Wellesley Fencing Places Second in Team Competition at EWFC Championships
MADISON, N.J. – Wellesley College fencing went 5-1 as a team at the Eastern Women's Fencing Conference (EWFC) Championships at Drew University.
The team went 5-1 in team competition to earn second place. The only loss the Blue suffered was to top seed Johns Hopkins in the final placement round.
Epee squad came in second and took five out of six matches for Wellesley. Sophomore Grace Xu (Toronto, Ontario) notched 13 bout wins while classmate Lily Millard (Selkirk, N.Y.) and first year Alisha Li (Warren, N.J.) reached double-digits with 10 wins each. First year Riley Weed (Guilford, Conn.) had a season-high nine wins.
Foil squad was also the runner-up in team competition and earned five wins on the day. First year Lauren Khoo (San Francisco, Calif.) led the squad with nine victories. Classmate Phoebe Li (Palo Alto, Calif.) and senior Edith Po (Bernardsville, N.J.) each had eight wins on the day.
Sabre squad went 4-2 on the day, including a shutout of Yeshiva. Junior Makana Burch (Washougal, Wash.) had a personal-best 13 victories and classmate Mia Chao (Washington, D.C.) took out 10 opponents. Sophomore Naomi Wang (Boston, Mass.) added seven wins for the squad.
Wellesley 27, Yeshiva 0
The Blue opened the day with a clean sweep of Yeshiva. Millard and Weed both went 3-0 in epee while Xu and A. Li combined for three wins. In foil, Po, P. Li and sophomore Claire Ma (Boston, Mass.) all went undefeated. Burch, Chao and Wang each went 2-0 in sabre.
Wellesley 26, CCNY 1
Sophomore Gina Huang (Taipei, Taiwan), Ma, Po, Millard, Weed, Burch and Chao all earned 3-0 sweeps of CCNY. Wang and A. Li both won a pair of bouts while Xu added a victory.
Wellesley 20, Haverford 7
Khoo and P. Li won all three foil bouts while Po added two wins. Xu and A. Li each took three victories and Millard added a seventh point for epee. Burch was perfect in three bouts while Chao and Wang each took one to give sabre a 5-4 squad victory.
Wellesley 20, Vassar 7
All three squads earned a fourth consecutive win. Khoo, Weed and Burch were all perfect in their respective weapons. Chao, Wang, Xu, A. Li and Huang had two wins apiece while Po added one victory.
Wellesley 14, Denison 13
A 7-2 epee squad win led the Blue past Division III No. 3 Denison. Xu took all three bouts while A. Li and Millard both snagged two. Burch and Chao claimed a pair of wins each in sabre while Khoo and P. Li combined for three foil points.
Johns Hopkins 19, Wellesley 8
In the placement round Wellesley faced off with Division III No. 2 Johns Hopkins. Foil squad finished with a 5-4 victory behind two wins from Huang and P. Li and one from Khoo. Xu earned two victories in epee while Millard had one.
The Blue will next compete at the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference (NEIFC) Championships at MIT on Saturday, February 24.
