Épée Caitlin Kozel '09 admitted she was worried about how she would fare against some of the nation's top fencers at the 112th Intercollegiate Fencing Association Championships, which were played at Brandeis last Saturday. Her first two bouts, both losses, did little to dissuade her doubt. But in the end, Kozel turned things around, winning seven of her nine remaining bouts to earn the third seed in the bracket of 16 épée fencers.

Kozel eventually earned a bronze medal, finishing in a tie for third with Yale University junior Rebecca Moss after falling to Columbia University rookie Neely Brandfield-Harvey 15-7 in the semifinals.

"I came into the meet thinking I might not win a single bout," Kozel said. "Before the meet, I looked at all the A-strip fencers I would be competing against. I was very intimidated, but I managed to do well."

Collectively, Brandeis finished sixth overall in the six-weapon team standings, which combined both men's and women's competition. The sixth-place finish was the best among Division III schools at the meet.

Individually, the women's and men's teams both finished seventh of 12 teams in the three-weapon team standings.

The top Brandeis weapon performances came in the men's foil and the women's épée, in which both squads took sixth place.

The University of Pennsylvania won the overall combined six-weapon championship and the men's title. No. 5 Columbia took the women's championship, becoming the first school to win all three weapons on the women's side. They placed ahead of second-place UPenn in foil and épée and tied with the Quakers for first place in saber.

For the Judges, coach Bill Shipman said he thought both the men's and women's teams fenced well but did not finish as strongly as he had hoped.

"The women's team did not perform to the best of their abilities, but they performed as well as we expected," he said. "Unfortunately, the men's team did not fence as well. They haven't fenced competitively in a few weeks, and that might have hurt them in their preparation."

Women's foil Jessica Newhall '09 was eighth place in pool play with a 5-6 record before losing 15-14 in the first round of the championships to ninth-seeded Princeton University rookie Rocky Rothenberg. After falling behind 13-7 in the bout, Newhall battled back to tie the score at 14 but lost the final point on what she said was a mental mistake.

"I was extremely exhausted and had a couple of cramps," Newhall said. "I gave away the match by continuing to remise against her, even though I knew it wasn't an effective strategy. I just let her get too many touches at the beginning of the bout."

Sabers Anna Hanley '11, who went 6-5 in pool play, and Alex Turner '11, who went 7-4, also contributed to the team's success, finishing sixth and 14th in the championship round, respectively.

"[Turner] fenced very well from the B strip and lost in the first round of the individual competition. It was still a great performance from a sophomore who has only been fencing saber for two years," captain and foil Jess Davis-Heim '09 said.

On the men's side, captain and foil Will Friedman '09 finished in 10th place in the championship round, falling in the first round of the individual competition despite being seeded fourth after pool play. Friedman lost 15-12 to Columbia University junior Issac Kim, who was the 13th seed.

"I dropped the ball," Friedman said. "I needed to be more responsive to the referee's calls. Against Kim, I should have used more second-intention actions and been more active instead of relying on my opponent to miss me."

Saber Adam Austin '11 had the highest finish among the men's fencers, finishing eighth in pool play despite only going 4-5. He reached the quarterfinals in the championship round where he fell to the No. 2 seed, rookie Peter Soudners of Boston College

"Austin is showing a lot more maturity and strategic skills on the strip. His confidence is growing, and he is starting to fence at a higher level. He has demonstrated a lot of improvement, and hopefully it will continue to show," Shipman said.

The Judges next compete in the NCAA Regional Championships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. this Sunday.