BALTIMORE – The NJIT men's fencing team placed second out of 15 teams at the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Fencing Association (MACFA) Championships held at John Hopkins on March 1, the highest placement in team history at the MACFA's.
The Highlander epee squad won the title in that weapon for the first time in MACFA history, prevailing in 36 out of 39 bouts. Freshman
Eduardo Ezcurra finished second on the A-strip, winning 11-of-13 bouts. Freshman
Gal Gluhic placed first on the B-strip and sophomore
Ryan Hrapsky first on the C-strip. Gluhic was undefeated in all 13 of his bouts, while Hrapsky won 12-of -3 bouts. This was only the second time NJIT has won a MACFA fencing conference title (first time was in 2012 when the Highlanders men's sabre team won).
NJIT's foil squad placed fifth after winning 25 out of 27 bouts. Freshman
Simon Rizell finished second on the A-strip, with 12 wins in his 13 bouts. Junior
Ian Constantin placed sixth on the C-strip, with 7 wins in 12 bouts, while fellow junior
Maxwell Miller placed seventh on the B-strip after winning half of his 12 bouts.
The Highlander sabre squad was seventh after winning 24-of-39 bouts. Freshman
Robert Slawinski came in fourth on the B-strip (9-of-13), while teammate
Mike Jurewicz, a sophomore. finished fifth after winning 8 of 13 bouts and freshman
Cole Degeroges seventh on the A-strip with 7 wins out of 13 bouts.
Based on overall team results, six of the nine NJIT fencers advanced to the individual championships.
On the foil strip, Rizell won the individual foil title. This is the second year in a row a NJIT fencer has won the individual foil title (last year, current sophomore
David Kong won the title).
On the epee strip, Ezcurra lost his first bout 10-15 against Matthais Philippine of John Hopkins, Hrapsky won his first bout against Aaron Mellstrom of Army 15-9, but then lost in the top 8 to 2012 MACFA champion epee Marvin Hargraves, 7-15, and Gluhic lost his first bout against Mark Zimmerman of John Hopkins, 13-15.
On the sabre strip, Degeroges dopped his first bout to Sandy Vingoe of John Hopkins, 9-15, and Slawinski won his first bout against Mark Watson of Stevens. 15-14, before falling in the top 8 to Cornell's Ben Goldman. 6-15.
Notably absent from the competition were 2014 MACFA individual foil champion and 2014 NJIT Athlete of the Year
David Kong and freshman foil teammate
Henrique Marques.
Kong competed in Reno, Nevada this weekend in the US National Championships, where he earned a personal-best fifth-place in the United States. The National Championships are open only to nationally-ranked fencers who during the current season have placed in the top 64 in national tournaments in events that typically have 200-300 athletes.
David went 6-0 in pools
Duncan Rheingans-yoo 5-1
Alexandre Crepaux 5-2
Michael Li 5-4
Devon Reina 5-2
Michael Dudey 5-1
Raymond Chen 5-2
David was seeded 2nd out of pools and had a bye into the round of 32
Julian Cardillo win 15-5 to make the top 18
Daniel Sconzo win 15-8 to make the top 8
Stephen Mageras defeat 13-15
Marques, who currently has a 4.0 GPA and earlier this year won the Brazilian junior national championships, participated in the senior championships.
Marques went 4-2 in pools
5-0 win against Bergami
2-5 defeat against Zanette
1-5 defeat against Marostega
5-2 win against Toldo
5-1 win against Ferreira
5-4 win against Baneux
In the DE round
15-4 win against Rodrigues to make the top 16
15-12 win against Machado to make the top 8
15-9 win against Xavier to make the top 4
15-7 win against Shimbo to make the finals
11-15 defeat against Toldo for second place.
The NJIT men and women will head to the NCAA Regional Championships at Duke next weekend in the hopes of qualifying athletes for the 2015 NCAA Championships at Ohio State.
