Men's and Women's Fencing Sweep the Beanpot

Hosting the Beanpot for the second time in the event’s history, the Harvard men’s and women’s fencing teams emerged victorious at the ninth annual rendition of the Boston-based tournament against Brandeis, MIT, and Boston College.

The men’s team displayed a strong all-around showing in the épée, foil, and saber events, besting its opponents and emerging with a 3-0 overall victory. Similarly, the women’s team swept the three rival schools, with the most decisive victory coming in the saber division.

The Beanpot came merely three days after the Crimson competed in the Ivy League Championships in Ithaca, N.Y., where the women’s team tied for first, alongside Columbia and Princeton, and the men’s team earned a fourth place finish.

The respite between the Ivy League Championships and the Beanpot was shorter than the typical rest afforded following matches. However, the men’s and women’s teams managed to regain their vitality and pull off the victory.

“We definitely poured a lot of our physical and mental energy into the Ivy League Championships this past weekend,” said junior co-captain Liana Yamin. “But, we came into tonight with our minds set on replicating the same intensity we brought into the Ivy Champs.”

HARVARD WOMEN’S FENCING

While the women’s team managed to prevail over the other three teams, the bouts were more competitive than Harvard had hoped. While the team came away with three wins, the Crimson still recognized the need to address potential areas of improvement in future matches.

The women’s foil squad lost its matches against Brandeis with a 4-5 score and Boston College with a 3-6 score. However, it successfully managed to tally up enough victories to strike down the MIT foil fencers.

“I definitely think we didn’t perform as well as we could have,” sophomore foil fencer Hellary Zhang, an active Crimson editor, said. “I don’t think it’s really indicative of how well we can fence.”

While the women’s team spent the past two days recovering both physically and mentally from the weekend competition, it seemed as if fatigue still played a factor in the team’s overall performance. Many of Harvard’s adversaries, especially Boston College, proved to be fiercer competitors in this year’s Beanpot, leading to results in the foil and épée events that were much closer than last year’s scores.

“We definitely have some tough opponents,” Zhang conceded. “There were some really good fencers at Brandeis, BC, and MIT.”

Despite the shortcomings of these two squads, the women’s saber fencers made up for lost bouts in the other squads. In this category, the Crimson shut out both Brandeis and MIT.

Against Boston College, the saber squad only lost one bout, tallying a 26-1 overall victory over the three schools. The women’s team has won every single Beanpot in the tournament’s nine-year stint, winning every single game in the tournament’s history.

HARVARD MEN’S FENCING

The men’s fencing team bounced back from a disappointing performance at the Ivy League Championships, beating all three opponents by respectable margins at the Beanpot on Wednesday.

“We didn’t do so hot at Ivy’s,” sophomore saber fencer Eric Zhao said. “It was definitely a tough experience for us, but we came back and generally fenced pretty well here.”

The saber squad, for which Zhao was one of the three competitors representing Harvard, won all of its matches, with a 5-4 victory over MIT, a 7-2 victory over BC, and a 6-3 victory over Brandeis.

“I’m not really disappointed in any way with how we performed as a team,” added Zhao.

The foil squad had the most impressive showing for the men’s team. The division managed to shut out Boston College and prevailed over MIT and Brandeis, winning eight out of nine bouts in both matches.

The men’s team captured the Beanpot victory last season, beating each opponent by at least ten points.

The Crimson has dominated in the nine years of the Beanpot, not having lost since its inception.