The annual IFA Championships fencing was set to start at 8:30 eastern, on the campus of Brandeis University (in Waltham, Mass.). This marks the 112th Intercollegiate Fencing Association Championship, an event that dates back to the late 19th century (1894, with a four-year hiatus during World War II.).
The event includes various competition for team and individual weapon titles, plus a men's three-weapon champion, a women's three-weapon champion and a combined men's/women's champion. the men's foil teams will be battling for the historic Little Iron Man Trophy (see picture below), which is considered to be the oldest intercollegiate trophy still contested (dating back to the 1890s).
The rosters for the 12 teams at this year's IFA event include fencers who have combined to win seven IFA individual titles:
• Harvard junior women's foilist Misha Goldfeder (2007 and 2008)
• Harvard fifth-year senior women's foilist Emily Cross (2006)
• Princeton senior women's epeeist Jasjit Bhinder (2008)
• Columbia junior men's foilist Kurt Getz (2007)
• Princeton sophomore men's epeeist Graham Wicas (2008)
• Columbia junior men's sabreist Jeff Spear (2008)
Goldfeder was studying abroad during the 2008 fall semester and has not been a regular member of Harvard's impressive women's foil unit during the current spring season (she still is listed on the team roster – we will attempt to clarify her status) ... so it's possible that only five former champions will be pursuing another IFA title today at the Gosman Athletic Center.
The 12-team field includes four ranked in the national top-10 – Columbia, Harvard, Penn an Princeton – along with Brandeis, Boston College, Brown, Cornell (women), MIT, NYU, Vassar and Yale. Columbia is the defending champion for the men's event and the combined championships, while Penn took home the 2008 IFA women's title.
The full day of fencing will include 18 pools of bouting (10-12 fencers per pool), followed by direct-elimination rounds of 16 in all six weapons.
Pictured at left is a photo of the historic Little Iron Man Trophy, presented to the IFA men's foil team champion.