So far this season, Brandeis men’s fencing team hashad two meets. The first meet occurred on Oct. 28 in Northampton, Massachusetts. The second meet was this past Saturday at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Next up, the Judges will compete in the Brandeis Invitational on Dec. 2 and in the  Western Invitational on Jan. 13 in Colordo Springs.

Fall Collegiate Invitational 

Back on Oct. 28, Ian Quin ’20 was successful in defending his foil title at the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference Fall Invitational also known as "The Big One." Quin was one of 10 undefeated fencers in the preliminary competition. Quin won the gold medal and earned UAA athlete of the week. This honor is his fourth weekly honor from the UAA. This meet debuted the Judges head coach, Jennie Salmon.

Men's Foil

In the men’s foil, Tristan Barca-Hall ’21 placed sixth overall, and David Hui ’22 ranked ninth in the meet. The next Brandeis competitor, Jared Sugarman ’21, placed 13th in the meet, followed by Sam Chestna ’20 at 19th, Ryan Tsai ’22 at 22nd and Trevor Filseth ’20 at 29th out of a total of 79 competitors.

Men's Saber

In men’s saber, Alex Holtman ’21 tied both a Vassar College and a Boston College competitor, and Lucas Lin ’22 placed 10th. The next competitor for the Judges was Shawn Pyatetsky ’20 placing 15th, Charles Catino ’20 placing 18th, Slavin Mu ’20 placing 19th and Paul Sablone ’22 placing 46th out of a total of 83 competitors. 

Men's Epee

In men’s epee, the highest placing competitor for the Judges was Garrett Tordo ’21 at 14th place, followed by Nick Clancy ’19 at 15th place. The rest of the Judges followed after that with Chris Armstrong ’20 at 19th place, Harrison Kaish ’22 at 40th, Elliot Morgenstern ’22 at 45th, Leon Grinis ’22 at 53rd and Zachary Zhang ’22 at 67th, out of a total 79 competitors.

Northeast Fencing Conference

In the more recent match on Saturday, the men foiled their opponents in the Northeast Fencing Conference. During this meet, the team had three matches that were decided by one point. This match resulted in the men going 5–0. This was the opening of the teams 2018 to 2019 dual match season. Overall, Brandeis defeated Boston University 18–9, Sacred Heart University 17–10, University of Massachusetts Amherst 20–7, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 13–14 and University of New Hampshire 22– 5.

Men's Epee

In the epee division, Armstrong led the team to victory with a total of 10–3, as well as obtaining a winning record in four out of five of his matches. The squad was 4–1 in the epee division.

Men's Saber

In addition, Holtman won all eight of his matches of the day, giving him the top winning percentage. Just behind Holtman was Lin with 6–0. Both Leon Rothstein ’19 and Catino went 7–1 in the meet. 

Men's Foil

The foil was led by Quin who went 6 – 3, followed by Filseth and Sugarman each posting five total wins. The squad went 4–1 in the foil division of the meet.

In an interview with Quin, he explained that the team’s “top goals are to win conference for a third year in a row and to qualify some individuals for the NCAA Championship in March.” Quinn explained, that the team is most excited for their “two conference meets. We’re currently back to back champions and I’m ready to see if we can claim our third in a row. We’re also going to Colorado Springs in January for the Western Invitational so that’s definitely something I’m also looking forward to.” In addition to this, Quin elaborated, “Brandeis University will be hosting the annual Brandeis Invitational where the fencing team will showcase its skills against various other teams from across the country. These include: Yale, UNC, Cornell, NYU, and Brown. Please come out and support us as we’ll be there throughout the day!”

Looking forward, the Judges have many more meets in their 2018-19 season. Some of these  include the Brandeis Invitational on Dec. 2 hosted by Brandeis University, the Western Invitational on Jan. 13 hosted by the United States Air Force Academy, and the Northeast Conference Meet on Jan. 26 hosted by Brown University. The season will conclude in March at the NCAA Championships. The championship will take place in Cleveland, Ohio. The team has a total of eight meets between December and March, including the NCAA Championships.