Triton men win conference matches against rivals Air Force, Caltech and Incarnate Word but lose to No. 10 Stanford in West tournament.

Over this past weekend, the UCSD women’s fencing squad won the Western Fencing Conference team championship of the West Invitational for the second straight season in a row. The men’s fencing squad almost followed suit, but couldn’t finish all the way and ended the tourney in the second place of the league. UCSD hosted the West Invitational on Sunday at RIMAC Arena.

Seven teams competed at the West Invitational: Northwestern, UCSD, Stanford, Air Force, Vassar, Caltech and Incarnate Word. For the women’s competition, the order of winning teams is as ordered above, with the Northwestern women’s squad finishing in first with a count of 5–0 and the UCSD women’s squad coming in as a close second place with a count of 5–1. The Tritons swept the women’s WFC competition, however, ending the day as 4–0 in the field with Stanford at second at 3–1. The Tritons were able to earn conference victories over the following competitors: Air Force with a final count of 22–5, Stanford with a final count of 15–12, Caltech with a final count of 21–6 and Incarnate World with a final count of 23–4. Their victory over Vassar, which ended at 17–10, was not a conference win and was thus classified as a non-league win. The women’s Tritons only tasted defeat at the hands No. 5 nationally ranked Northwestern, which ended at 10–17 in favor of Northwestern.

For the women’s team, the sabre squad went unblemished as it ended the tourney with a perfect 6–0 record. The women’s foil came close to accomplishing the same feat, but were handed a loss to end the tourney at 5–1. The women’s epee faced the most trouble during the tourney and ended with a 3–3 record. For the sabre, freshmen Leanne Singleton-Comfort and Lillian Chu really stepped up and brought the heat as they lead their squad with 7–1 and 6–2 records, respectively. In the women’s foil, sophomore Sophia Holmqvist performed exceptionally and ended the tourney with a 13–1 record.

The UCSD men’s team ended the tourney with an overall 5–1 record and ended the men’s WFC team championship 3–1. The men’s Tritons won their conference matchups over WFC rivals Air Force with a count of 22–5, Caltech with a count of 21–6 and Incarnate World with a count of 20–7. They only lost to No. 10 nationally ranked Stanford, which also ended up winning first place in the men’s league.

The men’s sabre and foil squads came out of the tourney looking good, ending with a 5–1 score each, almost hitting the perfect record but falling just one match short. Men’s epee went the same as women’s epee and ended with a 3–3 record. Senior sabreur Drew Dickinson shone the brightest out of the men’s squad as he managed to go undefeated against Stanford and Air Force before ending the tourney on a 7–1 overall record.

“We are right where we need to be,” Dickinson told the UCSD Athletics Department. “Early on in the season we started off really strong … and it looks like we’re going to continue going strong through the season. Come Northwestern, I expect a lot of wins!”

Both the UCSD men’s and women’s teams are receiving votes in the national poll for ranking. The squads are now looking forward to compete at the San Diego Open on Jan 23.