Brandeis men and women’s fencing had their first home meet on Dec. 5. They participated in three separate rounds, both teams facing six different schools. 

In the first round, the men’s team faced Yale University. The team started with a win as freshman Tony Escueta ’25 won his first sabre bout 5-4. Senior Lucas Lin ’22 then lost 3-5 to even the score for sabre between Yale and Brandeis. Sophomore Berwyn Lu ’24 closed the first three bouts with a win 5-3. Lin and Escueta added four more wins, to give Brandeis a win in sabre 5-4. Men’s foil was less successful. Sophomore Luke Ritchie ’24 and junior Jake Hempe ’23 were the only two Judges to have a foil win for the men’s team, as the team lost 2-7. The epee team had very close bouts against Yale. Junior Ben Rogak ’23 and freshman Tal Kronrod ’25 both had two bout wins. Sophomore Ben Wang ’24 added a bout win and this led to the men’s epee win of 5-4. Overall, the Brandeis men’s team would lose 13-14 to Yale in the first round. 

The women’s team also faced off against Yale in the first round. In sabre, the women’s team had four bout wins. Three of them came from Maggie Shealy ’23 and one came from Kayla Turnoff ’25. This would not be enough to win as the women’s team ended up losing sabre 4-5. The women’s foil and epee teams were less successful. Neither group won a bout, leading to an overall Yale win of 23-4. 

In round 2 the men’s team started off against Saint Joseph’s University. The sabre team were close to taking the set, but ultimately lost 4-5. Lin had one bout win and Escueta had three bout wins. Both foil and epee followed, and both only won two bouts each. Hempe and Lee won a bout in foil and Rogak won two for epee. Overall, the Brandeis men’s fencing lost 8-19 to Saint Joseph’s University. 

In their round against Saint Joseph’s University, the women’s team were neck and neck all throughout. Sabre won four bouts as Shealy had one win, Turnoff had two and senior Jada Harrison ’22 had two. This was not enough as they lost 4-5. The foil team had six total bout wins to give them a 6-3 win. Junior Alexander Wicken ’23, freshman Alex McKee ’25 and junior Rachel Liu ’23 each had two bout wins. The epee team was less successful as they lost 3-6. Monica Aponte ’23, Bronwyn Rothman-Hall ’25 and Calla Lee ’25 each had only one bout win. Overall, the Brandeis women’s fencing team lost to Saint Joseph’s University 13-14. 

Round three was against Cornell University. The women’s team started with a win in sabre 5-4. Shealy won all three of her bouts and Turnoff won two of her bouts. The foil team did not win a bout and lost 0-9. Epee proceeded to only win two bouts. The bout wins came from Angela Shi ’25 and Rothman-Hall. Overall, the women’s fencing team fell to Cornell 7-20. 

The men’s team against Cornell started off well with a 7-2 victory in sabre. Joy Qiu ’25 had two bout wins, Nick Quan ‘24 had three bout wins and Anthony Rabinkov ’25 had three bout wins. The men’s team also won foil with a score of 6-3. Chaemin Daniel Lee ’25 won all three of his bouts, Alexander Ma ’25 won two of his bouts and Drew Miller ’23 won one bout. Epee was the only competition that the men’s team did not win. Mark Shamis ’25 won two bouts, Wang won one bout and Harrison Kaish ’22 won one bout. The men’s team did end up winning overall in round three 17-10.
In round four, the men’s team took the overall victory 15-12 against Brown University. They won sabre 7-2 and epee 6-3, while losing foil 2-7. The women’s team, however, fell to Brown 7-20, as they lost sabre 4-5, foil 1-8, and epee 2-7. In round five, the men’s team won again, but this time against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). They won sabre 7-2 and epee 6-3, while once again losing foil 3-6. The women’s team played their closest round yet as they lost 13-14 to MIT. Sabre won 6-3, but foil lost 3-6 and epee lost 4-5. 

In the final round of the invitational, the men’s team finished with their fourth consecutive round win with a win against the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) 18-9. Sabre, foil and epee all won their respective competitions 6-3. The women’s team also defeated UIW 16-11. Epee won 6-3 and sabre won 7-2. 

The men’s and women’s fencing teams will look toward their next competition on Jan. 22 for the second Northeast Fencing Conference of the season.