Female fencers make their mark at NCAAs

In your typical word association game, when someone says "NCAA tournament," the word "Yale" isn't the first thing to leap into your mind. Especially in the midst of March Madness, Yale and the NCAA seem like distant strangers. Last weekend, however, the Eli women fencers found themselves in the familiar position of competing in the NCAA fencing tournament, held this year at Brandeis. The team qualified the maximum of four fencers for the tournament: captain Katie Zuckerman, JE '99, and Hannah Apel, SM '00, in the foil, and Nush Powell, JE '99, and Whitney Anderson, TC '00, in the epée.

All four turned in solid performances, and they combined with the Yale men's team qualifiers to capture eighth place overall. The NCAA fencing tournament scores men's and women's teams together, recognizing the team with the highest combined score as the champion. Among the 20 women's squads participating, Yale placed fourth, finishing only behind perennial powerhouses Penn State, Notre Dame, and Stanford. Zuckerman pointed to Yale's high finish as proof of the strength of the team's training. "We don't have the financial resources to draw all the hotshot recruits," she said, but Yale does "develop really strong athletes."

One has only to look at the Elis' past results to see that the program is doing something right. This year, the women claimed the Ivy League title for the fourth consecutive season. The Bulldogs are so accustomed to winning that a loss to Columbia early in the month put them in an unfamiliar pressure position for the rest of the season. "We hadn't lost a meet in three years," Powell said. "So we were a little concerned about tying up the title."

Despite this early setback, the team captured the Ivy crown. The Elis then headed to the Northeast Re-gionals, the tournament at which individual fencers qualify for the NCAAs. Forty-six women, the best collegiate fencers in the northeast, are invited to regional competition. There, Powell finished fifth in the epée competition--an impressive feat considering she switched to the epée squad from the foil squad only a year earlier.

In the foil event, four Yale fencers finished in the top seven. Appel took third, Zuckerman fourth, Sarah Weeks, DC '00, sixth, and Esperance Schaeffer, BR '99, seventh. Appel and Zuckerman were especially pleased with their performances, as each recorded a victory against Olympic hopeful Erinn Smart '01 of Columbia, last year's NCAA runner-up. "It was really sort of a breakthrough," Zuckerman said."I came out of regionals thinking, `If I can beat her, I can beat anyone.'"

In addition to a confidence boost, regionals forced the Elis to compete against one another. This was especially difficult for Yale's cohesive, close-knit squad. To have to fence a teammate is "horrible," Zuckerman said. Yale's fencers faced each other again at the NCAAs, where all participants were placed into pods of three, with teammates always positioned in the same pod. This arrangement is less painful because team members can support each other from the sidelines, but it still makes for an awkward matchup. During a bout against a teammate, one often wonders, "What can I do that she hasn't seen? They know all your tricks," Powell explained.

Individually, Zuckerman had the best showing at NCAAs, ending her Yale career with a ninth-place finish. During the tournament, Zuckerman didn't think much about the fact that it was her last college meet--she simply reflected on the role fencing has played in her life. "I've been fencing since I was 12, and I've always seen myself as a fencer," she said. "This is what I do and this is what I'm good at."

In her years at Yale, Zuckerman was better than just good. She placed in the top 10 at NCAAs and received all-American honors in each of her four seasons. The team will have some big shoes to fill next year when she, Powell, and starter Julia Bowsher, CC '99, have graduated. Nevertheless, Powell is confident that the Elis will continue to succeed. "They'll be able to compensate," she said.

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