PHILADELPHIA - This past Sunday, November 5, the Haverford men's fencing team opened their competitive season at the former Temple Open, now called the Dr. Nikki Franke Classic, in honor of the winningest coach of all time at Temple, who retired last season after 50 yearsa at the helm of the Owls. Fencers from all over the country participated, from Boston College down to the University of Florida, and out to Penn State.
The Fords had their first Temple finalist in five years, as first-year phenomenon Eric Chen put on an acrobatic, athletic, and impressive performance in the Epee, placing fifth. Chen struggled in the first elimination pool round, with only one win, but squeaked into the seeding round. He righted the ship then, with an impressive undefeated run against opponents from Penn, Stevens, NYU, and Hopkins. Seeded second into the DE tableau, Chen continued his tear against Navy's Marceau Caytan and NYU's Nicholas Wong before losing in the round of eight to the eventual gold medalist, Ethan Insler from Hopkins.
Fellow epeeist and Team Co-Captain, Daniel Carvalho, fenced impressively as he eliminated Penn's Dennis Fleysch in the first DE before also dropping to Johns Hopkins' Gabe Insler, placing 31. The rest of the epee squad struggled in the first elimination pool but flourished in the consolation round, where epeeists Kenji Gullo (60), Jacob Fink (64), Raphael Yamamoto (56), and Jack Lesher (72) all got wins.
The sabrists were led by senior Lucas Winkler, who placed 19th after a heartbreaking 14-15 loss to Hopkins' Leonid Kotov. Winkler had gone undefeated in the seeding pool, with wins against BC, Stevens Tech, Florida, and Navy. Co-Captain Jack Greff proved his mettle with a 28th place finish, fueled by seeding round wins against fencers from Boston College, Johns Hopkins, and Florida. Greff's first-ever DE was a win against Florida, before he dropped to BC's Rivera. Fellow sabrists Neville Linden and Deep Patel managed to win enough in the pools to make the DE's, placing 47th and 51st, respectively, while first-year Prem Bhatt got wins in the consolation round.
Foilist Michael Pyo had a brush with greatness, pulling a comeback win after being down by as many as three touches, in his second DE against Hopkins' Yi Peng Sha, to win 15-11. Pyo placed 13th after dropping his round of 16 bout, just barely, to Penn State's Spencer Burke. Ford Henry Fedonchik placed a respectable 19th, with a DE win against Drexel's Rahman before dropping to Hopkins' Alan Zheng. Andrew Strayer also had a solid DE win against Stevens' Marran and a tough loss to Penn's Eric You. Rounding out the solid foil results was Henry Bishop with a 33rd placement; all the foilists had wins in the seeding pools and advanced to the direct eliminations.
The Fords will next compete at the Vassar Invitational, held next Sunday in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.. Haverford will face eight other teams there, including the host Brewers, as well as Hunter, Cornell, Yale, Drew, Sacred Heart, Wagner, and Denison.