Penn fencer Zane Grodman accomplished an amazing feat yesterday. The freshman foil defeated Columbia's All-American Kurt Getz in 30 seconds by a score of 5-0.
"He set an incredible tone for the match," coach Dave Micahnik said. "We went on to defeat Columbia for the first time in the last 10 years."
The men's fencing squad had a flawless performance at yesterday's Ivy League Round Robin at Columbia. The Quakers went 3-0 on the day, defeating Columbia, Princeton, and Brown.
In their first match against Columbia, the Quakers swept all three categories - sabre, 6-3, foil, 7-2, and epee, 5-4 - in a convincing 18-9 victory.
"Everybody stepped up when they had to," junior sabre Jonathan Berkowsky said. "Our three freshman foil starters pumped the whole team up."
In the next round, Penn fenced Princeton and won 15-12. The Penn sabre team of Berkowsky, Anders Eiremo, and Andrew Bielen destroyed the Tigers by a combined score of 8-1.
"Given that we only had 15 wins in total, the domination by sabre was the key to defeating Princeton," Micahnik said.
The Quakers defeated Brown, 21-6, led by an epee squad that shut the Bears out, 9-0.
At 3-0 in conference competition, Penn (15-0 overall) sits atop the Ivy League standings. The Quakers have only two matches - against Harvard and Yale on Feb. 22 at Brown - left in their Ancient Eight schedule.
"We haven't won an Ivy League championship in a while," Micahnik said. "Winning one of the next two guarantees us at least a share of the title."
Currently, the Quakers are ranked No. 7 in the country and probably will move past No. 3 Columbia after yesterday's victory, which kept Penn undefeated this season.
"I'm really proud of how our team did," Berkowsky said. "It shows in our record."
"We have a good shot," Micahnik said of the Ivy crown.
Things did not go as well for the women's fencing team, which went 1-2, defeating Brown but losing to Princeton and Columbia.
The sabre team was inconsistent. Against Princeton, sabre went 7-2, led by freshman Dominika Franciskowicz's 3-0 mark. When the Quakers fenced Columbia, sabre went 2-7, as Franciskowicz lost all three bouts she fought.
"We started off very strongly against Columbia," sophomore sabre Danielle Kamis said. "We died down towards the end of the match."
On the positive side, Penn defeated Brown easily by a score of 23-4.
Despite some subpar performances, Penn is focused on the rest of the season and will put today's losses in the past.
"We have to think about our next match and not dwell on the past," Kamis said.
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