The CF360 blog will be shining some light today at the Northeast Fencing Conference (NFC), which – similar to west-coast fencing – often can get overshadowed by the perennial top-10 programs. The NFC recently completed its third and final stage of regular-season dual-meet tournaments, and several fencers from NFC teams are sure to play key roles at the 2009 NCAA Championships (a handful as All-America candidates ... but all of the NFC fencers who make the NCAAs certainly will have the chance to impact the fate of the top teams and individuals).
Upcoming blog posts will recap the NFC meet held a couple days ago at Tufts (in addition to a summary of the first two NFC meets).
The 14-member NFC is a collection of six schools that sponsor varsity men's and women's fencing teams (Boston College, Brandeis, Brown, MIT, Sacred Heart and Vassar), along with a "hybrid" fencing school in Tufts (varsity women's team, non-varsity men's teams), the varsity team from Wellesley (an all-women's school), and six non-varsity club programs (both genders): Boston University, Dartmouth, UMass, New Hampshire, Smith and Tufts.
Brown holds the unique distinction of also competing in the Ivy League (Dartmouth, as a club program, does not compete in Ivy League fencing). To further complicate things, Brown also is one of 12 teams that competes in the Intercollegiate Fencing Association (IFA) postseason tournament. The IFA essentially includes the six other Ivy League schools (Columbia, Cornell's women, Harvard, Penn, Princeton and Yale), along with four of the other NFC schools (Boston College, Brandeis, MIT and Vassar), and final NYU.
NFC teams have produced several All-America fencers (and other NCAA Tournament entrants) over the past few years – and some alums have been quite accomplished on the international level (such as former Brandeis fencer and two-time Olympian Tim Morehouse, a member of the U.S. men's sabre team that brought home silver medals from the 2008 Olympic games).
Twelve current NFC fencers – two men's foilists, one men's epeeist, three men's sabreists, two women's foilists, two women's epeeists two women's sabreists – are NCAA Tournament veterans (there are 24 entrants per weapon, with the top-12 earning All-America status):
• Brandeis men's foilist Will Friedman (7th at '08 NCAAs; 22nd in '06; 23rd in '07)
• Brown women's sabreist Randi Alevi (12th at '07 NCAAs; 14th in '08)
• Brown men's foilist Adam Pantel (17th at '08 NCAAs)
• MIT women's foilist Cordelia Link (18th at '07 NCAAs)
• Brown men's epeeist Adam Yanell (20th at '08 NCAAs)
• Boston College men's sabreist Malcolm Conley (20th at '07 NCAAs)
• MIT men's sabresit Igor Kopylov (20th at '06 NCAAs)
• Vassar men's sabreist Andrew Fischl (21st at '08 NCAAs)
The previous four NCAA Championships (2005-08) have featured a total of 25 fencers from current NFC teams (those fencers combined for 31 NCAA appearances during '05-'08). In addition to those listed above, other fencers from NFC teams that competed in the '05-'08 NCAAs include:
• Vassar men's foilist Michael Kantor (10th at '05 NCAAs)
• MIT men's foilist Spencer Sugimoto (11th at '06 NCAAs; 22nd in '05)
• Brandeis men's foilist Eugen Vortsman (14th at '08 NCAAs)
• Wellesley women's epeeist Sarah Abraham (15th at '05 NCAAs)
• Brandeis men's epeeist Kai Moritz-Keller (19th at '07 NCAAs; 21st in '05)
• Vassar men's sabreist Justin Bernstein (19th at '06 NCAAs)
• MIT women's foilist Susannah Dorfman (20th at '05 NCAAs)
• MIT men's epeeist Trevor Chang (20th at '05 NCAAs)
• Brown men's sabreist Dan Mahoney (21st at '07 NCAAs)
• Boston College men's epeeist Sam Richardson (22nd at '08 NCAAs; 24th in '06)
• Sacred Heart women's foilist Leanda Ferland (23rd at '05 NCAAs)
• Brown women's epeeist Ruth Schneider (24th at '06 NCAAs)
• Brandeis men's sabreist Jeremy Simpson (24th at '06 NCAAs)
The 31 NCAA appearances listed above include eight men's foilists, plue six men's sabreists, six men's epeeists, four women's foilists, four women's epeeists and three women's sabreists.
As shown in the above two lists, the All-Americans (top-12) from current NFC teams have been limited – but it likewise shows the potential of fencers from these fencing programs. The four recent All-Americans from current NFC teams include men's epeeist Friedman (7th in '08), men's foilists Kantor (10th in '05) and Sugimoto (11th in '06), and women's sabreist Alevi (12th in '07).
Kantor's 10th-place showing in 2005 included finishing above several noteworthy foilists, among them Penn State's Jeff Chang, St. John's standout Henry Kennard, Ohio State's Will Jeter, Columbia's Jeremy Sinkin and Harvard's Enich Woodhouse.
Sugimoto's 11th-place effort in '06 saw him place above the likes of Yale's Cory Werk, Woodhouse, Stanford's Richard Fulton, and the Penn State duo of Change and Alexander Louton. His brother Scott Sugimoto was a three-time All-America foilist at Columbia (6th in '05, 3rd in '06, 4th in '07).