Epee Fencers Highlight Strong Regionals Showing

The last few years the Northeast Regionals have been good to the Harvard fencing squad, with champions coming in various weapons. This year was no different, with the top performances coming in the epee, as sophomore Billy Stallings took home the gold in men’s epee at the event held at Vassar in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Men’s epee continued to be a high point for the squad, as senior Teddy Sherrill took bronze in the meet, and sophomore Karl Harmenberg finished eighth out of 34. The Crimson was the only squad to notch three top-10 epee finishes.

“Today I started out feeling pretty sick, so I wasn’t sure how it was going to go,” Stallings said. “[In the final round] I felt surprisingly in control of the other seven fencers, because I’d had trouble with a couple of those fencers from the region this year. It was good to turn that around before the championship itself.”

The medaling continued in the foil, where junior co-captain Kai Itameri-Kinter notched the silver medal, falling to Columbia’s Kurt Getz. Teammate and sophomore Long Ouyang rounded out the top 10, and rookie Hao Meng ended up 19th of 30.

“Kai has been a solid, great leader for us all three years at Harvard,” Crimson coach Peter Brand said. “He continues to amaze me in terms of his solid performances. He’s mentally very tough and when he’s on the strip he’s capable of beating just about anybody in the country.

The sabre fencers didn’t fare quite as well, with the top finisher coming in the form of senior Steven Ahn in ninth place. Junior co-captain Scott DiGiulio and classmate Craig Gorin finished 19th and 24th, respectively.

On the women’s side of things the top finish of the day came in the form of junior co-captain Maria Larsson who took home the silver in epee, falling short of defeating St. John’s Tanya Novakovska. Classmate Lisa Vastola finished 13th.

“Maria frankly did surprise me coming in second,” Brand said. “She’s had a good year, but she had some ups and downs throughout the year and in the first few rounds she was a little shaky, but she got stronger throughout the day. This tournament really showed what she’s capable of doing.”

The best all-around performance came from women’s saber, where senior Alexa Weingarden and co-captain Samantha Parker finished sixth and seventh, while freshman Alexandra Sneider notched 11th.

“All three of our women’s saber fencers were in the final,” Brand said. “A very strong showing by our three saberists, probably the strongest showing on the women’s side all together. It was a great effort.”

The biggest surprises of the day came from the women’s foil, where sophomore standout Misha Goldfeder finished just 16th, while classmates Anna Podolsky and Arielle Pensler finished fifth and seventh, respectively.

Tuesday the NCAA selection committee will decide which 24 fencers in each weapon make it into the Championship tournament March 13-16, with the final selections being released on Wednesday. As the decisions take both season record and regional performance into account, many of the day’s top performers have a legitimate shot at selection.

—Staff writer Madeleine I. Shapiro can be reached at mshapiro@fas.harvard.edu.