Northwestern’s first half cannot be described in any other way than dominant. With fencers winning events at the USFA Burton Open and USFA Remenyik Open as well as having top 16 finishes at the USFA November North American Cup and the Garrett Open, the Wildcats looked poised for a successful 2012.

After not competing in an official tournament for more than a month and a half, the fencers showed no rust and continued their first-half success by going undefeated at the Western Invitational on Saturday.

“For an entire full day of work, it was extremely good and one of the best efforts I’ve seen,” coach Laurie Schiller said. “Four of the six teams were at the varsity level, and we really dominated each team.”

The event, which was held at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., featured seven different collegiate fencing teams at the club or NCAA Division I level. For NU, this was the first team competition the fencers have partaken in this season, as opposed to their early individual competitions.

“We fenced fantastically. I mean we only had a total of nine losses (in individual bouts) on the day, ” freshman epeeist Courtney Dumas said. “It was a great performance and a great start to our season.”

While the Wildcats’ first win of the day came about when Cal Tech had to forfeit with only four fencers, the Cats simply outperformed their other competitors, only dropping three bouts to the UC San Diego, two bouts to Air Force, Stanford and Florida, and sweeping Swarthmore.

Schiller said the best victories of the day came against Stanford and Air Force because they are both strong teams with powerful