Fencing Squads Collect Multiple Individual Top 10 Finishes At Garret Open

After a long offseason layoff, the Harvard men’s and women’s fencing squads travelled to Penn State to compete in the Garret Penn State Open, which saw Harvard fencers competing as individuals in a crowded field. Despite competing with what junior foil fencer Stephen Mageras described as one of the smallest collegiate teams in the field, the Crimson had a few solid performances in the season’s first competition.

Women’s Fencing

Continuing the trend from previous years, the strength of the women’s saber squad—namely junior saber fencer Adrienne Jarocki and senior teammate Aliya Itzkowitz, was on full display. Jarocki took second in the women’s saber competition after Itzkowitz defeated her in the final bout, 15-14, while freshman foil fencer Liana Henderson-Semel also took third in her first collegiate tournament.

“They pretty much sailed through their first [direct elimination] bouts,” junior foil fencer Liana Yamin said. “They’re both fencing really well, and their level of talent is just so far above the competition…. That kind of shows in most of the competitions that we go to, and this weekend too.”

The final direct elimination bout between the the two saber teammates was reminiscent of the 2014 NCAA Championship final between the two Harvard fencers, but with the opposite result. As opposed to the 2014 bout that saw Jarocki take the title by a 15-10 score, this time around it was Itzkowitz who had the last laugh in a 15-14 nailbiter.

On different strips, freshman foil fencer Liana Henderson-Semel earned a tie for third place result after winning her first two direct elimination bouts.

“In her first fall tournament [Henderson-Semel] had a really good showing,” Yamin said. “[The tournament] was really mentally and physically exhausting, but she held up really well and had really good stamina—[she] didn’t lose her focus.”

Rounding out the top showings for the women, freshman epeeist Shawn Wallace came close to running the tables in her first collegiate tournament and ended up in second after dropping her final direct elimination bout of the tournament.

“[Wallace] sailed through some of her [direct elimination bouts] that should have been really difficult because [her opponents were] really impressive fencers,” Yamin said.

Men’s Fencing

With co-captain Michael Woo still out due to a hand injury and senior Jerry Chang competing in a tournament abroad in Tokyo, Japan, Harvard sent only two foil fencers to the event, including Mageras, who tied for third after winning his table of 16 and table of eight direct elimination bouts before falling to eventual foil winner Kristjan Archer of Notre Dame.

“I think we performed great, considering the circumstances,” Mageras said. “We have a few injuries [and] fencers are away travelling for international competition…but despite not having those fencers there, I think we had a solid performance.”

Along the way to his semifinals run, Mageras defeated Nobuo Bravo of Penn State, who was the top seed coming into the direct elimination bouts after a strong pool play showing.

In the epee bracket, senior epeeist Peregrine Badger set himself up for success by finishing pool play in the first-seeded driver’s seat. However, a 15-13 loss in the table of 16 to the Fighting Irish’s Cole Mallette resulted in Badger’s day ending earlier than desired. Classmate Nicolas Simko emerged from pool play seeded third in the field of 54 competitors before losing in the table of eight to finish fifth for his tournament.

Sophomore Eric Zhao was the top saber finisher for the Crimson on the day, winning his table of 16 bout against the Nittany Lions’ Adam Lewicki by a 15-11 score before dropping a 15-13 bout against eventual finalist Freddy Koch of Ohio State.

Co-captain Duncan O’Brien finished 16th after drawing a tough first round direct elimination bout with one of the top-seeded competitors.

—Staff writer Caleb Y. Lee can be reached at caleb.lee@thecrimson.com.