Gantcher to host New England Fencing Championships

Having spent the entire season on the road up to this point, the Tufts women's fencing team is looking forward to hosting Saturday's New England Championships, and the chance to finally compete on its home turf.

The all-day event, which begins at 9 a.m., will take over Tufts' Gantcher Center. Roughly 180 athletes from across the region will converge to fight for the team title and to jockey for individual fencers' rankings as the NCAA National Fencing Championships approach.

Fourteen women's teams and 15 men's teams are scheduled to compete. On the women's side, MIT and, to a lesser extent Brandeis, are stacked with strong fencers, making them heavy favorites going into the team competition. Brown and Boston College should also finish near the top. Coach Jason Sachs estimated that Tufts is the favorite to take fifth after those squads, followed by Wellesley College. Tufts will aim to place between third and sixth.

"We're still a young team," Sachs said. "We need to be competitive and we need to continue to improve."

Tufts will certainly have its sights set firmly on Wellesley, a squad that dealt the Jumbos an unexpected and frustrating 14-13 loss two weeks ago at the New England Women's Fencing Conference (NEWFC) Championships. Prior to that meet, Tufts had defeated Wellesley twice earlier in the season.

"I think we have a certain score to settle," Sachs said. "So as long as we finish ahead of Wellesley, I'll probably be satisfied."

At the NEWFC Championships, Tufts rebounded from the Wellesley match and won its next four matches, to finish with a .500 conference record (5-5). Many schools from the NEWFC will be among those fencing at Gantcher this weekend.

With so many schools competing, it will be a long, exhausting meet for the fencers, both physically and mentally.

"The challenge is, you fence school after school, so if you lose some bouts, you just have to shake it off and keep your cool the whole day long," Sachs said. "It's about keeping your focus."

Several different titles will be up for grabs on Saturday. The meet will begin with team fencing in the morning, where each school will enter three athletes in the sabre competition, three in foil, and three in epee. The squad that amasses the best record across all three weapons will receive the overall team crown, but separate sabre, foil, and epee team titles will also be given out.

Of Tufts' three weapon squads, the sabrists have the most realistic shot at a team title. Tufts enters that competition as defending champions, but sophomore Katherine Zouein is the only returnee from a squad that Sachs said "destroyed everyone" last year.

Zouein won the individual sabre crown at the New England Championships last year and will fence in the "A" sabre slot, while her sister, freshman Louisa May Zouein is fresh off of a 38th-place finish at the Junior Olympics last weekend and will fence in the "B" slot. Freshman Tiffany Tran, though less-experienced and perhaps overshadowed by the Zoueins will provide strength and depth in the "C" slot.

Sachs predicted that Tran will win several bouts, but said that a win would depend most heavily on the Zouein sisters.

"Kat and Louisa would have to be perfect all day long," Sachs said.

The Tufts foil squad should also turn in some strong performances, and hopes to place well. Sophomore Julia Shih will fence in the "A" slot, which means that she will fight the top foilests from other teams, including left-handed fencers from MIT and Brandeis who will likely serve as her toughest bouts of the day.

"But Julia's hard to hit and she can surprise some people," Sachs said.

Sachs also sees senior foil captain Christina Zahara as a dark horse fencing in the "B" slot.

"I don't think anyone's really paying attention to Christina, so I think she could really come out and do well and surprise some people," Sachs said.

Tufts' epee team is its least experienced, so Sachs will be looking for some quality bouts and individual successes, as opposed to any sort of overall dominance or a high finish as a squad.

Freshman Lora Lingrey notched her first collegiate epee victory just last week, against Dartmouth at the NEWFC meet, and classmate Elisabeth Sibley is another new epeeist who has enjoyed some victories, but still lacks experience.

Senior epee captain Talia Alexander will fence in the "A" slot, and according to Sachs, her goal is to be among the top nine "A" epeeists, which would land her in the final pool of competition that determines individual championships after team bouts have been completed.

Shih and Zahara have a good shot at making the final pool of foilests, and both Zoueins should not only make the final sabre pool, but wind up at or near the top of the individual competition.

According to Sachs, Katherine Zouein stands a good chance of repeating as individual New England sabre champion, but she will probably run into some sibling competition.

"Louisa May will want to win it too," Sachs said. "Her sister's going to be pushing her. It'll be interesting to see how that plays out."