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June 22, 2009 - Congratulations and Welcome Cornell Class of 2013!

Congratulations to all members of the Cornell Class of 2013. To all prospective fencers, we look forward to another great season. Whatever your level of ability or experience, we welcome all fencers and athletes to practice with us. There will be optional meetings for anyone interested in participating on August 24th and August 26th on Rawlings Green (times are still tentative). We would appreciate if new fencers could stop by to be placed on the current roster, and to meet some current members of the team. Enjoy your summers, and we look forward to meeting you in the fall!

Questions may be sent to Co-Captain Mike Fotinatos. (maf283@cornell.edu)

April 19, 2009 - Fotinatos and Heiner fence U19 Sectionals

On Sunday, Mike Fotinatos '12 and Nick Heiner '12 fenced the North Atlantic Junior (U19) Sectionals in Rochester, NY. With 56 competitors, it fell a little short of being an A4 event.

Early in his pool Fotinatos suffered an injury to his hand that lead to the development of a massive blood blister, making parries a painful proposition. He soldiered on and finished the pool 3-3. For DEs, he considered switching to his uninjured left hand (he briefly fenced a lefty in high school). However, he concluded this would be a bad idea and managed to win his first DE right handed. His next bout, against Barrett Weiss, was at 9-9 before Fotinatos received yet another flick to the hand, at which point he could barely continue fencing. Weiss defeated Fotinatos 15-9 and went on to win the entire event. Mike ended up 27th / 56.

Heiner was 5-1 in his pool. He seeded 8th out of pools. After a bye into the round of 32, he fenced Prince for the 16. Although Heiner got off to a 6-0 lead, and was later ahead 10-5, Prince made a last-minute comeback, narrowing Heiner's lead to 12-10 with :26 remaining in the bout. At this point Prince's body cord broke. During the equipment change, Heiner was able to keep up his focus whereas Prince was not. Heiner won 15-10 shortly after the bout resumed.

Heiner's next bout was against Portela. Although it was looking close at 11-11, he pulled ahead to win 15-11.

Heiner lost his next DE 15-9 to James Weiss, ending up 6th / 56.

AskFred results

April 5, 2009 - Men's Fencing takes 5th Overall at USACFC Championships

men at club champs with medals and trophy

Wisconsin Dells, WI - The Big Red Men's Fencing Team travelled to Wisconsin Dells this weekend to compete in the USACFC Championships against 32 schools from across the nation. It was a two day tournament hosted at the Wisconsin Dells Convention Center by the University of Wisconsin.

The first day of the tournament consists of a round of pools, seeded by skill rating from the regular season tournaments of which Cornell is part of the Mid Atlantic Collegiate Fencing Association (MACFA). Pre rankings left the Epee Squad ranked 20th, the Sabre Squad ranked 10th, and the Foil Squad ranked 5th out of all of the squads attending.

The round of pools is fenced with three bouts between each squad. The A, B, and C strip each fence one bout against the A, B, or C strip of the other team (respectively). Two out of three bouts is considered a win over that school.

After the first round of pools, the Sabre Squad had lost to just one team, Arizona State, and left MJ Kim '11 ranked 6th in the A division, Captain Greg Calosso '09 ranked 5th in the B division, and Mike Fotinatos '12 ranked 1st in the C division by just one touch. Fotinatos thus qualified to compete in the individual playoffs. The Sabre Squad was then re-ranked to 9th after pools.

The Epee squad, with James Roll '09, Angel Vasquez '11, and Bryan Mills '12, fought hard, but came up quite short in their pool, ending the day ranked 21st.

The Foil squad came out fighting and fierce, losing to just one team, University of Michigan. In their pool, Nick Heiner '12 was ranked 1st in the A division for the foil squad, Jeremy Luterbacher grad ranked 1st in the B division, and Ethan Peck '09 ranked 1st in the C division. All advancing to the individual round, the foil squad was seeded 1st out of the pools.

Mike Fotinatos progressed to the finals for the individual round by just one touch and proceeded to earn 7th overall in Sabre in the tournament. Nick Heiner and Jeremy Luterbacher also continued to the finals for the individual round for Foil. Luterbacher placed 8th , and Nick Heiner took home the Silver Medal.

