Although their showing at the Feb. 24 New England Championships was not as favorable as they might have hoped, the members of the men's fencing club saw success this year, consistently matching their regular season opponents.
Despite the absence of junior foil star Dan Tovrov, who is abroad, the combination of strong veteran leadership and a significant contribution from the freshman class made for an impressive year.
When practices commenced in the fall, the team saw a crop of newcomers in addition to the team's returning members, which, considering the squad's limitations, boded well for the future.
"We're a club team, which means a couple things," senior epee captain Matt Deeg said. "We don't recruit good fencers. We take what we get, which is fine, but since it's a club sport, it forces people to go out and get lessons. It's hard because the learning curve is pretty steep. Not only do you have to physically figure out what you're doing, but you have to mentally figure it out."
Fortunately for the Jumbos, they retained what would become a strong class of freshmen for the season.
"We had two freshmen in the foil squad, and they both started for us this year," senior team president David Werth said. "They put in a lot of hard work. Sam [McCauley] came in with experience and Dan [Jamison] with a little less, but they both did a really great job. Also [freshman] James Gilchrist started out fencing foil and then switched to sabre. He started for us at the end of the year and adjusted very well."
After competing in an individual meet in November, the Jumbos defeated club rival UMass by a score of 14-13 and downed Boston University to conclude the semester at the season's first team meet. Later in the season, the team secured victories over Florida in a scrimmage and University of New Hampshire and Dartmouth a week later at home.
The Jumbos owe a large amount of their success to the practice hours they logged consistently throughout the season.
"Not all club teams, especially for fencing but even in other sports, practiced as hard as I think we did," Werth said. "Regardless of the results, it was a pretty phenomenal effort for everyone on the team. We practiced three or four times a week, which was really great."
"We're lucky," Deeg said. "Raw talent-wise, the people on the team at the beginning of this year came in with less talent than in some of the years past, but they more than made up for it with dedication. We worked really hard, and we were rewarded with extra attention from [coach Jason Sachs]. That was something we really took pride in. There's nowhere to go but up with these kinds of people."
At the end of the season, however, the unusual format at the New England Championships, in which A-, B-, and C-slot fencers only compete against other fencers from their slot during team play, may have caused the Jumbos to falter.
"For some reason, we just don't compete as well in that format," Deeg said. "It's disappointing, because individually, we're all great fencers. A lot of times, it's just really hard to place a fencer because a bunch of people are really close in level, especially in sabre and epee, so it's hard to say who should go in which slot."
McCauley's performance did provide a bright spot for the Jumbos, as he took fifth place in individual foil competition that day.
In addition to a solid regular season record, the Jumbos cite their growth as a team as another indication of this year's success.
"We kind of changed the culture of the team," sophomore sabre Nathaniel Teichman said. "Last year, we didn't have very good team chemistry, but we turned that around. We actually felt like a team this year as opposed to last year, and I'd say that was our number one achievement."
Just two weeks after its season's conclusion, the men's fencing club is already looking toward next year. Although the team will graduate three seniors and lose a couple of juniors to programs abroad, the team will look to its newest members to anchor its play and continue this season's success.
"We have a pretty young team for both the sabre and foil squads, so that's going to be really good for next year," Werth said. "They should both be very strong."
