Both the Dartmouth men's and women's fencing teams continued their dramatic three-year improvement at the New England Championships last weekend, boding well for the teams' futures.
Eleventh, seventh and now third, the Dartmouth men's fencing team has climbed the New England Championship rankings each of the last three years. Saturday, behind strong performances in all three disciplines, epee, sabre, and foil, the team finished third behind Boston College and MIT. Since the team has no seniors, it is not unlikely that it could win the Championship next year.
The Championships brought fencers from 13 schools. Dartmouth finished in a second-place tie with MIT, each tallying 49 victories, two less than Boston College. The tie was broken by the number of touches scored during the individual bouts.
The team was closer to a first-place finish than the two-bout differential implies. "Pretty much two touches separated us from first," co-Captain Patrick Craven '97 said. If not for a few losses in close bouts, the team might well have won the event.
All the Dartmouth fencers turned in strong performances, lead by epeeist Zach Stein '96, who went 10-2 in the round robin competition. Stein's performance secured him the best overall record in group A and earned him a place in the individual finals, where he finished fourth.
Stein, together with co-Captain Matt Richardson '96 led Dartmouth's epee team to finish the season top ranked among Northeastern club teams.
Both members of Dartmouth's sabre team also made the individual finals. Ben Herman '96 finished third in the finals after posting a 9-3 record in group A team competition. Teammate Victor Shafor '98 ripped through group B with an 11-1 record, and finished sixth individually.
Brian Kim '97 and Craven competed in the foil for Dartmouth, and posted a total of 14 victories for the team.
The Dartmouth women's team also continued to improve its performance at the Championships. After placing 11th last year, the women moved up seventh place in this year's event.
Captain Bethany Marston '97 said the meet represented a "vast improvement" over last year, and hopes that with more experience the team will continue its improvement next year.
While no member of the women's team made the individual finals, a consistent team effort lead to the seventh place finish. The foil team finished seventh, while the epee team finished eighth. The epee team's performance was all the more impressive since a misunderstanding of the meet rules caused the team to be one competitor short.
Overall Marston said the team was "pretty happy with the final placings."
