Fencing Begins Title Defense

With a national championship, All-Americans, an Ivy League title, and Junior World competitors, the Harvard Fencing team would seem to have no problems breezing into NCAA Championships to defend its title. But after last year’s fairy tale performance, Harvard has to deal with the pressure of entering the tournament as defending champions this weekend in Madison, N.J., without a full 12-person team.

“I think we’re a little disappointed that we didn’t qualify 12,” said senior captain and saber fencer Tim Hagamen. “But we’ve made a lot of progress and in the end, it’s about having a good finish.”

The Crimson qualified nine fencers at NCAA Regional Championships two weeks ago, but junior captain saber fencer Samantha Parker and freshman foil Arielle Pensler became recent additions to the team traveling to nationals when they qualified through NCAA at-large bids. Early last week, Pensler received one of the bids, which go to two fencers in each weapon for men’s and women’s, while Parker captured a bid when a Cornell saber fencer withdrew.

Even with the two late additions, the Crimson travels with only 11 fencers, while St. John’s, Columbia, and Penn State boast full 12-person teams. Although mathematically possible for Harvard to repeat its title as national champions, it will be hard to garner the points necessary to defeat the larger squads.

“It is difficult without the maximum numbers of fencers,” said senior epee fencer Jasmine McGlade. “But we’re not at a huge disadvantage. We have a lot of potential for good individual results.”

The nine individual fencers that qualified for nationals at the NCAA regional competition at Tufts include saber fencers Hagamen, Dan Sachs, and Alexa Weingarden; foil fencers Kai Itameri-Kinter, Enoch Woodhouse, and Misha Goldfeder; and epee fencers McGlade, Teddy Sherill, and Maria Larsson.

Last year, it was such individual results of junior foil Emily Cross and junior epee Benji Ungar that contributed to the run that culminated in the unexpected victory. This year, with Ungar, missing regionals to compete in a World Cup event, expect impressive results from women’s epee fencers McGlade and Larsson who finished first and second at regionals.

“It feels different from last year,” McGlade said. “Because last year we never expected to do as well as we did. Now we’re defending champions. In terms of how hard we’ll work, the goals are the same.”

This year’s fencing team travels not only with a desire to repeat its win, but also with the memory of what the program has become in the past four years.

“For me, as a senior, it’s great to see the development of the team,” Hagamen said. “I’ve seen us go from the bottom of the Ivy League to the top of the Ivy League to national champions.”

Under the recruiting of coach Peter Brand, the team has grown from one that sent five freshman fencers to nationals just a few seasons ago to one that boasts two Ivy League titles for both the men’s and women’s squad.

“We’re the last class that has seen Harvard Fencing when we were expected to do nothing,” McGlade said. “I think that the seniors now, because we’ve seen the program build from something very different to the top in the country, have a perspective that others don’t.”

Hopefully that perspective can guide the Crimson to mount an impressive showing at Drew University where men’s competition started yesterday and women’s beginning on Saturday.

“We can get in the top three,” McGlade said. “That’s very much in the realm of possibility.”