The West Region fencing teams – namely Stanford, Air Force and UC San Diego – often can be overlooked at this time of year, but some elite fencers have competed for those teams in recent years (namely national-team standouts such as Air Force epeeist Seth Kelsey and Stanford foilist Iris Zimmermann). The region took a bit of a hit last spring, when Cal State Fullerton dropped its varsity fencing program – leaving the above three programs (plus Cal Tech) as the only teams competing in the West Region.
Even when the West does not boast many contenders for NCAA individual titles, the entrants from the West often end up playing key "spoiler" roles in their bouts against the top teams/fencers. It's been nearly a decade since a West-Region team was in the running for the NCAA team title, reaching back to the 2000 season (when Stanford placed fourth, only 12 points out of the top spot). The Cardinal was fourth again in 2001 – but 51 points out of first place – and Stanford has finished no higher than fifth in the past seven NCAA Championships (6th in '02, 7th in '03, 10th in '04, 11th in '05, 7th in '06, 9th in '07 and 8th in '08). Air Force has finished as high as ninth (in '03) and as low as 21st ('08) during the current decade.
CollegeFencing360 will be taking a look at the West Region fencers in an upcoming spotlight feature, but for now we can report on a tri-meet that was held over the weekend at UC San Diego. The Triton men posted a 24-3 win over Cal Tech and also defeated UC Irvine's club team (23-4), while the UCSD women likewise posted two wins (22-5 vs. Cal Tech, 24-3 vs. UCI).
The foil unit has been strong for UCSD's men's team this season and went 17-1 in the two victories. Cal Tech's women's sabre squad gave UCSD a battle, before losing 6-3.
The UCSD men return two fencers – foilist Ben Dorn and sabre veteran Bryan Kim – who competed in the 2008 NCAAs, but the Triton women must replace all four of their '08 NCAA entrants: foilists Florence Lee and Emily Lipoma, and the epee duo of Chelsea Ambort and Heather Stephenson. Ambort was a three-time NCAA participant and earned All-America honors in 2006, after placing 10th in the NCAA epee round-robin competition.
UCSD has one noteworthy recent addition, as sabreist Jon Ott joined the team this semester. Ott fenced as a freshman at Cal State Fullerton, before opting to transfer when the Titans dropped their varsity fencing programs. In addition to Dorn, Kim and Ott, women's foilist Alicea Pillar could emerge as an NCAA Tournament entrant this year.
We look forward to seeing how the West Region fencers fare this upcoming weekend at the Notre Dame Duals, most notably in their bouts against the Irish, versus the Northwestern women and against some of the Wayne State fencers (namely two-time NCAA men's epee champ Slava Zingerman). Stanford, Air Force, UCSD and Cal Tech all will be competing at the ND Joyce Center this weekend (note that many of the ND Duals team entrants are non-varsity club teams).