Men's Fencing duels against its own at Temple Open

Andy Radu predicted an all-Penn foil final between himself and teammate Jeff Breen at the Temple Open this past Sunday.

He was right -- mostly.

It was an all-Penn final, and Jeff Breen did make it to the last round, but Radu was knocked out by teammate Stephen Gavalas in the quarterfinals.

The match between Gavalas and Radu was one of the closest of the entire tournament, with Gavalas beating his teammate by the slightest of margins, 15-13, after jumping out to an early 4-0 lead.

"It was Steve's best overall foil fencing since coming here to Penn," Penn coach Dave Micahnik said. "He was right on his timing and right on his footwork."

Still, Gavalas' victory over Radu came as a surprise to many.

"We've been fencing together for six years and I've always beaten him," Radu said. "I guess the frustration built up, made him stronger, and made him train harder.

"Nevertheless, I'm seriously happy for Steve and Jeff."

Micahnik was also surprised.

"Andy doesn't lose to [Steve] a whole lot," he said.

Despite his upset of Radu, who finished sixth overall, Gavalas wasn't able to upset his other teammate Breen. Breen handily won 15-8.

Even though he won, more will be expected of Breen in coming months.

"[Breen] is capable of much more," Micahnik said. "He wasn't at his peak."

Perhaps the reason why Breen wasn't playing his best game is that he's also in the midst of studying for the LSATs and applying to law school.

"It's tough," Breen said. "I'm trying to get into the best law school I can, but I also want to be the best fencer I can."

Despite taking the gold medal, Breen is the first to point out that the competition he faced wasn't the best he will face all year.

"It's never the toughest meet around," he said. "You take this win with a grain of salt."

"It's a joke," senior epee fencer Dan Borden said. "There are maybe four or five good fencers in the whole field."

Borden laughed his way through the competition in the epee tournament, all the way to a gold medal. Nevertheless, he too had to defeat another Quaker in the finals, freshman Michael Sanders, by a score of 15-8.

"We always joked about meeting each other in the finals, but we never expected it," Borden said.

Micahnik was pleased with the results of both of these epee fencers.

"Dan had a real good day," he said. "I've really never seen him fence with such confidence. It's not shocking he won. Mike fenced great too. He didn't have a close bout all day until he met Dan in the finals."

Borden himself was very impressed with Sanders' showing.

"He's a very young freshman phenom," he said.

"Mike Sanders is a super freshman," Breen added.

The best Penn sabre finish was by freshman Mark Kindrachuk, who placed fifth in the competition.

"I would have liked him to do better," Micahnik said, "but, for a freshman, it's still damn good."

Other Penn fencers who competed were freshman Jonathan Press (20th place foil), sophomore Chungxing Mah (15th place epee), freshman Ari Paul (25th place epee), and freshman William Caulin (17th place sabre).

Overall, the entire Penn squad dominated the meet, despite not bringing their best fencers.

Penn senior Yale Cohen did not compete in the weekend's events, although he will no doubt contribute greatly to the squad in meets to come.

The Quakers' next meet doesn't occur until January, when the Red and Blue are scheduled for an alumni showdown.

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