(Here is the first of several blog posts we will be providing as recap info. from the 2009 New England Championships).
The Boston College men and MIT women won the respective titles at the annual New England Championships, with the marathon event held Sunday (Feb. 22) at Mt. Holkoke in Sadley, Mass. Both team titles were tightly-contested, with the Boston College men finishing three wins ahead of co-runners-up MIT and Haverford (85-82, with Vassar close behind at 80) while the MIT women claimed a four-point margin over second-place BC (96-92). MIT was the defending champion in both the men's and women's events.
The 13-team men's competition featured six varsity teams (plus seven non-varsity clubs), while the women's championship included 15 fencing programs (also six varsity, plus nine clubs). The Haverford varsity women's team did not compete at the NECs, instead opting to fence at the EWFC Individual Championships (hosted by Stevens Tech).
It appears that the NEC does not award a combined (men's/women's) champion, but CF360 went ahead and combined the standings – with the result being incredibly close totals. MIT totaled 178 victories among the six weapons, one more than Boston College (177). Vassar was relatively close in third place (163, a close margin when spread out over the six weapons) while the next three teams all were within two points of each other: Sacred Heart (135), Brandeis (134) and Tufts (133, with a varsity women's team and club men's squad).
The lower finish for Brandeis is somewhat surprising, based on the fact that the Judges earlier swept the 2009 Northeast Conference titles while fencing many of the same opposing teams. It's possible that Brandis may have been missing a couple key fencers (CF360 will be looking into that) – or the lower finish may simply be due to the fact that the NECs are contested using a different format than typical collegiate dual meets.
The NEC format (similar to the upcoming IFAs) uses three flights per weapon, with coaches typically assigning one fencer to each flight. Each flight fences out a round-robin and the wins are totaled to determine the team champions. Additionally, 12 fencers in each weapon (top-6 from flight-A, top-4 from flight-B and top-2 from flight-C) advance to a direct-elimination that determine the final individual standings (info. coming in upcoming blog post).
For those not familiar with the typical collegiate dual-meet format, teams in those events contest a 27-bout match (nine bouts per weapon) for both men and women. Hypothetically, a team could use nine different fencers, from one weapon, in a single match. Of course, the dual-meet format also isolates a team's "winning" versus each of the other teams, rather than a cumulative win setup within the flights. ... Thus, the scoring dynamic and impact of specific fencers on the final standings could vary significantly between these two competition setups.
On second glance, it is noted that Brandeis used a total of four fencers in several weapons (women's sabre, women's epee, men's foil) – possibly accounting for its lower point total. Several other teams (mostly clubs) also used multiple fencers in some flights.
Based on CF360's computations from the men's and women's standings, here's how the top-five teams would have shaken out of the NEC awarded a combined men's and women's champion:
38-1 – MIT Sabre (Robin Shin 14-0, Molly Kozlinsky 14-0, Lauren Chilton 10-1)
36-3 – Vassar Epee (Sophie Courser 14-0, Molly Soiffer 13-1, Meryl Franklin 9-2)
35-5 – Boston College Foil (Jenna Colacino 13-1, Christine Cook 12-2, Sam Pirk 10-2)
35-5 – Wellesley Foil (Hannah Braaten 12-2, Wendy Chin 13, Tess De Lean 10)
32-8 – MIT Foil (Cordelia Link 11-3, Jenna Caldwell 12-2, Lindley Graham 9-3)
31-8 – Wellesley Epee (Emily Johnson 10-4, Ashley Paquin 11-3, Anne Benjamin 10-1)
30-6 – MIT Foil (Ben Nield 11-1, Daniel Levine 10-2, Richard LaGrandier 9-3)
29-7 – Haverford Foil (Max Rosen-Long 8-4, Brian Wexler 10-2, Andrew Soule-Hinds 11-1)
29-7 – Haverford Sabre (Aaron Ruby 10-2, Jared Forbus 9-3, Oliver Elbert 10-2)
27-9 – Vassar Foil (Jesse Bisignano 12-0, Nick Johnson 7-5, Mike D'Urso 7-4, James Ingoldsby 1-0)
27-9 – Vassar Sabre (Andrew Fischl 8-4, Alex Snow 10-2, John Rothman 9-3)
The 12 elite weapon groups listed above include three each from MIT (women's sabre and epee; men's foil) and Vassar (women's epee; men's foil and sabre), plus a pair of Boston College units (women's foil; men's sabre), two of the Wellesley weapons (foil and epee) and two from the Haverford men's team (foil and sabre).
The fencers listed above include three previous NCAA Tournament entrans: MIT women's foilist Cordelia Link (18th at the '07 NCAAs), BC men's sabreist Conley (20th in '07) and Vassar men's sabreist Andrew Fischl (21st in '08).
For convenience, here is a look at the official NEC men's and women's final standings (reformatted by CF360 to show each team's weapon breakdown):
Other Non-Varsity/Club Teams (F-E-S): 8. UMass 52-56 (12-21-19); 9. Dartmouth 46-62 (16-16-14); 10. New Hampshire 37-71 (15-3-19); 11. Boston Univ. 28-80 (8-11-9); 12. Worcester Poly. 23-85 (2-13-8); 13. Rhode Island 5-103 (2-3-0).