BETHLEHEM, Pa. – This past Saturday, the Haverford College men's fencing team competed at the NCAA Division I Combined Regional Championship at Moravian College. Thirteen schools competed, including No. 1 Penn, No. 7 Princeton and No. 9 Duke.
The regionals are in an individual format, a series of four rounds where the fencers are grouped into pools, culminating in a final pool of 12, from which the top eight are selected to the nationals. Haverford was represented by six fencers on the men's side for the regional competition.
Haverford experienced its greatest success in sabre with freshmen David Parker and Gabriel Braun finishing in 18th and 19th place, respectively. Parker was able to battle his way to the semifinal round of 18. Both he and Braun were the highest placing Division III fencers in that weapon. No Division III fencer made it to the finals of any weapon.
Parker started his day with a 5-2 record in the opening round of sabre competition. In the second round, his victory over NJIT's Greg Puccio helped carry him into the semifinals. Braun tied for the best record at 6-1 overall in his first round of the regional, but placed second overall on touch differential to North Carolina's Turner Wibbelsmann despite defeating him 5-3 in their individual bout. Together, Parker and Braun topped all their opponents from JHU, Stevens Tech, and Drew. They also topped opponents from D1 UNC and NJIT.
Haverford was represented by all three fencers in the epee bouts. Eric Gardner, who earned an "at-large" seat at last year's regional championship, just missed the second round of competition with a fourth place showing in his first bouts. Gardner earned two victories and was credited with a 28th place finisher. Kailash Faris earned one victory in his first round and placed 34th overall. Jake Bassinder added a 35th place showing at the team's third qualifier.
Ian Wheeler was Haverford's lone representative in the foil. Wheeler won three bouts in his round. Those victories came against two fencers from North Carolina and another fencer from Duke. However, it was not enough to make the cut as he finished in 27th overall on the afternoon.