Young Fencers Settle Into New Roles

In its first competition in nearly eight months, the Harvard fencers posted a valiant effort, finishing with particularly strong performances in the women’s saber and men’s foil.

Traveling to State College, Pa. for the Penn State Garret Open this weekend, the fencing squad wasn’t sure what to expect from both the seasoned veterans and its rookies, but both took on the challenge and fenced at their highest level.

As an individual-based tournament, the meet provided an arena for returning fencers to get themselves reacclimated to competition, while freshmen saw their first collegiate opponents. But there was no easing into it for these newbies. The tournament featured the best of the best from this level of fencing.

“It’s probably their toughest competition in college other than the national championship,” coach Peter Brand said. “In this situation sometimes its even tougher because the teams bring in their full squads, whereas nationally only two can qualify from each weapon.”

An understaffed women’s squad had the hardest time of it.

The top epee fencer in the junior international circuit signed herself on to four years at Harvard, making the epee look unstoppable. But after her decision to defer a year, the weapon lacks depth.

Still, junior co-captain Maria Larsson fought her way through the stiff competition to finish 18th of 43.

Foil looks to be a bit stronger with three returning fencers in sophomores Misha Goldfeder, Anna Podolsky, and Arielle Pensler, who finished 15th, 17th, and 19th, respectively.

But no one outdid the saber fencers. With the top finish of the day for the Crimson, senior Alexa Weingarden notched fifth place of 46 entries. She was closely followed by freshman Alexandra Sneider, who rounded out the top 10, and co-captain Samantha Parker in 15th.

“We’ve had some sporadic success this year, not as consistent as it was last year, but there are some bright spots,” Brand said.

On the men’s side, the brightest spots came from the foil, where co-captain junior Kai Itameri-Kinter led the way with a top-eight finish, while newcomer Hao Meng made it to the fourth round, the round of 16.

The epee marked the next best weapon for Harvard, with sophomores Billy Stallings and Karl Harmenberg falling just before the round of 16. The strong performances come as a relief, as the weapon took a shot in the off-season with senior Benji Ungar taking time off to train for the Olympics.

“[Ungar] not being with us makes us a little weaker, but that’s affected a lot of the Ivy League schools,” Brand said. “Mostly it’s very balanced and competitive in the Ivy League. We’re going to be competitive and contending.”

Although senior saberist Steven Ahn reached the third round, the next-best saber finisher was co-captain junior Scott DiGiulio who made it to just the second. The third best saberist is a walk-on with little experience.

“On the men’s side I think we had a pretty strong showing,” Itameri-Kinter said. “It was good to get our freshmen into competition, to get into the mindset, and to go back to practice with something to work for. We have our first ever Beanpot tournament coming up and now we have a little more energy, a little more fire after getting into competition.”

—Staff writer Madeleine I. Shapiro can be reached at mshapiro@fas.harvard.edu.