After competing in the Duke Invitational, the Brandeis men’s and women’s fencing teams looked to bounce back at the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference (NEIFC) Championships. The competition took place on Feb. 25 at Wellesley College.
The day got started with some team events. Men’s foil had the highlight of the day after the squad placed third. The team squad consisted of Sam Choun ’26, Quin Smith ’25 and Luke Ritchie ’24. Then came the men’s epee team event. This squad was made up of Josh Shuster ’23, Ethan Hortelano ’25, Jalon Kimes ’23 and Adrian Karwowski ’23. As a squad, they placed 10th overall. The next event to finish was the women’s foil team event. In this squad were first-years Hannah Du ’26 and Rhea Menon ’26. They placed fifth in the event. Next was the women’s epee team event. A squad of Monica Aponte ’23, Paula Thornton ’23 and Oliva Bennett ’26 placed seventh.
After the first couple team events came the individual events. First was men’s foil. Choun and Ritchie placed sixth and seventh respectively. Then came women’s foil, where Du finished in seventh place. To finish off the first stretch of individual events was the women’s epee competition. Aponte finished in 11th for the event.
As the competition began to close, the only events remaining were the saber ones. It got started with the men’s team saber event. The squad consisting of Seth Edelman ’26, Joy Qiu ’25 and Gabe Lobo-Berg led the way to a fourth-place finish in the event. On the women’s side, the squad of Kat Xikes ’26, Kayla Turnof ’25 and Calla Lee ’25 similarly competed well. They also finished fourth place in the team saber event. In the individual women’s saber event, Xikes and Turnof both played well and earned fifth and ninth place respectively. For the men’s side, Lobo-Berg also finished in fifth place in the event.
The women’s team will next compete at the National Intercollegiate Women’s Fencing Association Championships at Drew University on March 4. After that is the National Collegiate Athletic Association Regional Championships on March 12 at Harvard University for both the men’s and women’s teams.
