In their only home meet of the year, the Duke fencing teams achieved terrific gains and disappointing setbacks.
The men's squad posted a perfect 4-0 record, sweeping the four other participating schools, MIT, Brandeis, Johns Hopkins and North Carolina. The foil and saber squads earned first-place honors, while the epZ
"I think as a team it was the first time we won them all," Duke coach Alex Beguinet said. "For squad, it's not the first time. The men's saber won last year."
In previous weeks, the Blue Devils were frustrated at their inability to close out close matches with victories. However, they narrowly pulled out wins twice Friday, as they defeated MIT 14-13 and the archrival Tar Heels 15-12.
Senior Justin Maggio most exemplified his squad's refusal to lose, as he twice came back from 4-0 deficits, to post 5-4 victories.
"He was down four touches, but went back and won by touching five times in a row without being touched," Beguinet said. "That surprised me. He did very well."
In winning its weapon title for the second year in a row, the men's saber squad dominated the competition. Captain Andrew Mahen, Ben Cohen and Christian Barrett combined to win 26 bouts.
Although impressed with his saber triad, Beguinet expects such results from the talented fencers.
"I know the saber is pretty good, and would be good contenders," he said. "That they won doesn't really surprise me."
The second-place finish by the men's epZ
"The epZ
In contrast to men's team's overall success, the Duke women finished with an overall record of only 2-2. The women suffered losses to both UNC and Johns Hopkins, the latter being particularly disappointing.
"The bad thing is we lost against Johns Hopkins, to which I don't think we should have lost to at all," Beguinet said. "I think we were kind of over-confident, including me, and they beat us."
Although the female Blue Devils' collective performance might have left some with regrets, nothing more could have been asked from the foil unit.
Ashley Cockburn, Erin Black and Nyasha London delivered the weekend's most impressive performance, decimating their opponents as they combined to post 27 individual bout victories.
"That was just icing on the cake," Black said. "We won the cup my freshman year, the three of us, and it was a nice thing to do again, especially for our graduating senior Nyasha."
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