W. Fencing captures fifth place at IFAs

In the regular season, the Penn women's fencing team suffered devastating one-touch losses to both NYU and Rutgers. On Saturday, the Quakers got their revenge at the IFA championships, taking fifth in a very strong 14-team field, while placing ahead of both the Violets and the Scarlet Knights. The Red and Blue finished behind Princeton, Yale, St. John's and Columbia -- the same teams they could not overcome in the regular dual-meet season. Thus, the outcome of the tournament was somewhat expected. "We came in behind teams that beat us during the regular season -- it was a representative showing," Penn coach Dave Micahnik said. "I don't feel like we did badly, but I don't feel like we did wonderfully either." Leading the way for the Red and Blue was their strong foil squad, which combined to win 27 of 39 total bouts, placing fourth behind Ivy League rivals Princeton, Yale and Columbia. Freshman foilist Lauren Staudinger won 11 of her 13 bouts, putting her in second place in the A pool, while senior Margo Katz and freshman Stacey Wertlieb each won eight bouts and finished in fourth place in the B and C pool, respectively. "Relative to the field, the foilists did the best," Micahnik said. Penn's sabre squad also did very well, however. In the first year that women fenced sabre in the IFAs, the Quakers finished in sixth place, winning 21 total bouts. "The sabres came along. They're not as good as the best teams, but they haven't been fencing sabre that long," Micahnik said. "They did very well for us given a very difficult situation." For the sabres, freshman Christina Verigan and senior captain Heba Abdulla each won eight bouts, placing them fifth in the A and C pool, respectively, while sophomore Abby Lifter came in ninth place in the B pool. These results satisfied Penn's sabre fencers, as they know that they are still lacking in experience. "I think we did really well considering that a lot of squads have been training for a year or two," Verigan said. While Penn's sabres had the challenge of fencing more experienced opponents, the Quakers epeeists also faced stellar competition. The field was packed with proven champions and excellent fencers, including St. John's national epee champion Arlene Stevens, who was not even good enough to make the A pool. Stevens' teammate, Emese Takacs of Hungary, took the Red Storm's spot on the A strip. Nevertheless, the Quakers held their own, finishing in seventh place while coming away with 20 out of 39 bouts. Freshman epeeist Kim Linton came in sixth place, going 7-6 in the very tough A pool, while sophomore Mindy Nguyen came in 10th place, winning six of her 13 bouts in the B pool. Freshman Julia Blank and senior Sandra Yens won five and two bouts, respectively, on the C strip. Each fencers' performance was good enough to give them a top-third finish, a realistic goal set by Micahnik prior to the tournament. Nevertheless, the long-time fencing coach was still not satisfied with the results. "It was a pretty good tournament -- we were ahead of two-thirds of the field," Micahnik said. "But I'd like us to do better than that." After the team tournament on Saturday, the best fencers advanced to the individual tournament held the next day. For the Quakers, Staudinger, Katz, Verigan and Linton all competed on Sunday. However, only Staudinger was able to make it out of the first round, which was made up of two separate pools of six fencers. Staudinger advanced to the final pool of eight foilists, where she won four of her seven bouts, which was good enough to make her the fourth best foilist in the competition. Linton, Verigan and Katz combined to only win two bouts in the first round of the individual tournament. But this was against some of the best fencers in the country, and Verigan, for one, was happy with her results. "My goal was to make it to individuals and I did that," Verigan said. "I think that I came out of the meet with a lot more confidence, and I felt up to fencing A strip." However, putting records, victories and results aside, the tournament was a very emotional one as the Quakers said goodbye to their four seniors. "After the last bout, we were all hugging -- it's kind of sad that it's all over," Abdulla said. With the seniors departing, the strong corps of freshmen will be looked upon to step up for the Red and Blue. "We've established the tradition for them and now we're gone," said Abdulla, who won her final bout 5-1, in what could very well be the final bout of her Penn fencing career. With the Penn women's fencing team now done with their season, some individuals will look to continue to shine in the upcoming weeks. Penn State will host the Mid-Atlantic South Regional tournament this Sunday, and Penn will send any fencer who fenced in at least half of the meets, while winning in at least 50 percent of their total bouts. The following weekend, the Quakers will look to send some of their top fencers to the NCAAs at Stanford.

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