It’s true, summer does bring happiness and relaxation. But for some students, summer means the end of an era, a period in their lives that they will cherish, and experiences they will never forget.
The UCSD men’s and women’s fencing teams will be forced to let go of one young woman and two young men, who will seek to find their niche in the outside world.
Maytal Dahan from Los Angeles, Craig Johnson of San Jose, Calif. and Tedd Padgitt from San Diego will be draped in gowns and caps when the end of the quarter comes around.
All three Triton fencers were an extremely integral part of their respective teams.
Dahan placed second for the Tritons in the conference this year, finishing with an impressive 34-2 bout record.
Johnson was a freshman walk-on who earned a starting spot on the team all four of his years at UCSD, fenced foil his first year, epee his second and saber his third and fourth. He also defeated Stanford’s best saberist (ranked No. 1 in the country) this year. He finished fourth in the conference with an impressive 31-5 record.
Padgitt finished his final year of collegiate competition with his third trip to the NCAA Nationals, competing with the fencing foil. His previous forays into this level of competition included a trip as a freshman using fencing foil, and as a sophomore using fencing saber. Padgitt’s conference record this year was 34-2.
“”Maytal put more effort into her academics, skipping one year of competition to concentrate her effort there,”” said fourth-year head coach Stuart Lee. “”We are glad she came back and competed so well for our team.
“”Johnson grew into a competitively savvy individual who was able to bring his game up against extremely strong opponents,”” Lee continued. “”Padgitt was always the team leader in both skill and spirit; he will be sorely be missed.””
These three seniors have achieved both academic and athletic excellence throughout their careers at UCSD, and it is evident that their peers will be rooting hard for them to succeed in whatever journeys life throws at their doorsteps.
