Fencers Duel to the End

The Yeshiva University Fencing team completed its season with a flourish on Sunday, March 1. Competing in the MACFA Championships at Stevens Tech in Hoboken, New Jersey, the Yeshiva team fenced nearly 150 bouts in a tournament that allowed for remarkable individual success stories.

In Foil, Shaun Azari, in his last MACFA championships of his career, led the charge for the team and dominated his opponents with potent parries and precise point control. Also fighting for Yeshiva in foil were Ami Small, Aryeh Lightstone, and Yevgeniy Pavlovskiy.

In Sabre, Yekutiel Sandman, YC'98, led the charge. With grit determination and superb fencing, Sandman powered his way to a 7-7 record, just enough to qualify for the medal round. Others fencing in sabre included Akiva Herzfeld, Zeev Neumeier, and Avraham Goldberg.

Epee had a strong showing from Steve Mellner, who started the tournament 0-2, but won 11 of his last 12 bouts, giving him a tie for first place in the C pool. However, based on total touches in the tournament, Mellner lost the tiebreaker and was eliminated from the medal round. Competing in the A pool was Hadar Weiss, and the B pool was Alex Traiman.

Although the season has ended for the fencing team as a whole, individual fencers on the team still have room to progress with the NCAA Championships and other tournaments right around the corner. Individual fencers at YU have strong hopes.

As for the team as a whole, although no honors were gained this year, next season the team should be better and more experienced. In fencing, it is practice and the actual competitions that often make the determining difference. For most of the season, the team was fencing with 4 rookies. However, in the fall, the Sabre quad will have 7 years experience among them while the Epee team will have 4 years experience under their belts. With their grueling practices, along with the expert tutelage of Assistant Coach Pete Rosas and Head Coach Arnie Messing, next year this team will be able to accomplish even more.