PRINCETON, N.J. - On Saturday, March 10, six of Haverford's qualifiers to the NCAA Division I Regional Championships capped their seasons by taking on the best in the nation from Penn State, Princeton, Duke and other powerhouse programs in what is widely considered the most cutthroat tournament in collegiate fencing.  

For the women's team, EWFC Champion Golda Glasser represented the foil squad, and Aamina Dhar and Rebecca Osbaldeston fenced sabre. In the first round, Glasser scored touches in all 5 bouts, but was unable to secure a victory and did not advance, placing 34th overall. Osbaldeston, likewise, placed 34th after fighting valiantly but to no avail.  Dhar, however, was able to overcome early jitters and emphatically earn victories over Lafayette's Carolyn Fiegeles and Penn's Hailie Lu. Those wins promoted her just above the cutoff line, placing her in the top 24 and officially into "The Big Time"- the play-in round of the top 12 seeds in the Region. 

 

The only Division II fencer in her second round pool, Dhar's best bouts were against Penn State's Aleksandra Strzalkowski and Temple's Emma Pincus, hanging with them to the end of 3-5 losses. She did manage touches against all her opponents, but she wasn't promoted further and finished a respectable 24th place, the highest for the women's team since 2018. The overall winner of the women's sabre competition was Princeton's Maia Chamberlain, while the foil was won by Princeton's other Maia, Philadelphia's own Maia Weintraub. Penn's Vanessa Dib prevented the Princeton trifecta, edging the Tigers' Lola Constantino into silver in the epee.

On the men's side, the best performance of the day came from captain Nick Conroy, who banged out 5-3 wins over UNC's Alec Mullaney and Johns Hopkins's David Descherer. His best bout was actually a 4-5 loss to Penn State's Mullennix, who eventually placed 9th. Conroy just missed the cutoff into the second round, and finished in 26th place overall. Sabre teammate Lucas Winkler had three 4-5 losses but secured no wins, and finished 32nd.

 

Representing the foil squad at the NCAA's was first-year Jackson Wittenberg, who secured a win over Conference rival Noah Erlich from Stevens, but close 4-5 losses to Penn's Jerry Wu and Lafayette's Amir Whitehead, among others, sealed Wittenberg's fate as a first-rounder, placing him 31st overall. Princeton's Mohamed Hamza won the foil overall, while the sabre crown was claimed by Penn State's Clement Perrier, and epee by Penn's Emon Daroian.

 

The Haverford men's and women's fencing teams move on to other pursuits for now, and will reconvene in October to commence the 2022-23 season campaign.