Men's and Women's Fencing Win Seventh Straight Beanpot

As drums, violins, and even a tuba courtesy of MIT band members added to the festivities of the annual Beanpot fencing tournament at the duPont Gymnasium, the Harvard men’s and women’s fencing teams both cruised to their seventh straight titles on Wednesday.

The round robin event, which included area teams Brandeis, Boston College, and host MIT, saw the Crimson overwhelm its opposition throughout the evening.

“The women had a very strong outing, and we won this handily,” Harvard coach Peter Brand said. “It was what we expected, and we had a really good chance this time to fence people who didn’t have a chance to fence during the year, with some of the walk-ons.”

MEN’S FENCING

Fresh off capturing an Ivy League championship over the weekend, the men’s squad picked up right where it left off by successfully defending its Beanpot title, which it has never lost. Harvard defeated the Eagles, Engineers, and Owls in succession to claim the right to hoist the pot again.

“I think today was good overall since we kept the Beanpot title, and that’s what we’re going for every year,” co-captain Michael Raynis said. “Even though some people may have thought they had spotty performances here and there, I think we came together and gave it our all to beat the other schools.”

The men’s side started the day strong with a 26-1 drubbing of the Eagles, with the sabre and épée squads going undefeated for the match. Across the board, the Harvard fencers controlled the strip and didn’t give their Boston College opponents many chances to initiate successful attacks.

Though the Crimson defeated the Engineers in the second round of the evening, the sabre and épée trios were inconsistent at times. The former earned a 7-2 win, but the latter lost in a tight, 5-4 decision. Ultimately, Harvard would still have enough points to capture the match, 20-7.

“Épée is unpredictable at times just by the nature of how it works,” Raynis said. “Some days we come together and edge out tough schools, and [other times] we dropped some bouts against schools that are not as competitive.”

Though the épée squad also dropped five bouts against Brandeis, the Crimson still came out on top thanks to the foil group’s 7-2 victory and rode to a 17-10 victory over the Owls.

“We had a good tournament, and the competition was good on the men’s side,” Brand said. “[This was seen] especially with Brandeis showing that they are building in the right direction because they gave us a good, hard battle.”

Three foil fencers posted undefeated records on the evening, with freshman Stephen Mageras and junior Brian Kaneshige both going 6-0 in their bouts. The sabre squad continued its recent dominance with a 22-5 overall mark.

“This is sort of the home stretch until NCAAs, and we want to put in our all just as we’ve done all season,” Raynis said. “I think we’re going to focus on cramming out as many bouts as we can into practice. I don’t see why we can’t have 12 really strong qualifiers heading into NCAAs in Ohio.”

WOMEN’S FENCING

Led by 26 total bout victories on the day from the foil squad, the women’s team had little trouble handling its three opponents en route to the Beanpot title.

“I think it’s really hard to prepare yourself to fence right after you have a huge competition like Ivies [last weekend],” co-captain Alexandra Kiefer said. “We were really emotionally drained after that…but we came back together and fenced really well.”

Boston College proved to be no match for Harvard, as both the foil and sabre trios swept their matchups. Kiefer mustered crisp attacks and well-timed counterattacks, and freshman sabre Adrienne Jarocki defeated her three opponents in less than a minute each.

“I think [we worked on] finishing our actions with confidence [today],” Kiefer said. “We had a chance to practice some actions we don’t normally do.”

The narrative was similar in the squad’s 20-7 and 22-5 triumphs over the Engineers and Brandeis, respectively. None of the individual weapons conceded a match, and the foilists combined for a 17-1 record against the final two teams.

“We had a really good recruiting class on the women’s foil side,” Brand said. “The two new fencers [Hali Nelson and Liana Yamin] are both seasoned fencers who have fenced both nationally and internationally. Along with Alexandra Kiefer, who’s obviously our big gun, they’re performing exactly what we expected them to.”

Kiefer and Nelson ended the three-match day with 9-0 records, and junior épéeist Emma Vaggo posted a  5-0 mark.

—Staff writer Caleb Y. Lee can be reached at caleblee@college.harvard.edu.