Before the break, the Brandeis fencing team competed in the Brandeis Invitational at home on Dec. 4. Last year, the men’s team finished 3-3 at the invitational and the women’s team finished 2-4. For this invitational, the men’s team faced Cornell University, Yale University, St. John’s University (SJU), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Brown University. The women’s team faced all the same schools but also faced Tufts University.
To start the day, the men’s team faced off against Cornell. The team was led by their saber group who won 7-2. They got wins from sophomore Anthony Rabinkov ’25, sophomore Tony Escueta ’25, first-year Lev BenAvram ’26, junior Nick Quan ’24 and junior Berwyn Lu ’24. The foil and epee group lost 4-5, but the men’s team beat Cornell overall 15-12. The women’s side also faced Cornell to start their day. Senior Maggie Shealy ’23 led the team with two wins, but ultimately it wasn’t enough as the women’s team fell to Cornell 4-23 after the saber team lost 3-6, foil team lost 1-8 and the epee team lost 0-9.
In round two, both the men’s and women’s teams faced Yale. The men’s saber team once again started strong with a 6-3 victory. The foil team fell just short 4-5 despite a strong effort from freshman Michael Yerokhin ’26. Finally came epee, and the men’s team could not overcome the Yale squad leading to a 1-8 loss for the Judges. Overall, the men’s team lost to Yale 11-16. On the other side, the women’s saber group was again led by Shealy in addition to first-year Kate Xikes ’26, but it wasn’t enough as they fell 2-7. Foil continued the tough day after losing 0-9. Women’s epee nearly beat Yale but was just short 4-5. They got wins from senior Monica Aponte ’23, sophomore Bronwyn Rothman-Hall ’25 and sophomore Calla Lee ’25. In the end, the women’s team lost to Yale 6-21.
Round three had the Judges facing off against SJU. The women’s team started off strong with a 5-4 victory in saber. Shealy won two of her three bouts, while Xikes did the same. Foil competed hard but lost 3-6. Senior Sammy Shortall ’23, sophomore Alex McKee ’25 and freshman Hannah Du ’26 each won one bout. It came down to epee where the Judges fell short 3-6 and therefore lost 12-15 to SJU overall. The men’s team also started off strong with a 7-2 victory in saber. However, they then fell 1-8 SJU in foil. In the epee group, sophomore Tal Kronrod ’25 won two of his three bouts, but the team was defeated 3-6. The men’s team lost to SJU 11-16.
For round four, the two teams played MIT. On the women’s side, they once again won saber 5-4 with two bout wins from Shealy and sophomore Kayla Turnof ’25. Foil also won convincingly 8-1 against MIT. Du and McKee won all three of their bouts. The Judges lost epee 3-6, but it didn’t matter as they won 16-11 overall. The men’s team similarly won their first two competitions. Saber won 7-2 and foil won 5-4. Epee barely lost 4-5, but the two previous victories gave the men’s team a large enough lead to win 16-11 overall.
In round five, the women’s team faced Tufts. Sabre continued their hot streak with a 5-4 win. Shealy won all three of her bouts, including the match to give the Judges the win. In foil, Brandeis played well, but fell just short after losing the last match of the set to fall 4-5. It came down to epee. Lee led the way with three bout wins, as the Judges won epee 5-4 and 14-13 overall.
Round six was the last round of the day and it saw the two teams face Brown. Men’s saber had an all-around big win with two bout wins from Lu, Quan and sophomore Joy Qiu ’25. This gave them a 6-3 win. Foil just barely lost to Brown 4-5 after Yerokhin won all three of his bouts. Epee ended up losing 2-7 and the men’s team fell to Brown 12-15 overall. The women’s team had close bouts against Brown. For saber they were barely defeated 4-5, while foil and epee lost 2-7. This led to a 9-18 loss overall.
Shealy won 12 out of her 17 bouts of the invitational. Yerokhin had the next most bout wins with eight. BenAvram won all seven of his bouts for the day and Quan won seven of his and lost just one. Up next is the second Northeast Fencing Conference meet of the season. The meet is being held at Boston College on Jan. 22.
