After a successful fall season, Duke fencing kicked off the new year Saturday at the Philadelphia Invitational. The weekend saw dominant performances across the No. 6 women’s squad that finished the meet 9-1. The women were led by sophomore foilists Sophia Shen and Charlotte Koenig. The No. 10 men’s team fared just as well, finishing the event 6-3.
“When we stepped on the strip, I was surprised with how amazing everybody fenced,” head coach Omar Elgeziry said. “The energy was high. The spirit was high. Everybody was putting in everything they could to win every bout.”
The women’s saber team was key to the Blue Devils’ four match wins. Victoria Gorman, Kavya Menke and Natalie Olsen all ended the first day of play with 11 wins each. Gorman and Menke followed this up on Saturday with eight more wins to take the saber squad 4-0.
The saberists came up particularly clutch in the team’s matchup against No. 4 Princeton. Menke, a senior, pulled off two tight 5-4 wins over the Tigers’ Madeline Sanz and Emese Domonkos to give the squad a 6-3 lead. Not only did Duke prove it could compete with the best, but the team also demonstrated its ability to perform under pressure.
The foil squad was just as impressive, gathering a total of 30 wins to only six losses. The group was led by Koenig, a fencer that has quickly become a cornerstone for Elgeziry. The New York native won the NCAA Regionals and placed in the top 10 of the NCAA Championship last year. She is also fresh off of a strong fall season, where she championed the Temple Open in women’s foil.
Sophomore Zizi Newhard came up with a particularly big win Sunday over Princeton’s Maia Weintraub, an Olympic gold medalist and the 2022 NCAA Women’s Foil Champion. There is no shortage of star power on this team, and Duke fans can look forward to following these Blue Devils for years to come.
“They pulled through, to keep it simple,” Elgeziry said. “At the beginning, I was nervous. Then when I saw how they fought, it made me very, very proud. I'm very proud, specifically of those two squads.”
The men’s side of the tournament has its own fair share of young stars, with freshman Joseph Glasson racking up 16 wins. The Shanghai native was crucial to the team’s 14-13 upset over No. 4 Princeton. With the men’s saber and epee teams falling 3-5 and 4-5 respectively to the Tigers, it was up to the foil squad to give Duke the edge it needed. The freshman recorded a dominant 5-1 win over Princeton’s Aiden Ji, one of the group’s seven total victories against the rival.
“It was fantastic,” Elgezriy said. “We were going head-to-head, toe-to-toe and the Princeton team is very strong … we knew that we couldn't make mistakes. On the men's side, it was even harder because we were down or lower in the score for the most part.”
The depth of the men’s team extended across disciplines, with saberist Samir Travers and epeeist Allen Marakov each collecting nine wins on Sunday alone. Both Blue Devils have proven to be leaders on their squads, consistently delivering competitive performances.
Marakov, in particular, seems determined to leave a mark on the program in his last season wearing Duke blue. The New Jersey native’s 5-2 win over Alec Brooke sealed the team’s victory over the Tigers. The senior also placed third at the 2024 NCAA Championship, the best finish by a Blue Devil men’s epeeist in the last 10 years. With fresh-faced and experienced talent alike, this men’s team is shaping up to be a dangerous threat come March.
Duke’s win this weekend is all the more impressive considering that several fencers were absent due to illness or injury. In light of these unexpected challenges, the team remained a united force and confident in its ability to win against the best.
In two weeks time, the Blue Devils will travel to Cambridge, Mass., for a head-to-head against Harvard and the Eric Sollee Invitational. After a close defeat by the Crimson last year, the team will look to convert the momentum from this weekend to a redemptive victory early next month.
“This meet taught us that we can do anything,” Elgeziry said. “Everybody on the team knew that we needed to represent Duke, and we had only that opportunity to push through.”
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