Over the weekend, the fencing team sent four competitors to the NCAA Championships in Colorado Springs, Colo. Led by senior Jeremy Kahn, Duke finished 12th in the team standings. Kahn, the defending national champion in epee, failed to defend his title but still placed an impressive fifth.
"I was pleased with fifth," Kahn said. "I would have liked to have done better, but it's difficult to repeat as champion. At the beginning of the year, I would have been happy with a top-12 finish. When I got to the tournament, I saw it was the same people as last year, so I figured I could win this."
The tournament format involves eight rounds, in which all 24 fencers in each division fence each other. The four fencers with the highest number of wins face off in a 15-touch competition. Kahn, after getting off to a 1-4 start, turned things up a notch and almost made the final round.
"I started off dropping four out of five," Kahn said. "After that, I realized I had nothing to lose. I needed to go 3-0 in my final round to make the finals, but I went 2-1."
Kahn, who finished with 14 wins for the tournament, was edged out by Stanford's Sean McClain for the final spot. McClain, who beat Kahn earlier this year at the Duke Invitational, finished his last round 3-0 and advanced to the finals.
Senior Paul Palmeri represented Duke at men's foil and improved from an 18th-place finish last year to 17th place this season. Palmeri, who finished the year strong with a 12-3 record at the Duke Invitational and a fourth-place finish at regionals, won eight bouts at the NCAA Championships.
Even though two Duke fencers watched their collegiate careers come to an end at nationals, two young Blue Devils appear to have a good chance at a future national championship. Freshman Mike Baughman and sophomore Sarah Hamilton competed in the NCAAs for the first time, and Baughman, competing in saber, finished 14th with nine wins.
"I was a little disappointed because my goal was top 12," Baughman said. "But I had some good bouts. It was really good to be able to go.
"I had a lot of friends there from other colleges, so it was good to be able to see them compete. Since I was the only [saber] fencer from my school, I got to walk around with the Notre Dame fencers. Notre Dame would cheer for their fencers and then they would cheer for me, so that was cool to get that extra support that I hadn't anticipated."
Hamilton made a strong showing last year, reaching the regionals as a freshman. By finishing seventh in regionals this year, she bettered her performance of a year ago and advanced to nationals. At the NCAA Championsips, Hamilton finished the tournament in 19th place.
Although Kahn's career at Duke is over, the senior still plans to continue with fencing. He expects to fence in the National Championships held on April 18-19. Although not limited to collegiate fencers, the tournament brings together the best fencers in the nation. Kahn will compete in the individual tournament on the 18th and the team competition (with his club team from home) on the 19th. The Blue Devils will sorely miss Kahn's leadership and ability, but with the performances of Hamilton and Baughman, Duke showed that it could still field a strong team next year.
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