After winning the Ivy League and IFA championships in dominating fashion, the Penn fencing team entered the NCAA Regionals in an already enviable position.
And after maintaining its success at the Mid-Atlantic Regionals at Drew University on March 7, the squad's outlook was even better.
"There are a lot of teams who would give their left something-or-other to be where we are right now," coach Dave Micahnik said.
The Penn men's and women's fencing teams will send nine fencers in total to the NCAA Championships at Penn State this weekend after a strong showing at Regionals.
Jonathan Berkowsky finished first in sabre at Regionals, making the standout junior the highest-ranked sabre in the region.
"I was able to fence at the same speed all day due to good conditioning," Berkowsky said. "It ended up being one of the best days I had this season."
Five of the men's fencers, including Berkowsky, qualified for the NCAA Championships.
Freshmen foils Vidur Kapur and Zane Grodman will make their first appearances at the NCAA Championships after finishing seventh and twelfth, respectively, at Regionals. Grodman was an at-large selection, meaning that he did not receive an automatic bid after the competition.
Junior Andrew Bielen will join Berkowsky (who will make his second appearance) in sabre after finishing sixth in the region.
Senior captain Ben Wieder's seventh-place finish qualified him for his third NCAA Championships appearance.
Penn will also send four women to Championships.
At sabre, freshman Dominika Franciskowicz and sophomore Danielle Kamis finished fourth and fifth, respectively, at Regionals.
Standout freshman Laura Paragano finished second in foil. She and Stephanie Wheeler, the fourth-place finisher in epee, round out the women who will travel to Penn State.
"I think we did well to get nine people in," Micahnik said. "However, there were a couple disappointments."
Senior captain Ilana Sinkin, who was an All-American honorable mention last season, failed to qualify.
Sophomore Jake Wischnia also fell short of qualifying despite being named an at-large contender.
"Overall, we had a strong outing last week," Berkowsky said. "Now, though, we are looking forward to this week."
