After March 12’s NCAA Northeast Regional Fencing Championships, foilists Jessica Gets ’20 and Joanne Carminucci ’19 were named at-large candidates for NCAA Championships because they were the two top-scoring women foilists not to win a general bid to NCAAs. However, they were not granted bids to NCAAs in the end because other at-large candidates from other regions had better season-long performances.
Carminucci, entering the competition seeded at the 15th spot, tore her way to the finals, going 5-1 in the first round and 3-3 in the semifinal round. Moving her way up the rankings, she took three wins out of 11 bouts to secure a 10th place finish.
Gets finished the first round with a winning record as well, going 4-2. Like her teammate, Gets went 3-3 in the semifinal round. Unfortunately, the rookie first year was unable to score a win in the final round, a result that landed her at the 12th-place spot.
Neither performances from the two Judges fencers were strong enough to make the cut for the NCAA national tournament. The good news is that both Carminucci and Gets have two seasons and three seasons left, respectively, in their career.
Another notable performance came from captain Nina Sayles ’17, who made the semifinals for women’s saber.
Men’s fencing was unable to secure any spots in the final rounds of competition, though the team advanced six fencers to the semifinal rounds. Fencers advanced to the semifinals in each of the three weapons.
Men’s fencing saw all three of its fencers for the saber event make it to the semifinal round. Leon Rotenstein ’20 achieved a 4-2 record in the first round of competition, while Kyle Berney’s ’18 3-3 record scored him a spot in the semifinal round. Each of their results safely secured their entrance into the next round.
Curtis Wilson ’18, the last of the three Brandeis competitors in the saber event, barely advanced the next round. His 2-4 record earned him the 21st spot, the final spot in the pool.
Each of them picked up two wins in the semifinals but could not make the cut for finals. Wilson picked up a notable win against a Columbia University fencer. Columbia is the defending national champion in NCAAs.
Men’s fencing also saw two fencers reach the semifinals in the foil. Len Grazian ’17 and Elishua Litle ’18 secured the 17th and 19th place spots, respectively, after competition ended.
Finally, Hunter Stusnick ’18 posted the final men’s semifinal result in the epee competition. He advanced with a 4-2 record in the first round, but a 2-4 result could not push him into the finals. He had a notable win against a Columbia fencer in the first round, though the Columbia fencer would finish in sixth place over Stusnick’s 17th-place finish.
With no qualifiers for the NCAA national tournament, the NCAA Northeast Regional tournament finalized the season for the Judges. The relatively young women’s team will graduate three seniors before next season, including Sayles, Chaya Schapiro ’17 and Savannah Bishop ’17.
The men, with a significantly larger team than the women, will only graduate one senior, Grazian, going into the next season. The team looks to lean on its younger members to carry the team into the next season.
