By Pritish BehuriaThe Daily Northwestern
Freshman Ameesha Sampat wasn’t expecting to participate in this weekend’s Junior Olympics Qualifiers, but it turned out to be a decision she wouldn’t regret.
“I was really pleased I ended up fencing,” Sampat said. “I hadn’t practiced this entire break and wasn’t expecting it.”
Sampat, along with sophomore Adrienne Shon and freshman Whitney White finished in the top three of their events to qualify for the National Junior Olympics.
The Junior Olympics will be held on President’s Day weekend this year.
“I was very pleased with their performance,” coach Laurie Schiller said. “The other kids were mostly beginners and they gave it a shot and you can’t ask for much more than that.”
The National Junior Olympics event consists of two categories for the three weapons: Under-20 and Under-17. Three out of the eight Wildcats who participated in this weekend’s competition were successful in qualifying for the next round. Though it may seem like NU fielded a depleted team, eight fencers had already qualified through a different US fencing division.
Sampat joined freshman Meredith Baskies and sophomore Sam Nemecek as qualifiers in the Under-20 women’s foil division, while Shon and White joined freshman Alice Weinert as qualifiers in the Under-20 women’s sabre division. In the epee division, freshmen Sarah Henning, Christa French, Kayley French, Joanna Niklinska and sophomore Megan Ross had already qualified through other fencing divisions.
The sabre section was exciting for the Cats with three fencers finishing in the final four. Shon finished first in the section. The final qualifying spot was down to a bout between White and freshman Allison Keller, which was eventually won by White.
“It was really sad for Allie and I’m just sorry there weren’t enough qualifying spots.” Schiller said.
Sampat, who only participated in the event because Weinert had already qualified, had a very successful pool section finishing first.
In the end, she managed to just scrape through by placing third in the foil division.
“She did a great job and fenced very hard,” White said of Sampat. “She’s very determined and she’ll do really well for the team.”
For those that did fence over the weekend, it was a vital chance to get some fencing in ahead of NU’s next duals meet in two weeks.
“It was good to come straight from the break into an event like this,” White said. “The event should help us prepare for other events ahead.”
Reach Pritish Behuria at [email protected].
