PHILADELPHIA, PA. – The defending 2022 National Champions opened their season at the Elite Invitational hosted by the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday. Both the USCFCA top-ranked men’s and second-ranked women’s squads went undefeated. The women’s team defeated Princeton, Temple, LIU, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, while the men’s team defeated Princeton, Air Force, LIU, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. The men’s win against Princeton marked the 1, 600th win in program history.
The women’s epee and foil squads led the day with both finishing with a 37-8 record. On the men’s side the sabre squad led with a 35-10 mark. Defending NCAA Epee champion Kaylin Sin Yan Hsieh posted a 9-0 record. Jared Smith also had a perfect day with a 12-0 record. The Irish were also paced by Ziyuan Chen (11-2) and Chase Emmer (10-4) in foil, Alexandre Lacaze (10-2) , Kara Linder (10-4) and Jadeyn Williams (10-5) in sabre, and Miriam Grady (10-2) in epee.
The women’s match against top-ranked Princeton started out as a see-saw contest, with the teams trading bouts until 6-6. Key wins by Amita Berthier, Atara Greenbaum, a key win by Jadeyn Williams over Chloe Fox-Gitomer, and Kara Linder broke the match open at 11-7. Wins by Nicole Pustilnik over defending NCAA Champion Maia Weintraub, Hsieh, and Berthier closed out the win at 14-8.
The men’s squad battled a tough Princeton team, with the Tigers battling to an 11-9 lead and then trading bouts until they had a 13-12 advantage. With the Irish needing both remaining bouts to win, Smith and Lacaze won to clinch the match.
The women’s team dominated against Temple, holding control of the match the entire time for a 20-7 win. Michaela Joyce, Karina Yaroshenko, and Kara Linder all went 3-0 against the Owls. Against Air Force, the Irish came back from a 4-0 deficit to reel in the Falcons and win 17-10. Lacaze and Smith both earned 3-0 records in the match.
LIU was much of the same story for both squads, as they dominated the Sharks. In the women’s match the Irish led the entire time for a 22-5 win, with perfect records from Rebeca Candescu and Yaroshenko. The men’s team had a dominating match with perfect 3-0 records from Emmer, Chen, Jason Zhao, and Sean Moon en route to a 21-6 win.
Both squads then beat ACC foe North Carolina. The women’s team picked up a 24-3 win and the men’s team claimed a 16-11 win over a tough Tar Heel squad. Williams, Berthier, Pustilnik, and Grady all had perfect 3-0 marks, while Hans Wei Sheng Yoong and Smith did the same for the men.
The Irish concluded the day with twin 20-7 wins over Pennsylvania. The women’s team saw ten winning records and the men’s team had seven against the Quakers. Stephen Ewart, Maruan Osman-Touson, Hsieh, Chen, Smith, and Luke Linder each had 3-0 marks.
The Irish are back in action at the start of the spring semester when they travel to the January USA Fencing North American Cup.