Fencing MACS Enjoy Impressive Start Of New Semester

by Simon Landsman

The past two Sundays, on February 6 and 13th, the Yeshiva Macs fencing team travelled to two schools for the beginning of the second half of their season. The first weekend was spent in Boston, Mass., for a tournament hosted by Brandeis University. Much like the Baltimore trip of last semester, the team spent shabbat with families in the Brookline community. This was both needed and appreciated due to the long trip and the requirement to be in Waltham the next morning, at early hours.

Saturday night, the team had time to relax and roam around; and roam they did. Some took advantage of the trolley system and ventured throughout Boston and her surrounding areas of Harvard Square, Cambridge, and Copley.

At Brandeis on Sunday, the Macs went up against the toughest competition of the season thus far. The team faced Brown University, Brandeis University, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Boston College. These teams represent a few of the best teams in the northeast.

The foil squad put up an excellent fight of fleshing somersault to damper their opponents. With a broken blade flying, the sabre squad too fought the good fight without the aide of a teammate, Greg Samuels. The epee' squad came out strong as before with starter fencers Steve Mellner and Alex Traiman holding astonishing records of 7-5 each. The team went up with the purpose of raising individual records to qualify for the MACFA conference and NCAA championships next month.

This past Sunday February 13th, the Macs drove to NJIT (New Jersey Institute of Technology) to fence both NJIT and Drew University. The squads took apart the opposing teams, showing their rightful place in the upper tier of the conference. They defeated NJIT 23-4, but lost at a close match 14-13 to Drew. The team plans to take the rest of their athletic season, which is very crucial, and mold it to their advantage. They look forward to making it again to the final rounds of the MACFA championships, keeping the epee' trophy in the display case, and maybe even adding another.