With only 42 schools currently sponsoring varsity college fencing (34 co-ed; eight with only women's varsity teams), it's inevitable that some quality fencers presently are competing for various non-varsity/club programs. Many of the current non-varsity fencing programs previously held varsity status, before being downgraded by their university/college.
A couple years ago, Rutgers elected to drop the varsity tag from its men's and women's fencing teams that had produced several world-class fencers (most notably 2003 NCAA women's sabre champion Alexis Jemal and four-time men's sabre All-American Ben Igoe). Igoe – who placed third at the '04 and '07 NCAAs (plus 7th in '06 and 8th in '05) was in the mix for the 2008 U.S. Olympic men's sabre team and has competed on various national teams, as has Jemal. Igoe's younger brother George now fences at the University of Pennsylvania.
When Rutgers dropped its varsity fencing status in 2007, its coach Yefim Litvan moved on to another varsity fencing school in the "garden state" (N.J.I.T.). Litvan had been the head coach at Rutgers since 1994, after serving four seasons as an assistant at Penn.
Rutgers naturally has emerged as one of the top club programs in the program, finishing fifth at the 2008 U.S Association of Collegiate Fencing Clubs Championships (behind Arizona State, William & Mary, Florida and Michigan). The other top-10 finishers included (in order, 6th-10th): Northwestern (men's club only), Cornell (men), Clemson, Massachusetts and Chicago.
The other 25 teams that competed at the 2008 national club fencing championship include (in order, spots 11-35): Indiana, Tufts (men), New Hampshire, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Maryland, Lehigh (men), Boston Univ., Texas, Dartmouth, Navy, James Madison, Vermont, Swarthmore, Stony Brook, USC, Virginia Tech, Amherst, Bowdoin, Texas A&M, Virginia, Temple (men), Smith (women) and Mount Holyoke (women).
Among the team listed above, Florida, MSU and the Northwestern men are competing this weekend at the Notre Dame Duals (MSU held varsity status until 1997). Today's Northeast Conference Duals (at Tufts) include several of the above club programs, among them UMass, BU, Dartmouth, UNH and Smith.
Time permitting, we will try to provide periodic coverage of top club fencing teams.