FENCING — This year’s first serious road trip to the NCAA West Invitational in Colorado Springs, Colo. over the weekend gave the Tritons a chance to face off against some of the nation’s top fencers while competing in a new environment. The team split its total matches for the meet, with both the men’s and women’s teams going 2-2. The meet, which pitted UCSD against Stanford University, the University of Florida, the University of Notre Dame and the host Air Force Academy, was the Tritons’ first NCAA competition of the year after four preseason meets.
While their fellow students were basking in the warm San Diego sun, the Triton fencers flew to Colorado, where they were met with snow flurries and the prospect of fencing at a very high elevation.
The weather didn’t faze the Tritons, who were instead surprised by the climate during the meet itself.
Emily Lipoma, a senior on the women’s foil squad, thought the Colorado conditions were much more manageable than previous trips to the NCAA West Invitational.
“The climate and altitude actually took a lesser toll on the team than the last time we competed at Air Force in 2006,” Lipoma said. “The altitude effects were fairly negligible and the gym we fenced in was actually much warmer than it should have been.”
The meet’s format saw only the women fencing on Jan. 12, which gave the men’s team members a chance to rest up from the long plane ride while cheering on their female teammates.
The women showed little respect to their hosts and beat the Air Force team 18-9. The Triton women got their only other win versus Florida, dominating the match to the tune of a 20-7 victory. Senior Chelsea Ambort paved the way for her epee squad, posting a 9-3 mark on the day. However, UCSD lost to Notre Dame 21-6 and, in what would set the tone for a dramatic showdown on the men’s side, lost to Stanford 15-12.
The men were unable to avenge the women’s Stanford loss, dropping a heartbreaking 15-14 match to the rival Cardinal.
While they were unable to topple their Northern Californian opponents, the Triton men were able to squeak out a very impressive 14-13 win against Air Force, along with a 22-5 win over Florida. The foil squad led the Tritons in their Sunday matches, with seniors John Chung and Cameron Sprowles and freshman Benjamin Dorn all going 9-3 on the day.
Sophomore Sean Blum from epee was especially happy with knocking off the very impressive host team of Air Force.
“The Air Force squad, their epee especially, was really strong and had some of the top players in the nation,” Blum said. “So that made it really tough for our guys — but all the better when we won our match against them.”
Although the teams did not perform as well as they had in their preseason meets, the chance to improve their play by competing against more skilled competition was invaluable.
“Some of these fencers are not only the top fencers in the NCAA but some of the top fencers in the nation,” Schnecker said. “For some teammates, it was difficult to stand a chance against such more experienced fencers, but in these cases, it was exciting even to get just one touch. For some of the more experienced fencers on the team, it was exciting because they actually did well against these amazing athletes.”
The Tritons showed their true grit and determination by not being intimidated by the Division I status of their opponents, but instead striving to prove so that they could fence with any team in the nation regardless of division.
“The team was fairly disappointed with our overall results, especially against Stanford,” Lipoma said. “Although we had some good individual and squad victories, we would have liked to have done much better. In the past few seasons we’ve built up a rivalry with Stanford, and we’re looking forward to coming up against them again.”
Next up for UCSD will be the North America Cup held in Atlanta, Ga. from Jan. 18-21.