BETHLEHEM, Pa. – This past Saturday, the Haverford College women's fencing team competed at the NCAA Division I Combined Regional Championship at Moravian College. Thirteen schools competed, including No. 3 Princeton, No. 7 Penn State, No. 9 Penn, and No. 10 Temple.
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 women's side for the regional competition.
Leila Braun earned the distinction of being Haverford's highest placing individual as she fenced her way to 20th in epee. The Fords' co-captain advanced to the second round and final 24 with a pair of 5-2 victories against Johns Hopkins' Celine Shanosky and North Carolina's Erin O'Neill. Braun also defeated Duke's Rita Somogyi by a 5-2 margin in the second round but did not make the cut to qualify for the semifinal rounds. Braun was joined by fellow co-captain Julie Petersen in the epee rounds. Petersen collected two victories off her opponents from Stevens Tech and Duke but fell just short of the cut line as she finished in 30th place.
Haverford had its full complement of fencers compete in the sabre bouts. Anna Neuheardt led that weapon squad with a 30th place finish. She went unbeaten against Division III fencers in her opening round with 5-1 victories against Stevens Tech's Karen Kong and Johns Hopkins' Nancy Kim. Elisabeth Hawthorne scored touches against each of her opponents and placed 34th overall, while Emily Brown nabbed the 36th place finish.
Alexandra Morrison was Haverford's lone representative in the foil bouts. Morrison recorded a win against Johns Hopkins' Rebecca Rosenthal and was just edged out by FDU's Anna Braun. She finished her season with a 31st place showing.