The Northwestern fencing team rarely faces teams from the East and West coasts.
This weekend at the NU Duals, however, everyone meets in the middle.
“Outside of NCAAs, this is the biggest collegiate event in the country,” assistant coach Ed Kaihatsu said. “I haven’t heard of anybody having this many schools before.”
All in all, 15 teams from across the nation will descend on Patten Gym today to face off against each other.
For many schools, it’ll be the only time all year they see a team from outside their region. Travel is not a word often heard in fencing, as most teams play those near them.
“For California State Fullerton, this is their whole season,” Kaihatsu said. “I don’t know how they made it here.”
In addition to Cal State Fullerton, the Wildcats will host Temple, Florida, Johns Hopkins, Hollins (Va.), Ohio State, Michigan State, Fairleigh Dickinson (N.J.), North Carolina, James Madison (Va.), Lawrence (Wisc.), Wayne State (Mich.), Michigan and the University of Chicago.
With such a variety of teams comes a variety of styles — and some may seem a little different than what NU is used to.
“Some schools don’t have team practice,” Kaihatsu said. “I can’t imagine what they do.”
While the schools that don’t practice are not a big concern for the Cats, there will be a couple of teams who can give NU all it can handle: North Carolina and Temple.
Last year the Cats beat both schools, but only by a score of 15-12 in each match.
“East Coast fencing has been dominant for as long as I can remember,” Kaihatsu said. “When they come here they don’t know what to expect. We get up for it. We feel we can match any East Coast team.”
The Cats will have a chance to back up Kaihatsu’s claim, but NU will have to fence with the same confidence it had last season when it went 35-1 and finished sixth in the NCAA tournament.
That may be difficult — this weekend’s tournament will be the first real test for the Cats. Their only previous team bout was in October at Ohio State, where they went 5-0.
NU has also had four United States Fencing Association events, the Big Ten Invitational and the Illinois Junior Olympics — but those don’t match the intensity of the team events, Kaihatsu said.
“When you’re out there, your team has nothing better to do but watch you and cheer you on,” Kaihatsu said. “For team events this place could go crazy.”
Crazy may be an understatement. A new rule that allows coaching from the sidelines will just add to the noise during a bout.
But if the Cats can focus with the country coming down around them, they have a chance to duplicate their undefeated showing at last year’s NU Duals — a performance that launched a run of 18 victories.
“This is pretty much our first look at what they are going to be like,” Kaihatsu said. “I’m hoping they’ll still have the confidence to beat every single team coming in this weekend.”
