Behind an influx of fresh talent, Duke will look to rise to a new level of success when they begin their season this weekend at 6,000 feet above sea level.
The Blue Devils will officially kick off their 2015 campaign Saturday when they travel to Colorado Springs, Colo., to compete in the Western Invitational.
The Western Invitational is one of four crucial meets for Duke this year before post-season play in the ACC and NCAA begins. Head coach Alex Beguinet is entering his 30th year at the helm of the Duke program and will look to some of his team captains, like seniors Sarah Collins and Libby Malcolm, to help the team gel properly during the cross-country trek.
“It’s a long trip, one that we haven’t made in 10 or 15 years,” Beguinet said. “It’s a lot easier to play teams on the East Coast, but both [Collins and Malcolm] have been doing a great job of keeping the team in line. I have no complaint with their leadership so far.”
After last summer saw the departure of standout senior epeeists Dylan Nollner and Alessio Santoro, Beguinet and company look to an impressive freshman class to try to rejuvenate the squad’s talent. Chief among them are epeeists Dean Ischiropoulos and Alec Ajnsztajn, sabers Pascual Di Tella and Peter Yang and foilist Jan Maceczek. All five freshmen gained valuable preseason experience competing either in last October’s North American Cup (NAC) in Portland, Ore., or in the January NAC in Salt Lake City.
“All those freshman have been doing some healthy competition before the NCAA season,” Beguinet said. “So that should help them a lot for when they really get into it.”
Maceczek had the most successful performance last week in Salt Lake City, finishing 80th in a pool of 163 entrants. The Colts Neck, N.J., native finished 3-3 in pool play before suffering an unfortunate setback in the first round, losing to his opponent 15-14. In the October tournament, the foilist finished tied for 48th out of 185 entrants.
“Maceczek has been doing very well on the foil,” Beguinet said. “I was pleased with how he did at the NAC in both October and January.”
Perhaps an even more impressive NAC performance came from Di Tella, joining Duke internationally from Buenos Aires, Argentina. The freshman finished 37th out of 138 entries in saber back in October.
The pending success of the freshmen in official NCAA play should provide an interesting storyline throughout the season, but fans should also be excited to watch the progression of Collins as the year continues. The Palm Harbor, Fla., native finished the NCAA tournament in 12th place, jumping 12 spots in one day to grab All-American honors in dramatic fashion. The epeeist will look to expand on her success looking ahead.
After the men’s team finished 20–8 last season and the women’s team finished 17-13, Collins, the freshmen and others lying in wait all have a chance to get their 2015 campaign off to a promising start this weekend.
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