Over the weekend of Feb. 16, four members of Duke's fencing team traveled to the Junior Olympics in Louisville, Kentucky. Under the leadership of head coach Alex Beguinet, three freshmen and a sophomore competed. Their efforts in the under-20 foil, epee and saber events garnered mixed results, including one gold medal.
Freshman Amy McDowell earned a first place finish and gold medal in the under-20 women's saber event on Sunday. During the first round, she was victorious in all five of her bouts. She then went through one direct elimination bout before heading into the finals. The finals promised difficulty for the 2nd-seeded McDowell as both she and her third opponent, the first seed in the finals, had gone undefeated until the very last bout.
McDowell's teammates and Beguinet were impressed by her strong performance and showing, though Beguinet noted a severe case of nerves on McDowell's part.
"She was shaking, afraid of the next opponent, [who] she'd keep on beating anyway," Beguinet said.
Freshman teammate Brian Hartman called McDowell's results "a spectacular performance."
McDowell is not a stranger to the Junior Olympic competition. This was her fourth appearance, though her first medal. She was pleased with the improvement over her seventh-place finish in last year's tournament.
"This was the first time I've ever won anything really big in saber, so I was really thrilled about that," McDowell said.
McDowell's next tournament should be the National Championships on June 16th in Cincinnati. She will not be traveling to this year's NCAA tournament. Women's fencing does not have a women's saber competition, so McDowell is forced to compete with the men's team in this event, decreasing her chances of participating in the tournament.
"I was really happy with how I did this season, but it wasn't good enough to make the NCAAs," McDowell said.
Another strong performance in the weekend's events was produced by freshman Bob Manchen. He placed 24th out of 161 competitors in the men's foil event. Coach Beguinet said that Manchen fenced well, but had the potential to place higher. His opponent was difficult to fence against because his style of fencing was very different from what Manchen was used to.
"Bob couldn't adjust to [his opponent's] style. If he didn't fence this guy, he could have gone much higher," Beguinet said.
"[Bob] really did very well. It was the most difficult field ever," added teammate Hartman.
Manchen will travel to the Mid-Atlantic South Regional Championships, a collegiate competition, this weekend in an attempt to qualify for NCAAs.
Freshman Brian Hartman placed 36th in a field of 147 in the men's epee event. He was disappointed with his performance, since he had placed higher in previous years.
"I felt pretty good coming out of the first round as the 13th seed, but wasn't able to perform very well in the direct elimination rounds," Hartman said.
Coach Beguinet attributed Hartman's troubles to illness.
"Brian didn't fence as well as he could have, but due to the circumstances, he did fine," Beguinet said.
Sophomore teammate Mica Glod, who had the opportunity to see Hartman fence, said that he visibly tired as the day went on, losing his concentration.
"By his second pool, he wasn't fencing nearly as well as he'd fenced earlier. Concentration is everything in fencing," Glod said.
Glod herself was plagued by concentration problems in her competition in women's epee.
"I was off, and I wasn't concentrating. Basically, I didn't fence well. My goal was top 32, and I didn't reach my goal," Glod said.
Beguinet also believed that Glod has fenced much better than she did at the Junior Olympics. She lost to several opponents who she had beaten earlier in the year.
"Mica was much better than what she did. She could have beat everybody in the pool," Beguinet said.
Glod will join Manchen in the regional championships this weekend. Hartman's next meet will be the North Atlantic Sectionals in April, where he will try to qualify for the national championships.
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