CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The men's fencing team traveled to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) this past weekend to compete in the annual Sollée Invitational, named for the famed MIT fencing coach Eric Sollée, whose methods are outlined in Olympic champion Johann Harmenberg's book Épée 2.0. 

 

Once again the Fords foil squad led all performances at the tourney, showing their depth and resilience with wins over Brandeis, NJIT, Boston College, and the host Engineers. Michael Pyo led all fencers with 10 wins, with Henry Fedonchik kicking in seven wins out of 10 for the best percentage on the team. The young squad of Pyo, Fedonchik, Andrew Strayer and Jax Wittenberg have gelled into a formidable force, their only losses on the day coming to Duke and Brown, book-ending the tournament. Together they defeated almost a dozen All-Americans, Junior Olympic finalists and Nationals medalists.

 

The epee squad pulled wins against NJIT and Brandeis, with great bouts fenced against all opponents. The 5-4 win over NJIT was especially gratifying, as the Fords had dropped that match-up by a 6-3 final just a week ago at the Philadelphia Invitational at Penn. For the first time this semester, the epee squad win tally was led by sophomore Vivek Veluvali, who was 8-6 on the day, and had wins against all schools except for Boston College, the strongest team at the tournament.

 

Ed Shin kept pace with a 7-7 showing, and Danny Carvalho chipped in two victories as well. The rookie-heavy sabre squad struggled for wins on the day, but showed great improvement in tactical decision making and in technical execution. Squad leader Neville Linden had the only sabre V, against NJIT, but the mental toughness of the squad attempting to learn on the fly was inspiring to both opponents and referees.

 

Olympian and referee John Freidberg was especially effusive over their potential, and praised their performance as "truly astounding, given their lack of experience."

 

The Fords have a welcome weekend off coming up, followed by a MACFA tournament at Johns Hopkins on Sunday, Feb 12.

 

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Men's Results