The second day of the tournament was a 32 team bracket for each squad where the three fencers from each squad would fence all three fencers from opposing squads. The first team to reach 5 wins would move on to the next round. All spots in the bracket were fenced out.

All three squads won in the first round putting them all in the Sweet 16 with the Epee squad upsetting #12 Vermont. The Epee squad then lost 5-4 to #5 USC moving them to eventually place 16th overall.

The Sabre Squad took on #24 Purdue in the first round winning 5-1, and then took on long time MACFA rival #25 William and Mary who had upset #8 Swarthmore in the previous round. The Big Red Sabrists beat William and Mary 5-2 bringing them to take on #1 Arizona State who they had lost to the previous day. Although they lost to the #1 seed, they then beat the #5 seed UCLA (5-3). The Sabrists took 6th overall in the tournament.

The Foil squad demolished #16 Arizona State (5-1) and then did the same to #8 Northwestern (5-1), bringing them to the Semi-Finals to take on #4 Michigan who they had suffered their one loss to the day before. Each Big Red Foilist stepped up and took down Michigan (5-1) to advance to the finals. The final round featured Cornell vs. host school #2 Wisconsin. The Big Red took down Wisconsin with ease (5-1) to capture the Gold Medal for 1st place for Men's Foil. The last time Cornell had won 1st place in Foil was in 2004.

Overall, the Men accumulated 695 out of 960 points in the team competition, ranking them 5th overall among Men's teams. University of Florida took 1st, University of Michigan took 2nd, Northwestern took 3rd, and Arizona State took 4th among Men's Teams.

March 21, 2009 - Yin wins Spruill-Masters Open; Heiner earns his A09

Longda Yin '07 and Nick Heiner '12 both won tournaments this weekend in Texas and Washington state, respectively.

Longda won the 2009 Spruill-Masters Open. He earned his B09. After getting the top seed out of pools, Longda slaughtered the direct elimination table, giving up no more than six points per bout. He won the final 15-2.

Nick won the Fleur de Lys St. Paddy's Day Tournament, earning him his A09. He defeated two Bs and an A on his path to the podium.

March 14, 2009 - Calosso, Fotinatos and Heiner fence RIT's Red Tape Open

ROCHESTER, NY - Captain Greg Calosso '10 traveled with Mike Fotinatos '12 and Nick Heiner '12 to fence in the Red Tape open at the Rochester Institute of Technology. With only one touch received each, Fotinatos and Heiner were tied for first place coming out of the pools. Heiner won the coin toss, forcing Fotinatos to defeat a B to reach the final bout. He won 15-14.

In the final bout, Fotinatos got off to an early lead, beating Heiner 6-2. Heiner brought it back to 14-14, but Fotinatos persevered to win 15-14.

Mike then joined Greg Calosso to fence saber. Mike swept his pool, whereas Greg went 4-3. Greg lost his first DE. Mike made it to the final, renewing his E in saber, but lost, ending up second.

Official Results

February 24, 2009 - Big Red Takes 4th at MACFA Champs

EASTON, PA - The Cornell Men's Fencing Team travelled to Lafayette College this past weekend to compete in the MACFA Championships. Going into the championships, the Big Red was ranked 6th in MACFA with Nick Heiner '12 ranked 3rd overall in Foil. The Championships are now run IFA style such that each team fences every other team during the day. Each fencer fences one bout per school, so there are 9 bouts per match. The top 4 A-Strip Fencers, top 3 B-Strip fencers, and top C-Strip fencer all qualify for a direct elimination individual round for each weapon.

The Big Red started the day going undefeated against Stony Brook, losing just one bout to Army, going undefeated against Maryland, and losing just two bouts to William and Mary with a big win from Bryan Mills '12 against Max Brumby. Then the Red faced UNC where only C-Strip Sabre, Trevor Ertel '12, was able to get a win, yet they came back strong to beat UVA and Virginia Tech.

