At the Garret Penn State Open this weekend, Penn men’s and women’s fencing knew they would take on some of the best teams in the country, such as OSU, Notre Dame, Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Penn State. And they came out strong.
Sophomore sabreuse Dana Kong tied for third in her weapon while senior captain Jason Chang finish third in foil.
Even though Penn men’s foil and women’s sabre had exceptional performances, individuals in all three weapons finished in the women’s 16, and the men had similar success. Freshman Stephanie Wolf placed fifth in epee and senior captain Sarah Parmacek placed seventh in foil.
“We have prepared since September in preseason training,” coach Andy Ma said. “This week really showed consistency and all of our hard work.”
The Red and Blue swept the competition in the early rounds and the starters ended in the top 16 as well.
After the team dual, the top eight records played in a Table of Eight in which five of Penn’s players placed within the top four: freshman Stephanie Wolf tied for third in epee, junior R.J. Ship placed second in epee, sophomore Isaac Buchwald tied for third in sabre, Chang tied for third in foil and freshman John Vaiani also tied for third in foil.
The season has started off pretty well for Penn fencing, and after a long break the team will get back to work.
“We need to do more conditioning … and focus on specific opponents,” Chang said “We’ll look at videos when we get [them] in order to [see what we can improve on].”
The Garret Penn State Open showed the Quakers where they stand individually. They will need to come back after the break and see how they can perform as a team.
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