Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Fencing: Cats depth leads to hot start, but latest outing shows work remains

In an otherwise successful season, the Wildcats received mixed results in their last meet.

Facing some of the best teams college fencing has to offer, including Temple, Duke, Notre Dame and defending national champion Penn State, Northwestern had 13 top-20 finishers at the Penn State Open but was unable to place anyone in the top five of their respective weapons.

The epée team came closest, with senior Christa French coming in sixth and freshman Kate Cavanaugh finishing seventh. Senior Meredith Baskies and sophomore Devynn Patterson came in eighth and ninth, respectively, in foil. Freshman Chloe Grainger led the sabre squad, placing 14th.

“We use it as a teaching tournament,” coach Laurie Schiller said. “We get there, we see what they do, and we sit down and say, ‘We’ve got this work to do because come January and February, that’s the meat of the season.'”

NU got its season off to a dominant start at the Burton, a United States Fencing Association exhibition tournament open to all fencers. The Cats took home the gold medal in all three weapons.

They nearly did the same at the USFA Remenyik Open, with senior Joanna Niklinska winning the gold in epée and freshman Alicia Gurrieri taking gold in sabre. Freshman Dayana Sarkisova came up just short in foil, finishing second.

On Nov. 1, the Cats hosted the USFA Illinois Junior Olympics Qualifier at Patten Gymnasium. Four NU fencers qualified at the event, joining the nine who were already eligible. The Junior Olympics will take place next month in Memphis, Tenn.

The Cats’ next event was the Junior North American Cup, where they got a strong effort from their foil squad. Patterson finished eighth, freshman Dayana Sarkisova finished 19th and sophomore Camille Provencal finished 25th out of 122 competitors.

After the Junior North American Cup, NU began team play at the Stanford Duals, winning all four of its matches. The first one proved to be the toughest, as the epée squad lost six of nine points to host Stanford, but the foil and sabre squads were able to pick up the slack and lead the Cats to a 19-8 victory.

The competition got easier after that, as NU beat Detroit-Mercy and California Tech 27-0 and routed UC San Diego 23-4. The epée squad went 26-1 in the final three matches.

“We ended strong,” senior epée captain Kayley French said. “In the first bout, maybe we weren’t focused or we weren’t quite ready, but we learned from it and are ready for the bouts to come this year.”

Most encouraging for the Cats was the performance of their sabre squad, previously considered the team’s weak spot. The group left Stanford with a 32-4 record, led by Grainger’s perfect 10-0 mark in her collegiate dual debut.

“We had strong sabre squads in the past, but we now have two really dynamite freshmen who come in and help challenge us at practice,” senior sabre captain Whitney White said. “That has helped give our squad more confidence.”

With a promising pool of young talent and a strong senior class, NU has many quality fencers.

“This is the strongest team we may ever have had in terms of depth,” Schiller said. “We could start any number of people, especially in epée and foil, and whip nearly anybody.”

Schiller now has 993 victories, with a chance to add to that total when the Cats fence in the Penn Duals on Saturday. NU will play six matches at Penn, meaning Schiller could end the weekend just one shy of the 1,000-win milestone.[email protected]

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Fencing: Cats depth leads to hot start, but latest outing shows work remains