown
and Brandeis but defeated BC,BU and UNH.
Women's Team
------------
MIT 23 - Cornell 9
MIT 24 - Brandeis 8
MIT 21 - Wellesley 11
MIT 23 - Vassar 9
MIT 16 - BC 16
MIT 22 - Wellesley 10
February 3rd
Yeshiva,NYU,UPenn,Rutgers,UNC
Men's Team
----------
MIT easily overcame Yeshiva, and came close to
defeating NYU, losing 12 to 15. However, the
rest of the day MIT was overwhelmed, losing
to UPenn, Rutgers, and UNC.
MIT 19 - Yeshiva 8
MIT 12 - NYU 15
MIT 10 - UNC 17
MIT 7 - UPenn 20
MIT 7 - Rutgers 20
Women's Team
------------
MIT 12 - Northwestern 20
MIT 17 - UNC 15
MIT 8 - Rutgers 24
MIT 1 - Penn State 31
MIT 13 - NYU 19
February 8th
Yale
In the first of what looks to be an annual
meeting with Yale from here on, MIT
was defeated.
Men's Team
----------
MIT 2 - Yale 25
Women's Team
------------
MIT 10 - YALE 22
February 15th -- 17th
Junior Olympics
The Junior Olympics were held in Marlborough, MA
this year. Taking advantage of this, 7 MIT fencers
qualified for and competed in the U-20 competition.
Freshmen Ben Vandiver(foil) and Evan Efstathiou(sabre)
and sophomore Sara Perry(epee) were all eliminated in
the first round.
Junior Merideth Rising, who placed in the top 16 of
the women's epee event in the 1995 JOs, was forced
to withdraw due to injury during her pool.
Sophomore Aimee Wiltz(foil) placed 75th out of 134
fencers.
Sophomore Nora Szasz turned in an outstanding performance.
Despite entering the tournament as an unrated fencer
and having tendinitis in her wrist, Nora took command
of her opening pool and did not lose any bouts. She
was seeded 7th out of 114 fencers going into direct
elimination. Nora proceeded to win her next two bouts,
but then lost her final two DEs to finish 17th.
Had she not been injured, Nora would likely
have made the finals, and possibly won.
Sophomore Brian Bower also turned in an outstanding
performance. After finishing his pool with a 5-1
record, he won 2 DE bouts before losing 15-10
to Chip Crane. However, in the repechage, Brian
won three successive bouts to make the final 8.
Brian then lost to eventual winner Patrick
Durkan. In the end, Brian finished 8th out
of 128 sabre fencers.
Congratulations to all of MIT's fencers who competed
in the JOs, and also to everyone who competed at
the qualifiers in November.
February 22-23
New England Championships
Men's Team
----------
On Saturday, February 22nd, the MIT men's team returned to
UNH, the site of the 1996 New England Championships. That year,
MIT finished the team event with 41 total victories while winner
Boston College finished with 43 total victories. However, three
other schools finished with either 41 or 42 victories, leaving
MIT with a disappointing finish of 5th place.
MIT fenced with heart and determination throughout the day,
finishing the last four rounds with a record of 22-2.
It was not enough however, as Boston College finished one
victory ahead of MIT, leaving the Engineers with 2nd place.
Three MIT fencers advanced to the individual competition, a
final pool of 8. Matthew Duplessie(epee) finished 7th. Brian
Bower(sabre) captured 1st for the second year in a row, while
David Nauman(foil) also took 1st place, improving upon his
3rd place finish in 1996.
Women's Team
------------
IFA Championships
Men's Team
----------
Nobody advanced to the individual round.
(great learning experience)
More info later
Women's Team
------------
Team captain Wanda Chin(foil) and Nora Szasz(epee) both
advanced to the individual competition on Sunday.
NCAA Regionals
Men's Team
----------
Foilist David Nauman demonstrated that he has the
talent and ability to defeat the best fencers in
the United States. David cruised through three rounds
into the final pool of 5. In this pool along with him were
Alex Banks, Colin Clinton, Ryan Shams, and Dan Kellner.
David defeated Kellner, currently ranked second in the US, by
a score of 5-2. He also beat both of the Brandeis
fencers (Banks, Clinton), before losing to Shams 5-4. This
forced a barrage between Nauman and Kellner, a rematch
which Kellner won.
Nauman's 2nd place finish easily earned him a trip to the NCAAs.
Women's Team
------------
Epeeist Merideth Rising finished in 8th place and
was also selected to fence in NCAAs.
March 14-16
DIV II/III NAC
Div II M Sabre (55) Div III M Sabre (67 total)
-------------- ---------------
Brian Bower 10th Evan Efstathiou 15th
Evan Efstathiou 34th Brian Bower 23rd
Div II W Foil (80) Div III W Foil (74)
------------- --------------
Oriana Hunter 60th Oriana Hunter 44th
April 5th
USFA New England Division Chamipionships
Sectional Qualifiers
Men's Sabre
-----------
Brian Bower 5th
Evan Efstathiou 8th
Women's Foil
------------
Oriana Hunter 2nd