Fencer claims NCAA title

Jeremy Kahn, a junior and a captain of the men's fencing team, traveled to the NCAA Tournament this weekend as the third seed from the Mid-Atlantic South Region. He returned a national champion.

Kahn's All-American performance at Yale University was the Duke fencing program's first national title. In fact, it was the first national title in an individual event that Duke University has ever seen. It did not come easy.

Kahn's chances in the men's epee event seemed slim. He had to face 23 competitors in a round-robin elimination, and that was just to get into the finals. Kahn did well, however, and his record of 18-5 made him one of the four fencers to reach the finals. The finals were a direct elimination round, in which Kahn was seeded second. His first opponent was Paul Luciano from Rutgers, a fencer to whom Kahn had lost during the round-robin competition. Kahn had only beaten Luciano once before. He left no doubt in the semifinals as to who was the better fencer, however, as he beat Luciano 15-10.

In the gold medal round, Kahn faced an even tougher competitor in George Hentea of St. John's. Hentea placed in the top 10 in last year's competition, while Kahn had finished 18th. A more telling fact, perhaps, was that Kahn had never before defeated Hentea in any competition. Hentea also fell to Kahn, 15-11.

Head coach Alex Beguinet said that Kahn's performance exceeded even Beguinet's expectations.

"I knew he was going to be an All-American," Beguinet said. "Top six, top four, no problem. I knew he could win, but more likely get All-American."

Beguinet added that his hopes began to rise as Kahn succeeded in match after match.

"He was very focused both days," Beguinet said. "He started to win again, and win and win. That's when I knew he could win [the title].

"He fenced very well that weekend-we had a strong match," Beguinet said. "Maybe that pushed him up to be good, and go ahead. We have a strong team, and he fenced well all season, more toward the end."

Kahn also pointed out that he was less nervous and more confident at this championship than at other major events he had participated in. He knew that he would be facing every opponent in the round robin, so he did not worry about any competitor in particular.

"A lot of it had to do with my mentality going into the tournament," Kahn said. "It used to be that I was nervous about who I had to fence. [This time], there wasn't really a time to sit back and say, 'I'm fencing this guy-what do I do?' I didn't even know who I was fencing until I got up there."

Though Kahn might not have been noticing his opponents' names, Beguinet was keeping closer track, especially when he faced Luciano.

"When we knew the name of the guy, that scared me, because he had lost to that guy [in the round robin]," Beguinet said.

The coach stressed that the final round was as big a mental victory for Kahn as it was in pure skill.

"It was his chance to go out," Beguinet said. "He really went on and pushed himself to get rid of that barrier. When he won that bout [with Luciano], everything was fine.... It was a big step. In the middle of the bout [with Hentea], he was stronger mentally. He knew he was going to beat him and good.

"Over the course of the season, he's been improving and lately doing much better [with both his] will and getting stronger."

Also competing in this weekend's tournament was junior Paul Palmeri, who placed 18th overall with seven wins in the men's foil event. Beguinet felt that Palmeri's performance could have improved.

"Paul didn't fence as well as he can, he could have done much better, everybody knows it," Beguinet said. "He was a little bit scared for some of the competitions because it was his first NCAA [championship tournament].

Both fencers look forward to the United States Fencing Association championships in June. They will first need to qualify in the sectional competition.