Brandeis mens fencing had a good year that saw rookie foilist Will Friedman 09 earn a trip to Houston for the NCAA National Fencing Championships.

It was not initially expected that Friedman, a Newton, MA native, would make the championship, because he had finished 11th at the NCAA Regionals, which left him two spots short of gaining an automatic bid. However, his 31-13 record this season earned him an at-large selection.

Friedman has earned UAA Fencer of the Week honors four times this year, and helped win a key bout against NYU that cut a deficit to 13-12, after Brandeis had been down 12-9. Friedman was the proud winner of the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference (NEIFC) individual title and led Brandeis to the foil championships.

On a different note, Damien Lehfeldt 09 was recently the only Brandeis Fencer to travel to this year's North American Cup in Reno, Nevada, placing 8th in the Mens Epee competition. Lehfeldt struggled early in the preliminary rounds, attempting to adjust to the altitude, but then performed beautifully in the elimination rounds until a quarterfinal bout ended in a loss and a slight injury to his PCL. Lehfeldt dedicated the medal to his coach, who was recently injured in a car accident, and described the moment of standing on the medal stand wearing his Brandeis warm-ups as one of the proudest moments in my fencing career.