Next, the Red faced Johns Hopkins where the Sabre Squad went 2-1 with a big win from Greg Calosso '10, yet the team came just short of a win. One of the better bouts of the day came from Mike Fotinatos '12 against Lafayette Foilist Jarred Rottau when Mike found himself down 4-0 very quickly. After stopping to think and receiving encouraging yells and screams from the entire Big Red team, Mike worked his way back to tie it at 4-4 and then went on to win.

The day progressed with the Red finishing against rival Stevens Tech, where Trevor Ertel '12 started with a win for the Sabre Squad followed by two tough but close losses by Calosso '10 and MJ Kim '11. Nick Heiner '12 took down Stevens Foilist Lowden Charles for the second time this season to keep him from advancing to the individual round.

Trevor Ertel '12 went undefeated on C-Strip for the day to advance to the individual round, the only Cornell fencer to make individuals, but lost to the top seed Dzimitry Lamianski of Stevens.

On the day, the Big Red Foil Squad came in 5th edging Rutgers by 5 touches, and Lafayette by 20 touches. The Epee Squad came in 6th behind UNC, Johns Hopkins, Stevens, Army, and William and Mary, beating Drew and Rutgers. The Sabre Squad also came in 5th behind UNC, Stevens, Rutgers, and Hopkins. They edged Drew by 2 bouts and came short of Hopkins by one bout. Overall, Cornell came away with 97 wins, edging Rutgers by just a bout, and Drew by 2 bouts for an overall ranking of 4th in MACFA, improving the Red's Rankings by two positions from the regular season.

Order of Teams Fenced:
Stony Brook
Army
William and Mary
Maryland
UNC
UVA
Va Tech
Hopkins
Yeshiva
Drew
BYE
Hunter
Lafayette
NJIT
Rutgers
St Johns
Stevens

February 9, 2009 - NJIT Recap

NEWARK, NJ - This past weekend the Cornell Big Red Men's Fencing Team travelled to Newark, NJ to compete in the Final MACFA Mega-Meet of the season at New Jersey Institute of Technology. The Red took on six different schools, going 4-2 on the day, and finishing their season at a final 12-5 in MACFA for their best record in three years. The Big Red's only losses this year came to Drew, Rutgers, Stevens, UNC, and Johns Hopkins.

Nick Heiner '12 went into the day ranked as one of the top 5 foilists in MACFA. The Red started the day against St. Johns College with a big 24-3 win giving up just one loss in each weapon.

They then moved on to face Maryland, who they had not beaten since the 2005-2006 season. Here the Red Foil squad carried the team going 9-0 while the Sabre and Epee squad could only scrounge out three wins each for a final 15-12.

The Big Red then went into face the significantly improved Hunter College where they went 6-3 in both Epee and Sabre and only 5-4 in Foil to maintain the Foil Squad's amazing record on the year. The Red went into the Lunch break at 3-0 on the day with Nick Heiner '12 and Mike Fotinatos '12 both 8-1 leading the team.

The Red then faced their hardest matchups of the day after lunch: Drew, Lafayette, and Rutgers. Although both the Red Foil and Epee squad managed to beat the Drew squads 5-4 each, the Sabre Squad fell badly to the top ranked in MACFA Drew Sabrists 1-8, resulting in an 11-16 loss.

The Big Red then faced the much improved Lafayette team with two phenom foilists to face top ranked Nick Heiner '12, Mike Fotinatos '12, and Ethan Peck '09. The foil team managed to hold on to win once more 5-4, accompanied by a 5-4 epee victory. The Big Red Sabrists went 6-3 with a win from newcomer Ira Auerbach '09, resulting in a 16-11 win over Lafayette.

Next, the Red fenced the newcomer to MACFA, Rutgers, which lost Varsity status just last season, and thus is one of the stronger teams in MACFA having only lost to Drew, UNC, and Johns Hopkins. Yet, the Red put up an extremely strong fight, just losing 11-16. Cornell came out strong and underestimated against Rutgers. The Sabre Squad started 2-1 with wins from Calosso '10 and Kim '11, and Nick Heiner '12 started off with a win for the Big Red Foil Squad as did Angel Vasquez '11 for the Epee Squad. But the well seasoned Rutgers fencers analyzed the Sabre squad well, not allowing a win for the rest of the match although both Calosso '10 and Auerbach '09 lost grueling come-back bouts 4-5, resulting in a final 2-7 loss for the Big Red Sabres. The Epee squad went down harshly 4-5 despite Angel Vasquez '11 fencing his best bouts of the year going 3-0. The Foil squad proceeded onward with the match tied at 3-3 after the second round.

