This weekend Duke fencing hosted its annual fencing invitational, competing against Stanford, Notre Dame, Air Force, Ohio State and North Carolina-some of the nation's best teams. In their only home meet of the season, the men's and women's fencing teams struggled at times, as each posted records of 1-4, relegating both squads to fifth-place finishes.
Although Duke is certainly not amongst the country's most well-known programs, its yearly tournament attracts many of the nation's elite teams.
"It's very well organized," Air Force coach Abdel Salem said. "I thought Duke did a very good job."
Although they suffered many defeats over the two-day tournament, the Blue Devil fencers had some memorable performances. Despite four losses, the men's team thrashed archrival North Carolina 20-7, sweeping the Tar Heels in all three weapons-foil, epée and saber.
As for the women, the foil unit fenced brilliantly, finishing second overall among the six competing schools, just behind Stanford and ahead of Notre Dame, a prominent national power. Afterward, Stanford coach Lisa Milgram spoke highly of the Duke women's foilers, praising both the unit's performance and its composure.
"Duke is a strong team," Milgram said. "They are good competitors, [and] most importantly Duke has integrity and respect on the strip."
One of the tournament's highlights was the exciting competition between Duke and North Carolina. The men's and women's squads combined to produce a cumulative 31-23 victory over the Tar Heels, earning the Blue Devils a point in the Carlyle Cup competition between the two schools.
Dueling against such deep competition for eight hours a day provided a grueling challenge for the Blue Devils.
"We had an extremely tough day," men's individual saber Andrew Mahen said Friday after his team concluded the day's bouts.
"[The competition] was tough," Duke coach Alex Beguinet said. "They are all very good teams."
While expecting to lose to Stanford and Notre Dame, arguably the country's top two teams, the men hoped to finish third overall. Duke nearly accomplished this feat, but barely succumbed 16-11 to Air Force and 15-12 to Ohio State.
The two close defeats irked the Blue Devils, who had hoped to compile a winning record in their home gym.
"We could have beaten Ohio State and Air Force," Beguinet said. "We could have [finished third]."
Despite the two close losses, the men's team was upbeat after the grueling competition, thanks to its dominating victory over North Carolina.
Leading the men's assault on the Tar Heels was the Duke saber unit, which defeated its UNC counterpart 8-1, with Mahen and Ben Cohen each posting 3-0 individual records.
Interestingly, Beguinet attempted to downplay the rivalry between the two schools.
"[UNC] is just a team," he said "Where they're from, I don't care."
Unlike his coach, Mahen spoke excitedly about his team's rout of the aforementioned rival, his comments conveying the level of contempt and dislike that one expects from an athlete competing in the intense rivalry between the two schools.
"It's fun to really destroy them, because then they don't cheer so much," Mahen, a junior, said. "Usually they're very loud and boisterous, jumping all around and going nuts. It was fun to see them struggle."
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