The Brandeis Fencing team started their 2018-2019 season at Smith College this past Sunday, Oct. 28, at the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference Fall Invitational, nicknamed “The Big One” by participants. This tournament marked the collegiate coaching debut of the new fencing coach, Jennie Salmon.
Joanne Carminucci ’19 and Ian Quin ’20 both defended their titles from last year’s meet in the foil competition. Other top finishers for the Judges included Jessica Gets ’20, who received third in the foil competition and rookie Jada Harrison ’22, who received third in the saber competition, according to the Brandeis Judges website.
Carminucci was seeded fourth after going 5-0 in the elimination tournament with a +21 margin of victory and receiving four touches in the preliminary rounds of competition. On her way to victory, Carminucci defeated competitors from Vassar College and The University of Massachusetts. In the quarterfinals, Carminucci defeated Kayla Moy and Lee Madison, both from Boston College. She also took out top-seed Cindy Shen of Dartmouth, 15-9.
Quin remained undefeated in the preliminary rounds of competition and earned sixth with a +18 indicator. He easily took victories over UMass and MIT in the first rounds of the final bracket and defeated Frank Riccio of Sacred Heart University 15-10 in the round of 16, according to the Brandeis Judges website. Quin nearly fell to Cameron Mayer of Boston College but pulled out a narrow victory of 15-14. He easily took the win in the semifinals against Christopher Kiel of MIT and beat Zachary Hammer of Boston College at 15-9 to win the second consecutive title.
Gets was undefeated in the preliminary rounds earning a sixth seed placement with a +19 indicator. After defeating fellow teammates Wendy Mao ’21 and Renee Pite ’19 to land a place in the semifinals, Gets ultimately lost to finalist Shen from Dartmouth.
Rookie Harrison was also undefeated in the preliminary rounds, going 6-0 and receiving a fifth seed spot with a +18 indicator. Harrison quickly defeated opponents from Smith College and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and narrowly defeated Anita Dey Barsukova of MIT 15-13. She lost to Sacred Heart’s Amanda Fischer before winning the third place match.
Seven other Judges received top ten finishes in the tournament. On the women’s side, Pite placed seventh overall in the foil tournament, alongside Carminucci and Gets. Devon Brown ’21, the seventh seed in the saber competition, got sixth place, having lost to Boston College’s Crystal Chen in the quarterfinals.
On the men’s side, Tristan Barca-Hall ’21 placed sixth in the foil competition, reaching the quarterfinals. Rookie David Hui ’22 placed ninth in the same competition. Alex Holtmann ’21 tied for sixth place in the men’s saber while Leon Rotenstein ’19 finished ninth. Rookie Lucas Lin ’22 placed tenth in the same competition.
The format of “The Big One” follows typical USA Fencing six-weapon open tournament style, where all competitors compete as individuals, but each fencer must represent a specific institution.
Both the men’s and women’s fencing teams start back up again Nov. 17 for the first of two Northeast Fencing Conferences meeting at MIT.
