Ilana Sinkin's big smile and never-ending enthusiasm is the first observable thing that she brings to the Penn women's fencing team. However, her contribution definitely does not stop there.
She, along with the other freshmen on both the women's and men's squads, bring years of experience and numerous national rankings to Penn.
"The freshmen are very dedicated," sophomore Zoya Abdikulova said. "They come to practice everyday and work hard."
Sinkin has been fencing for ten years, although at first her parents weren't too crazy about the idea. After her older brothers began fencing though, Sinkin's parents relented. She still relishes trying to beat her brothers.
She has competed for the World Cup and also spent a summer in Israel fencing.
"Some people find it hard to adjust to a new team and coach, but the girls have been great here," Sinkin said.
Her teammate, Abby Emerson, is another premier fencer who has been at it for eight-and-a-half years.
Emerson is ranked fifth in the United States in the under-20 division and over the summer was 13th in the world in the same division.
Also joining the women's team this year are Cassandra Partyka, Ana Gutierrez-Colina and Kristen Hughes.
The men's side is equally strong.
Freshman Vincent Lee is an A-rated fencer, the highest national classification, and also finished third in the junior Olympics last year.
Sam Monk, a freshman from England, was a competitive swimmer for years. After missing the U.S. junior national swim team three years ago, he decided to try out something new.
He made it to U.S. nationals in fencing his very first year and has also competed and placed tenth in the British Nationals.
Monk is good friends with Ben Wieder. The two, who both trained in New Jersey, found each other to be good competition.
"We used to go at it for a half-hour straight," Monk said.
Wieder placed seventh in the Junior World Cup in 2004.
The other freshmen are Hal Emmer, Matthew Kolasa, Anders Eiremo and Mike Gibaldi.
Coach Dave Micahnik already knew that he had a strong crop of newcomers to his men's and women's squads. They proved just that this weekend at the Temple Open.
"It's pleasing, not surprising," Micahnik said.
Two freshmen won their respective events; Emerson the women's foil and Wieder the men's epee.
"It was great to get back into the swing of things because I haven't competed since July," Emmerson said.
Out of the over 70 fencers competing, Sinkin took seventh in the foil while Hughes took 13th in the epee and Gutierrez-Colina took 20th in the epee.
On the freshmen men's side, Lee performed well, placing 11th in the foil, though junior captain Mike Galligan thought Lee was capable of placing higher.
Kolasa placed second in the sabre and Emmer took ninth in the same event.
The veteran members of the team also put up a good showing.
The men boasted another division winner as sophomore Ron Berkowsky clinched the foil, while Galligan placed third.
On the women's side, Abdikulova tied for third in the foil, and junior Eve Overton took 10th.
"This is about as long and as tiring a day that we're going to see this year," Galligan said.
"And we gave almost a championship performance."
