BALTIMORE, Md. – The Haverford College men's fencing team went 5-1 at the MACFA "A" vs. "C" bouts on Sunday afternoon. Coupled with the team's unblemished results back in December during the MACFA "C" round robin, the Fords are now 8-1 overall against MACFA foes heading into the final weekend of the regular season.
Haverford's day featured a sweep of all three weapons against TCNJ while victories from both the foil (5-1 overall squad record) and sabre (4-2 overall) squads lifted the team to victory against Rutgers, Cornell, and Rowan. The Fords' epeeists had a number of tough battles throughout the day, but came up huge with a 9-0 showing against Lafayette to solidify that 17-10 team win during the back-and-forth battle with the Leopards. The Fords' lone defeat came in round three against Drew as the Rangers pulled out narrow victories despite hard-fought battles from each squad.
With just three foil fencers for the entirety of the Sunday's competition, each member of that trio posted a winning record to pace Haverford's strong results. Co-captain Alton Wiggers led all Haverford fencers with a 15-3 record while Carter Langen registered a 14-4 overall mark. Both Wiggers and Langen went unbeaten against Rutgers, Rowan, and TCNJ. William Moore also racked up a double-digit win total with 10 victories. Moore joined his squad's perfect marks over the final two rounds while coming up with two more crucial victories against Rutgers to help foil save the win during the opening round.
Edward Shin (epee) and John Hare (sabre) made it five fencers with double figure win totals, finishing with 11 and 10, respectively. Hare went 10-3 overall to lead Haverford's sabrists and was a perfect 6-0 during the Fords' closest bouts of the day against Drew and Cornell. Neville Linden added eight more victories over his 11 bouts, closing his day with a 7-2 record during the final three rounds. Nicholas Conroy won bouts during each of the four rounds he was in the lineup on his way to a 7-5 record while Kagan Harris concluded his day with four victories during the final two rounds. Aaron Xu also got into the winning act with a key bout win during the squad victory against TCNJ.
In addition to Shin's 11 victories against just two defeats, Haverford's epee squad boasted at least three wins from each of its squad members. Adrian Velonis joined Shin in rising to the occasion with three huge wins against Lafayette while also tallying two victories against Rowan and TCNJ as he finished his afternoon with eight total victories. Co-captain Kadan Lottick registered a 6-5 winning record which featured another sweep against Lafayette. Jack Crump and Raynor Bond-Ashpole both contributed three wins to the squad's efforts.
Men's fencing will wrap up MACFA regular season action this coming Sunday, February 16 as the Fords head to NJIT for the "B" vs. "C" bouts. After concluding regular season action, Haverford will have a week off before championship season gets underway with the MACFA Championship on Sunday, March 1 hosted by Drew.
Full team scores
Haverford 16, Rutgers 11
Epee: 3-6
Foil: 8-1
Sabre: 5-4
Haverford 17, Lafayette 10
Epee: 9-0
Foil: 5-4
Sabre: 3-6
Drew 16, Haverford 11
Epee: 5-4
Foil: 6-3
Sabre: 5-4
Haverford 15, Cornell 12
Epee: 3-6
Foil: 5-4
Sabre: 7-2
Haverford 18, Rowan 9
Epee: 4-5
Foil: 9-0
Sabre: 5-4
Haverford 23, TCNJ 4
Epee: 8-1
Foil: 9-0
Sabre: 6-3