Here's a look at some of the top individual performers during part-I of the Ivy League Round-Robin Championships, held on Feb. 8 (impressively, more than half of the 15 fencers listed below are freshmen, plus three juniors and four seniors):
Caroline Vloka (12-0 ... Women's Sabre; Harvard; Fr.; Upper Saddle River, NJ) ... key wins: 5-3 vs. Cornell's Alex Heiss (three-time NCAA participant), swept Columbia's freshman duo Sammy Roberts (5-2) and Stephanie Aiuto (5-1).
Lucile Jarry (9-0 ... Women's Foil; Princeton; Fr.; Larchmont, NY) ... key wins: swept Harvard trio that includes Olympian Emily Cross (5-3) and '08 NCAA entrants Anna Podolsky (5-3) and Arielle Pensler (5-0), also beat Penn All-American Ilana Sinkin (5-4), Penn newcomer Laura Paragano (5-3) and Cornell '08 NCAA qualifier Jessica Tranquada (5-1).
Michael Pearce (9-0 ... Men's Epee; Yale; Sr.; San Francisco, CA) ... key wins: swept Columbia All-Americans Max Czapanskiy (5-2) and Dwight Smith (3-0), along with their teammate Lorenzo Castertano (5-3); also beat Brown '08 NCAA entrant Adam Yarnell (4-3).
Alexander Mills (6-0 ... Men's Foil; Princeton; Fr.; Milburn, NJ) ... key wins: topped the Harvard duo of All-American Kai Itameri-Kinter (5-2) and '08 NCAA participant Long Ouyang (5-1).
Michael Pearce
Noam Mills (11-1 ... Women's Epee; Harvard; Fr.; Kfar Saba, Israel) ... key wins: the 2008 Olympian swept the Princeton trio of All-American Jasjit Bhinder (5-0), '08 all-Ivy League performer Chandler Clay (5-2) and elite newcomer Susannah Scanlan (5-4), adding two key 5-1 wins over Columbia fencers (Martyna Urbanowicz and freshman Neely Brandfield-Harvey) while also topping Cornell '08 NCAA entrants Tasha Hall (5-2) and Sallie Dietrech (5-1) ... her lone defeat came by a single touch (4-5), against Columbia two-time NCAA participant Tess Finkel (see below).
Emily Cross (11-1 ... Women's Foil; Harvard; Sr.; New York, NY) ... key wins: the 2008 Olympian bested Columbia's All-America duo of Nicole Ross and Abby Caparros-Janto (both 5-1), also defeating Cornell '08 NCAA entrant Jessica Tranquada (5-2) ... her only loss (3-5) came vs. Princeton's Lucille Jarry (see above).
Jeff Spear (11-1 ... Men's Sabre; Columbia; Jr.; Wynantskill, NY) ... key wins: the defending NCAA champion bested a pair of Columbia All-Americans (Andrew Bielen and Jonathan Berkowsky), both 5-3, en route to earning national fencer of the week ... his lone loss of the day came by one point, against harvard freshman Valentin Staller (see below).
Valentin Staller (8-1 ... Men's Sabre; Harvard; Fr.; Old Field, NY) ... key wins: handed Columbia All-Amreican Jeff Spear his only loss of the day (5-4), also topping Princeton '08 NCAA entrant John Stogin (5-1) ... lost to Yale senior Sebastian Cano-Besquet (3-5).
Tess Finkel (8-1 ... Women's Epee; Columbia; Jr.; New York, NY) ... key win: handed Harvard newcomer Noam Mills (see above) her only loss of the day, 5-4 (likely would have totaled more wins, but she did not fence against Yale) ... her only loss came by the same 5-4 score to Harvard All-American Maria Larsson (see below).
Susannah Scanlan (8-1 ... Women's Epee; Princeton; Fr.; St. Paul, MN) ... key wins: topped Harvard All-American Maria Larsson (5-4) and Cornell '08 NCAA entrants Sallie Dietrech (5-0) and Tasha Hall (5-4) ... her only loss came 4-5 to the national fencer of the week, Harvard's Noam Mills (see above).
Alex Heiss (8-1 ... Women's Sabre; Cornell; Sr.; Mamoroneck, NY) ... key win: 5-2 over Brown All-American Randy Alevi ... lost 3-5 to Harvard's Caroline Vloka (see above), who went 12-0.
Jonathan Berkowsky (8-1 ... Men's Sabre; Pennsylvania; Jr.; Sicklerville, NJ) ... key win: bested Princeton '08 NCAA participant John Stogin (5-1) ... his only loss came against defending NCAA champ Jeff Spear (see above) of Columbia, 3-5.
Maria Larsson (10-2 ... Women's Epee; Harvard; Sr.' Stockholm, Sweden) ... key wins: swept Columbia's potent trio of junior Tess Finkel, sophomore Martyna Urbanowicz and freshman Neely Brandfield-Harvey (all 5-4), also defeating Princeton's Chandler Clay (5-3) along with Cornell '08 NCAA entrants Tasha Hall (5-4) and Sallie Dietrech (5-3) ... her pair of losses came 4-5 against Princeton newcomer Susannah Scanlan (see above) and Yale '08 all-Ivy League performer Rebecca Moss (3-5).
Sammy Roberts (10-2 ... Women's Sabre; Columbia; Fr.; Upper Saddle River, NJ) ... key wins: posted pair of 5-2 wins over Penn fencers ('08 NCAA entrant Alexis Baran and freshman Dominika Franciskowicz) while also beating Brown All-American Randy Alevi (5-1) ... dropped bouts to Penn All-American Danielle Kamis (0-5) and Harvard ace newcomer Carolina Vloka (see above) in a 2-5 bout between the hometown foes.
Stephanie Aiuto (10-2 ... Women's Sabre; Columbia; Fr.; Great Neck, NY) ... key wins: swept the Penn sabreists (Kamis, Baren and Franciskowicz) in successive 5-4 bouts, adding 5-1 win over Brown's Alevi ... suffered her pair of losses to Yale's Jennifer Ivers and Harvard's Vloka (both 1-5).