The men and women’s fencing team showed off their skills in their first home event of the season, as the teams went for two medals against some of the nation’s top fencing competition.

The men’s foil squad looked to have the edge coming into the day with foilist Guillermo Navaerez ’18 ranked as the No. 1 seed. Narvaez was unable to live up to his rank and fell to eighth place in the final finishes. Foilist Len Grazian ’17 was able to battle past the competition to put on a bronze medallion after a seventh-place seed in the first pool. Grazian was placed in a tough situation, as he defeated teammate Narvaez 15-13 in the quarterfinals. 

Next on the men’s side was the epee event, which featured some of the toughest competitors of the day. The Judges’ lone top-10 finish came at the hands of epeeist Nick Clancey ’19. Clancey placed eighth on the day after coming in as the No. 20 seed. Epeeist Hunter Stusnick ’18 fell to 16th after entering the day as the No. 4 seed for the tournament. 

The men’s saber squad also had a tough go, with saberist Leon Rotenstein ’20 edging out the rest of the pool for a 10th-place finish. The first-year fell to senior saberist Alex Palabrica, the eventual silver medalist, in an intense 15-10 battle. 

The women had a similar fate in the foil event, with foilist Jessica Gets ’20 managing to slide into fifth place after a two-way tie at bronze podium. Foilist Joanne Carminucci ’19 also cracked the top 10 and matched her No. 8 seed with an eighth-place finish on the day. Gets was able to overcome her No. 10 seed ranking to give the Judges a respectable finish for the event. 

The epee event went much the same way, as epeeist Liz Feller ’18 posted a seventh-place finish. Feller was the only Judge to place inside the top 15 spots in the epee event, a competition which has plagued the Judges as of late. 

With no medals for the Judges, saberist Nina Sayles ’17 put the team on her back and barrelled her way through the competition for a silver medal. The rest of the saber team fell behind, with no other Judges coming in the top 15 finishes for that event. 

The Judges came away with one win and three losses to cap a respectable performance on their home court. 

The teams will continue at the  Western Invitational hosted by the California Institute of Technology on Jan. 15. 

The tournament will feature Stanford University, University of California, San Diego, Northwestern University and the United States Air Force Academy.