Will Bedor ’10 finished off his collegiate fencing career by posting a 24th place finish at the NCAA Championships on March 27 to 28 at Harvard University.
Bedor fenced four years for the Judges and was used to competing against the best Division I fencers in the country. At the NCAA Championships last month, most of the competitors were from Division I schools.
“It’s the hardest competition in fencing,” Bedor said. “To say that I’m 24th in the country is a great accomplishment.”
He added that he was thankful for the support of Coach Bill Shipman and three of his teammates who traveled with him to the tournament. The three fencers who accompanied him, in addition to Coach Shipman, were Alex Clos ’10, Alex Powell ’12 and Jeff Cornejo ’10.
“He’s a great coach [and] he understands how to talk to his players,” Bedor said about Shipman.
In 23 matches during two days, Bedor, an epee fencer, won six of them. Five of his wins came on the first day, with the last win on the second day, according to a press release on the Brandeis Athletics Web site.
“Getting into the field is really the big accomplishment” Shipman said in a phone interview with The Hoot.
Shipman said that Bedor performed well on the first day, but thought that a loss in confidence led to a weaker performance the second day.
Among the fencers that Bedor defeated were Peter French of Air Force, who later finished second place in the tournament, and Dwight Smith of Columbia who lost in the semifinals.
Bedor’s six victories put the Judges, as a team, in 25th place, and in fourth place out of the five Division III teams entered in the tournament.
Bedor, who is from Rego Park, NY and a graduate of Francis Lewis High School, said the he began fencing as a freshman in high school. As a freshman, Bedor was planning to play varsity basketball, but decided he would rather try fencing because it is so different from other sports.
“I was going to play varsity basketball, and I didn’t really like the team chemistry, so I decided that I wanted to pursue fencing–something that was completely different that you can’t really compare yourself and compare it to anything else.”
Bedor, a member of the New York Athletic Club, also excelled in his junior career before Brandeis. He placed in the top 16 at the Junior Olympics and Nationals for fencing.
His collegiate career got off to a strong start, when as a first-year, he teamed with Andrew Sofer ’07 and Kai Keller ’07 to win the Intercollegiate Fencing Association’s (IFA) 150 year old trophy.
“His [Bedor’s] talent was obvious from the beginning,” Shipman said.
In June, Bedor will begin working for a financial consulting company in New York City called AXA, but he will still continue to fence competitively.
Bedor explained that fencing has given him an intense drive to succeed in other areas of his life.
“The competitive nature of any sport is what drives you to succeed or excel in anything you do,” Bedor said
Commenting on the future of the team next year, Bedor said that “Hopefully we can have a strong team next year and send some more people to NCAA’s.”
