Women’s Fencing Takes Ivy Title, with Men’s Team Placing Fourth

The Harvard women’s fencing team won the Ivy League Championship Sunday for the first time in nine years, with the men’s team finishing fourth overall.

The tournament — held in a round-robin format and hosted by the University of Pennsylvania — marks the women’s first outright Ivy title since 2009, with Harvard co-championing alongside Columbia and Princeton in 2016.

The win adds another accolade to Harvard fencing’s dominance over the past several years. Just last year, Harvard won the National Collegiate Athletic Association men’s and women’s fencing championship for the first time since 2006, sent four current fencers to the Olympics, and secured two Olympic medals.

The women’s team went undefeated against its six competitors, dominating across events and clutching up in close bouts against second-place Columbia.

Leading the women to the crown were sophomore Jessica Guo, who posted a perfect 18-0 record in the foil, junior Zoe Kim, who also had an undefeated 5-0 record in the saber, senior captain Lauren Scruggs, and freshman Jenna Shoman.

Scruggs, who took home the silver medal in women’s individual foil and the gold in team foil at the Olympics last summer, described the team’s win in a press release by Harvard Athletics as a “dream come true.”

Scruggs, a quick and aggressive fencer who loves to take the weapon behind her back, finished 16-2 in foil at the Ivy championship. The silver medalist was named to the All-Ivy League First Team along with fellow Olympic competitor Guo.

Scruggs and Guo continue to trade off accolades. Though Scruggs defeated Guo on her way to her silver medal in Paris, it was Guo who was named Ivy League champion for the women’s foil. However, they maintain a bond as teammates and friends off the piste.

“I could just tell that we were going to win,” Scruggs said in the release. “Both days our energy was off the charts and you could see how hungry we were for the title.”

The women, who were ranked first nationally in the US Fencing Coaches Association Preseason Poll and are currently ranked fifth, brought their match win percentage on the season to an impressive 82%, winning 297 bouts overall and dropping 162.

Men’s and women’s fencing head coach Daria Schneider — who has led Harvard’s team since 2019 — said in the release that she was “most proud of the unseen effort behind the scenes with this women’s team,” citing the leadership of the past several years of players in building the culture of the program.

“It’s rare to coach a team that so consistently impresses me with their hunger to win and their professionalism, they are a joy to coach and it was exhilarating to see them accomplish this feat,” Schneider said.

On the men’s side, the team defeated Yale but dropped to Princeton, Columbia, and Penn in close bouts across events thanks to strong showings from sophomore Daniel Zhang who went 8-4 in foil and sophomore Henry Lawson’s 9-3 performance in epee.

Despite being ranked first nationally in the preseason poll, the men are currently ranked 13th behind fellow Ivy competitors No. 7 Yale, No. 4 Penn, and No. 2 Columbia and have struggled all season.

The difficult three months come shortly after Crimson students and alumni made history with an all-Harvard U.S. Olympic men’s saber team.

In July, the four-man saber team was quickly eliminated from Olympic competition, a shock upset for a squad expected to compete for at least two medals.

This season, they have stumbled against No. 5 Ohio State and No. 6 Duke University before decisively defeating No. 14 NYU last week. They Post a 9-6 record overall with 55% of bouts won.

Now, both teams will have a one month break until the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships held in Boston, Mass in March where both teams will look to repeat their championship-winning performances last year. This gives Coach Schneider, who became the youngest coach ever and the only female coach to win an NCAA fencing championship, the chance to go back to back.

—Staff writer Thomas Harris can be reached at thomas.harris@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Akshaya Ravi can be reached at akshaya.ravi@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @akshayaravi22.