Blue Fencing Places Fourth as a Team at NEIFC Championships; Foil Finishes Second

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Wellesley College fencing earned fourth out of 16 teams in the three-weapon team competition at the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference (NEIFC) Championships at MIT's Johnson Athletic Center on Saturday.

Saturday's NEIFC Championships crowned team and squad champions in foil, epee, and sabre. Team competition consisted of squad round robin pools that included an opening round robin and final pool to determine a champion in each weapon.

The Blue placed second behind Division I Brown in the foil team competition. Wellesley was sixth in epee and seventh in sabre. Host MIT finished first in both the epee and sabre pools. The Engineers finished first overall in the three-weapon competition. Brown finished second, followed by Tufts and then Wellesley,

Foil

The Blue foil squad of senior Edith Po (Bernardsville, N.J.), sophomores Gina Huang (Taipei, Taiwan) and Claire Ma (Boston, Mass.), and first years Lauren Khoo (San Francisco, Calif.) and Phoebe Li (Palo Alto, Calif.) earned silver in foil. The group won 15 of 18 matches in the final pool with a +44 touch ratio. The Blue went 19-2 and produced an outstanding +57 touch ratio in the opening round pool.

Epee

Wellesley's epee squad of sophomores Grace Xu (Toronto, Ontario) and Lily Millard (Selkirk, N.Y.) and first year Riley Weed (Guilford, Conn.) were sixth in the team competition. The squad earned six victories in the final pool with a -16 touch ratio. Xu won six of seven matches in the final pool. The group had 13 wins in the opening pool and a +24 touch ratio.

Sabre

Sabre claimed seventh on the day. Juniors Makana Burch (Washougal, Wash.) and Mia Chao (Washington, D.C.) and sophomore Naomi Wang (Boston, Mass.) combined for four wins in the final pool with a -22 touch ratio. Sabre put together a +7 touch ration in the initial pool.

Up next, Wellesley competes at the NCAA Northeast Regional at LIU Post in Brookville, N.Y. on Sunday, March 10.