A quick glance at the list of 2009 all-Ivy League men's fencers shows why the University of Pennsylvania won its first Ivy League men's team title since 1999, as seven different Quakers were among the top performers in their weapons (including three first-teamers). Junior sabre All-Americans Andrew Bielen (Philadelphia) and Jonathan Berkowski (Sicklerville, N.J.) led the way for Penn by tying for the second-best records in their weapon (10-5), along with Harvard's talented freshman Valentin Staller (Old Field, N.Y.).
Columbia junior Jeff Spear (Wynantskil, N.Y.) – the defending NCAA champion – had the top men's sabre record in the two-day, two-site event (Feb. 8 at Columbia; Feb. 22 at Brown), as his 14-1 mark represented the second-best win pct. (.933) of any Ivy League fencer this season. Harvard freshman women's foilist Noam Mills went 17-1 (.944), extending the impressive college debut for the Israeli Olympian.
Foilist Zane Grodman (Califron, N.J.) registered Penn's other first team all-Ivy League performance and was part of an impressive group of freshman Quakers in that event, as his classmates Alex Simmons (Sonoma, Calif.) Vidur Kapur (Syosset, N.Y.) claimed second-team honors by virtue of their matching 10-5 records (Grodman went 11-4).
A pair of foilists – sophomore Jacob Wischnia (10-5; Elkins Park, Pa.) and senior Ben Wieder (9-6; Westfield, N.J.) completed Penn's feat of placing seven of its nine primary men's fencers on the all-league teams. No other team came close to matching that total, as Columbia and Harvard each produced three all-Ivy fencers (two first-teamers each), followed by Princeton (two first-teamers), Yale and Brown (both had a first- and second-teamer).
Contrary to the women's event, the all-Ivy men's performers were dominated by juniors (six, with four first-teamers) and seniors (five, led by three first-teamers), with that combined total (11) matching the number of freshman women among this year's 18 all-Ivy League honorees. The sophomore class is thinly-represented among the 36 total 2009 all-Ivy fencers, with only one woman (a second-teamer) and three men (one of them a first-teamer).
Several of the fencers mentioned above (Harvard's Staller and the Penn foil trio) comprised four of the six freshman whose strong efforts netted all-Ivy League men's distinction. Princeton foilist Alexander Mills (Milburn, N.J.) joined Staller and Grodman as first-teamers, with Mills finishing atop his weapon standings (11-2). His Tiger teammate, epeeist Cooper Geegan (Los Angeles, Calif.) rounded out the freshmen who earned 2009 all-Ivy men's honors.
Four other men's fencers completed first-team efforts over the weekend: Columbia senior foilist Sherif Farrag (12-3; Bayonne, N.J.), Brown junior foilist Adam Pantel (11-4; Mendham, N.J.), Harvard senior epeeist Benji Ungar (11-1; Bronx, N.Y.) and Yale senior epeeist Michael Pearce (9-4; San Francisco, Calif.).
Pearce became the first epeeist since 2006 to be a three-year (or four-year) Ivy League first-teamer, also earning that distinction in 2006 and '08 (when he went 10-2). Princeton epee standout Ben Solomon earned the first-team honor every year from 2003-06.
Columbia teammates Spear (14-1 in '08) and Farrag (10-5 in '08) earned first-team status for the second time, as did Ungar – who was a first-teamer in 2007 before finishing atop the epee charts this season.
The infusion of the six talented freshmen referenced above played a part six talented veterans failing to repeat as first-teamers (in fact, all six also fell short of the second team). Most notably, three fencers fell short of joining Pearce with a third career first-team finish: the Columbiaduo of junior foilist Kurt Getz and senior epeeist Max Czapanskiy (both 8-7 in '09), plus Harvard foilist Kai Itameri-Kinter (9-6). Czapanskiy and Itameri-Kinter both had been first-teamers in 2006 and '08.
Two other Columbia epeeists – senior Lorenzo Castertano (5-7, after going 11-4 in '08) and junior Dwight Smith (8-7) failed to post their second career first-team finish (Smith had been a top finisher in '07, before making a bid for the Olympics in '08). Yale junior John Gurrieri (6-7) also came several wins shy of repeating as a first-teamer.
Nearly all of the 18 men's fencer who comprise the 2009 all-Ivy League group hail from three home states: New Jersey (7), New York (4) and California (4), plus two from Pennsylvania and one Swede. The seven N.J. natives include all four of the epee first-teamers: Mills (Milburn), Farrag (Bayonne), Pantel (Mendham) and Grodman (Califon).
The growing quality of west-coast fencing can be seen in this foursome of elite competitors: Pearce (San Francisco), Gegan (Los Angeles), Simmons (Sonoma) and Yale senior sabreist Sebastian Cano-Besquet (Agoura Hills), whose 7-5 record earned him a spot on the Ivy League second team.
2009 ALL-IVY LEAGUE MEN'S FENCERS
MEN'S FOIL
First Team
Alexander Mills (Princeton, Fr.; Milburn, NJ ... 11-2/.846)
Sherif Farrag (Columbia, Sr.; Bayonne, NJ ... 12-3/.800)
Adam Pantel (Brown, Jr.; Mendham, NJ ... 11-4/.733)
Zane Grodman (Penn, Fr.; Califon, NJ ... 11-4/.733)
Second Team
Alex Simmons (Penn, Fr.; Sonoma, CA ... 10-5/.667)
Vidur Kapur (Penn, Fr.; Syosset, NY ... 10-5/.667)
MEN'S EPEE
First Team
Benji Ungar (Harvard, Sr.; Bronx, NY ... 11-1/.917)
Cooper Gegan (Princeton, Fr.; Los Angeles, CA ... 11-4/.733)
Michael Pearce (Yale, Sr.; San Francisco, CA ... 9-4/.692)
Second Team
Jacob Wischnia (Penn, So.; Elkins Park, PA ... 10-5/.667)
Karl Harmenberg (Harvard, Jr,; Stockholm, Sweden ... 10-5/.667)
Ben Wieder (Penn, Sr.; Westfield, NJ ... 9-6/.600)
MEN'S SABRE
First Team
Jeff Spear (Columbia, Jr.; Wynantskill, NY ...14-1/.933)
Andrew Bielen (Penn, Jr.; Philadelphia, PA ... 13-2/.867)
Jonathan Berkowsky (Penn, Jr.; Sicklerville, NJ ... 13-2/.867)
Valentin Staller (Harvard, Fr.; Old Field, NY ... 13-2/.867)
Second Team
Alex Rudnicki (Columbia, Jr.; Colonia, NJ ... 11-4/.733)
Sebastian Cano-Besquet (Yale, Sr.; Agoura Hills, CA ... 7-5/.583)