Women fencers look to qualify for NCAAs

At Regionals, the Quakers look to improve on last year's performance, when only one fencer qualified. While many of you can not wait to go home and began relaxing this weekend, the Penn women's fencing team is getting ready for its most important tournament of the entire season. Tomorrow in Haverford, N.J., the Quakers will be participating in the regional tournament. The importance of the regional tournament for Penn is two-fold. First, this is the last showing the fencers will have before the tournament selection committee decides which individual fencers will go on to the NCAA Championships March 20 at the Air Force Academy in Boulder, Colo. In the same manner in which a selection committee decides which team will go on to the NCAA basketball championships, there is no exact formula for how fencers are chosen. The selection process is supposed to be based primarily on a fencer's overall performance throughout the year, the strength of the team's schedule, and finally the ranking at the regional tournament. While each determinant is supposed to carry the same weight, performance at the regional tournament ultimately counts for about half of the decision in the committee's mind. Secondly, the tournament is important because last year Penn was unable to attend the regional qualifying because it was on the same weekend as the Intercollegiate Fencing Association Championships, a tournament the Quakers participated in last weekend. Penn opted to attend the IFA Championships. "When I had to decide which tournament to attend, I decided we would go to the IFA because of its over hundred year tradition," Penn coach Dave Micahnik said. "I had to hope that the committee would still consider our players equally even though we didn't attend the regional tournament." The only player selected from last year's squad was former captain Sarah Johns, who graduated after the season. This year, however, Penn is sending seven fencers with the hopes of making a strong enough showing to qualify for the NCAA Championships. Fencing for the Quakers in the foil portion of the tournament will be freshman Margo Katz, sophomore Agnieska Gromulska and junior Cynthia Kwan. After last week's solid team finish of sixth place, the members of the foil team look to place individually in the top seven if they are going to have any chance of making it to the NCAAs. Competing for the epee squad, Penn will go with the same four fencers from last week's fifth-place finish. The fencers include senior captain Elizabeth Cornfield, sophomore Meredith Galto, junior Olivia Leon and junior Emily Cho. Galto is hoping to continue her solid fencing from last week when she qualified for the individual championships of the IFA tournament. This week's tournament should provide a tense and exciting atmosphere as the fencers from schools along the East coast attempt to qualify and solidify their place in the NCAA Championships in two weeks.