The UCSD men’s and women’s fencing teams proved themselves to be strong competitors in their second matchup of the season in Pasadena, Calif., with both teams going undefeated against top schools in the nation in a dual meet hosted by Cal Tech on Nov. 5.
The men defeated Arizona State University 21-6, and then went on to overwhelm University of Southern California 23-4, UCLA 21-7 and UC Santa Barbara 23-4, their last match of the day.
Across the way, the women looked equally strong with four-straight wins, beating Arizona State 21-6, toppling USC 24-3, defeating the Bruins 25-2 and then allowing UC Santa Barbara to score only one point in the 26-1 victory.
The women’s foil squad, consisting of seniors Emily Lipoma, Zitin Kachru and Jen Chun, went 34-2 in the meet, while the sabre squad of seniors Esther Sosis, Heather Bienenfeld and Kathleen Pangan, and the epee squad, composed of seniors Chelsea Ambort, Heather Stephenson, Grace Bohn and Elise Goodman-Tuchmeyer, were both 31-5.
Both Ambort and Chung went undefeated through the entire meet while Bienenfeld, Lipoma and Kachru took only one loss.
The men’s sabre squad of seniors Bret Martin, Jeremiah Runyan and Jason Runyan did equally well, posting a 31-5 score in the tournament, with Martin and Jeremiah Runyan raking in 12 victories each and Jason Runyan only posting one defeat.
The men’s foil squad, consisting of seniors John Chung, Cameron Sprowles and Dave Eltgroth, went 28-8 in the meet, with Sprowles taking 11 victories and only one defeat. The men’s epee squad of seniors David Brang, Kevin Watt, Dave Polakoski and Ashok Pathi went 24-12 in the tournament, falling in a very close match to the Bruins 4-5, but easily outmaneuvering the three other schools.
In their last matchups, the men and women dominated the Collegiate Invitational held at UC Irvine on Oct. 23. With a field of almost 200 fencers, the women brought home five of 12 medals, while the men took half the medals in competitions that featured fencers from Cal State Fullerton, USC, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, Cal Tech and Arizona State.
The men’s and women’s teams will host their next match against Cal Tech, Cal State Fullerton and UC Irvine on Nov. 12 at the Main Gym.
