Both the mens and womens fencing teams sent athletes to compete in the NCAA championship meet this weekend held at Drew University in New Jersey. Brandeis took 18th place of the 28 teams present at the competition this Saturday for the women. The team was also able to place first among division three schools at the tournament, a feat that has not been accomplished since 2004. Furthermore, they ranked 3rd of all the New England teams competing, and the squad cumulatively scored 19 points.
The mens team also sent a group of athletes to compete in the NCAA championships. The team was eventually able to finish 14th after the days competition, 5 points behind the Air Force Academy and two points ahead of Duke University. The Brandeis mens team was also able to place first among the Division III schools present at the competition, and went on to defeat hosts Drew University by 5 points.
The team sent two male and one female competitor to the championships in New Jersey. Caitlin Kozel 09 scored 5 points on the epee marking the womens teams only competitor and points at this event. She eventually came in 24th place and picked up one bout on the final day of competition. Of the men competitors, Kai Keller 07 was able to score a team high of 9 points and ranked 19th overall in the epee. Teammate Will Friedman 09 scored 5 points of his own and eventually placed 24th in the foil.
The team seemed happy about their performance as it marked the end of the 2006-2007 Season. Head Coach Bill Shipman was excited at sending a good amount of fencers to this national championship. We were glad to get three fencers into the NCAA's, as several of our rivals qualified less commented Shipman. With a few more key touches we could have qualified five, which would have put us among the top teams in the US. Coach Shipman is also looking ahead to the future and analyzing his prospects for next year. We will miss several seniors next year Shipman stated, Kai Keller was a rock in epee since he arrived as a freshman. He will be hard to replace. Coach Shipman was also optimistic about up and coming athletes. We return our outstanding foil squad commented Shipman [and] in saber three upperclassmen will return to compete with several new fencers, giving us good depth and, we hope, strength in mens saber.
This marks the last competition of the fencing teams for the year as they now go into the off season. Still, there performance this weekend, and future prospects, will provide an interesting season next year.
