This weekend registered on both ends of the Penn fencing barometer. While the women's squad is on fire, the men have their work cut out for them.
"I think that our women's team has established that they are among the best around," coach Dave Micahnik said. "The men's team is a good team, but doesn't have much margin for error when you compete with the strongest teams."
The women won all four of their meets this weekend, including wins over powerhouse Northwestern and a ranked Temple squad.
Meanwhile, the men's team split its pair of meets, faltering against Rutgers but bouncing back with a convincing win over Johns Hopkins.
"We haven't beaten Northwestern since my freshmen year, so that was really exciting for the seniors on the team," senior captain Katelyn Sherry said. "A lot of the veterans did their job, and the freshmen really showed us what they can do."
The women's team pulled the upset over Northwestern with a gutty performance by the epee squad. After losing foil 7-2, but winning sabre 7-2, the epeeists pulled out a 6-3 victory.
Sherry concentrated on results.
"I think this weekend was great for our confidence - that we are capable to be really competitive against strong teams," Sherry said. "There is definitely still room for improvement, but it's tough to argue with wins across the board."
On the other hand, the depleted men's sabre squad cost the team a victory against Rutgers. The sabre squad lost 7-2, fencing without its top two fencers, freshman Andrew Bielen and sophomore Matthew Kolasa, who were competing at the Junior World Cup.
"I'm not sure whether or not the outcome for the day would have been different, but the experience Andrew Bielen and Matt Kolasa bring to the fencing strip is extraordinary, and having them here would have done us a tremendous amount of good," junior captain Ron Berkowsky said.
Although the men's team dropped sabre, the real surprise of the meet was that the foil team won by only a narrow margin - 5-4.
"We had to be able to compensate in epee and foil and we really couldn't quite pull that off," Micahnik said. "A freshmen foil fencer went 3-0 against us which is exasperating to put it mildly . pretty much nobody goes 3-0 against us."
Looking ahead, the road does not get any easier for either of the teams.
"We . must acknowledge that the schools we have fenced this year will be nothing compared to the depth and prestige of the Ivy League schools," Berkowsky said. "We need to keep individually preparing for our hardest bouts to come."
The men and women fared differently, but with two meets until Ivy play, both will continue to find out just what they are capable of accomplishing.
