SEASON REVIEW: M. Fencers excel in NCAAs

A successful postseason run can often negate a sub-par season. Just ask the Penn men's fencing team. The Quakers (11-5, 2-4 Ivy League) finished a disappointing fourth in the Ancient Eight regular-season play. But Penn quickly made up for its regular-season woes with a solid performance at the Regionals and into the NCAA tournament. At the Regionals, both the sabre and the foil teams took second to qualify for the NCAAs, while the epee team failed to qualify. Individually, the Quakers were also successful. For the sabre team, sophomore sensation George Kalmar took fifth while senior captain Evan Glanz finished eighth. "The Regionals went very well," Glanz said. "We had some good results, both on the team and individual levels." As for the epees, freshman Alex Edelman, coming off a stellar championship performance at the IFAs, won the entire tournament to become Penn's only epee fencer to appear in the NCAA tournament. "It was great to go to the tournament," Edelman said. "I was proud of winning both the IFAs and the Regionals." Heading into fencing's March Madness, the Quakers were riding a tide of considerable success, bolstering their regular-season record with a plethora of impressive postseason victories. "We fenced well in the postseason," Glanz said. "We were ready for the NCAA tournament." At the tournament, Penn met with varying results. The sabre team reached the Final Four, losing in the national semifinals to Penn State. "We should have and could have beaten Penn State," Glanz said. "It's frustrating because we would have liked to face [eventual-champion] Yale in the finals." "We had the ability to beat Yale for the national championship," Glanz said. "Unfortunately, we lost to PSU." After the disappointing loss, the sabre unit steamrolled Notre Dame to finish No. 3 in the country. Glanz, in his final collegiate fencing appearance, placed seventh in the nation and was selected as a second-team all-America. "It was a great way to end my career," Glanz said. "It's nice to be back on the all-America team again." Kalmar, too, was phenomenal, winning the bronze as the country's third best sabre fencer. Following the NCAAs, Kalmar was selected as a first team all-America. The rest of the Penn squad, however, did not fare as well. Edelman lost fairly early in the competition, and though he was disappointed, he was proud of his season. "I did not do as well as I had hoped," Edelman said. "But there were only two freshmen at the NCAAs. My main goal for the season was to make the tournament, and I accomplished that." Overall, the Quakers finished their season on a relatively high note. They did not fence extraordinarily well during the regular season, but two of the squads recovered to make a run in the postseason. Though they failed to meet coach Dave Micahnik's preseason expectations of qualifying all three squads for the NCAAs, the Quakers performed consistently throughout the season and stepped it up a notch in the postseason. "Considering where we stood at the beginning of the season, it was a good year," said Glanz, the only departing fencer. "We have a lot of young talent, and everyone learned a lot this year." That bodes well for next year. With Edelman and Kalmar, the two most successful Quakers this year, returning along with a host of others, Penn should be poised for another postseason run next year.