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Note: CF360 will be breaking down the IFAs later on the blog (by weapon, with each post recapping the team and individual competition).


The University of Pennsylvania took home a total of six first-place awards at the 2009 Intercollegiate Fencing Association Championships – most notably finishing atop the men's/women's combined standings (six weapons) and the men's three-weapon standings. The Quakers also won the men's sabre team event, tied for first in two other weapon groups (women's sabre and men's epee), and had one individual champion in freshman men's epeeist Alex Simmons.


One frustrating aspect of collegiate fencing is that elite competitors often miss certain college tournaments – due to international competitions, nagging injuries, or simply opting to let other teammates take their spot. That frustrating absence of many top fencers certainly proved to be the case on Sunday, producing several "what-if?" scenarios for multiple teams (see below). By CF360's count, at least 15 noteworthy fencers (and likely more) did not take to the strips today at Brandeis'' Gosman Athletic Center. Those 15 include four Columbia women, three Princeton women, three Princeton men, two Columbia men, two Harvard women and a member of Brown's women's team: 


Princeton women (3): foilist Lucille Jarry, and epeeists Jasjit Bhinder and Susannah Scanlan
Princeton men (3): epeeist Graham Wicas, and foilists Alex Mills and Clayton Flanders

Columbia women (4): sabreists Daria Schneider and Jackie Jacobson, and epeeists Tess Finkel and Martyna Urbanowicz
Columbia men (2): foilist Kurt Getz and epeeist Dwight Smith

Harvard women (2): foilist Emily Cross and epeeist Noam Mills
Brown women (1): sabreist Randi Alevi


Despite the absence of its four key women's fencers noted above, Columbia still managed to become the first women's team ever to sweep all three IFA women's team titles (placed first in foil and epee, tied for first in sabre) – and thus the Lions obviously won the 2009 IFA overall women's title. Columbia collected the most first-place awards (7) of any fencing program in the tourmament, also producing three individual champions: junior men's sabreist Jeff Spear, sophomore women's foilist Nicole Ross, and freshman women's epeeist Neely Brandfield-Harvey.

There were a total of 15 competitions held on Sunday (men's/women's combined, men's 3-weapon, women's 3-weapon, and both team and individual in the six weapons), with Columbia and Penn combining to claim 13 of the 17 first-place awards (there were co-champions in two events). Harvard tied for first in men's epee and featured two individual champs – fifth-year senior men's epeeist Benji Ungar and freshman women's sabreist Carolina Vloka – while Yale was the men's foil team champion and received the historic Little Iron Man Trophy that dates back to the 1890s.

This marks the first time that Penn has won the IFA combined men's/women's championship (that event was added to the IFAs in 1996). The Quakers came home with the men's trophy for the first time since 1990 (10th all-time), while the Columbia women won the IFA women's competition outright for the first time (the Lions women were IFA co-champs in 2003).

Penn's 11-point victory over Columbia in the combined championship (145-134; Harvard was a distant third at 119) included a key nine-point margin in men's epee (plus a five-point edge in men's sabre). The Quakers also cposted a three-point advantage in men's foil – and Columbia's first-place finish in all three women's weapons was not enough to overcome that 17-point total deficit in the men's weapons (the teams tied in women's sabre, with Columbia claiming a five-point margin in women's epee but outscoring Penn by only one win/point in women's foil).

2009 Intercollegiate Fencing Association (IFA)
Combined Men's/Women's Final Standings

1. Pennsylvania ...... 145-40 (w-72/2nd, m-73/1st)
     WF 24,  WE 23,  WS 25  ......  MF 23,  ME 25,  MS 25  

2. Columbia ............. 134-51 (w-78/1st, m-56/3rd)
     WF 25,  WE 28,  WS 25  ......  MF 20,  ME 16,  MS 20 

3. Harvard ...............  119-66 (w-60/4th, m-59/2nd)
     WF 22,  WE 16,  WS 22  .....  MF 21,  ME 25,  MS 13

4. Princeton ............  113-72 (w-62/3rd, m-51/4th)
     WF 21,  WE 19,  WS 22  ......  MF 14,  ME 22,  MS 15 

5. Yale ........................ 98-78 (w-54/5th, m-44/5th)

     WF 16,  WE 21,  WS 17  ......  MF 24,  ME 8,   MS 12

6. Brandeis ................ 81-104 (w-46/7th, m-35/7th)
     WF 14,  WE 17,  WS 15  .....  MF 13,  ME 10,  MS 12 

7. MIT .......................... 80-105 (w-50/6th, m-30/10th)

     WF 15,  WE 17,  WS 18  ......  MF 11,  ME 11,  MS 8

8. Boston College ..... 75-110 (w-40/9th, m-35/6th)

     WF 13,  WE 13,  WS 14  ......  MF 9,    ME 11,  MS 15

9. NYU ........................ 63-122 (w-29/11th, m-34/8th)

     WF 17,  WE 3,    WS 9  ........  MF 6,    ME 17,  MS 11

10. Vassar ................. 49-136 (w-18/12th, m-31/9th)

     WF 2,  WE 12,  WS 4  .........  MF 7,    ME 14,  MS 10  

11. Brown .................. 46-111 (w-29/10th, m-17/11th)

     WF 3,   WE 6,     WS 20  .....  MF 7,    ME 6,    MS 4

12. Cornell ................ 45-53 (women/8th)

     WF 15,  WE 23,   WS 7

Feb 28, 2009 8:47 PM

    editor@collegefencing360.com