Fotinatos '12 started the third round off strongly with a win, but Peck '09 couldn't secure a win which brought the Foil squad to a must need win for the squad to maintain their record, with Nick Heiner '12 against Rutgers' A-Strip fencer Cho. After coming back from being down 2-4 with just over a minute remaining, Heiner brought the score to 4-4 with 30 seconds on the clock. Heiner took a classic parry-riposte for the win, ending the bout 5-4 and keep the Foil squad record high. Rutgers' senior fencer Cho ripped off his mask and threw it and his blade into the chairs without shaking Heiner's hand, almost resulting in a black card which was viciously disputed. If the black card was called correctly, the Red would have just fallen short 13-14, yet the final score was 11-16 in favor of Rutgers.

The best record was again achieved by Heiner '12 who went 16-2 on the day with honorable mention to MJ Kim '11 who led the Sabre Squad with a 10-6 record, Mike Fotinatos '12 who went 13-5 for the Foil Squad, Epee Bryan Mills '12 who went 11-7, and Epee Captain Angel Vasquez '11 who also went 13-5 on the day.

Written by Greg Calosso

February 1, 2009 - MACFA Meet 2 at Stevens

HOBOKEN, NJ - The Big Red Men's Fencing Team travelled to Hoboken, NJ this past weekend where they fenced in Stevens Institute of Technology in a Mid Atlantic Collegiate Fencing Association (MACFA) Mega-meet. The Big Red started the day against Army where the Sabre squad led by Captain Greg Calosso came out with a strong start going 7-2. The Army foilists did prove a challenge to the Big Red, but the foil squad held on to win 5-4 and the Big Red began the day with a win.

Next, they faced NJIT and the Sabre Squad again pounced on the opposing team going 8-1. The NJIT Foil squad also presented a challenge but the Red took them down again led by Ethan Peck '09, Nick Heiner '12 , and Mike Fotinatos. Angel Vasquez and the Epee squad also dominated NJIT resulting in an overall 22-5 win.

The Red continued onward to fence newcomers to the MACFA division, SUNY Stony Brook. The Sabre squad again proved successful although encountering difficulty and held on to win 6-3 while the Epee and Foil Squads again dominated resulting in an 20-7 win over Stony Brook.

Next came the Red's toughest competitor of the day, Stevens Institute of Technology, coached by sabre fencing great Mik'ail Sankofa. The Red sabre squad proved to be no match to the top ranked Stevens Sabre squad and they went down losing 2-7. Yet, Angel Vasquez '11 , Bryan Mills '12, and Wen Xuan Lim '12 proved successful against the Stevens Epee squad going 5-4 to bring the match to within reach for the extremely strong Red Foil Squad. Stevens Foilists Lowden Charles and Ben Hochberg proved to be overly powerful against the Red foilists as Charles dropped just one bout to Nick Heiner '12 5-3, and Hochberg went undefeated against the Red resulting in a 3-6 loss by the foilists. It was an outstanding effort that came down to the wire and just a 4 touch difference for the score to have been reversed. Ethan Peck '09 made a valiant effort against Charles losing 4-5 with just seconds left.

The Red finished with the overall 17-10 loss to Stevens but finished on the day 3-1. The Red improved their overall record to 8-3 keeping them in a top 5 spot in MACFA. Cornell will be travelling to NJIT next weekend to finish their regular season against Drew, Hunter, Rutgers, St. Johns College, Maryland, and Lafayette. They will be travelling to Lafayette on February 22 for MACFA Championships.

Pictures from the event are here.

January 30, 2009 - Alumni Banquet Announcement

The Annual Fencing Team Alumni Banquet is Saturday, May 2, 2009. It is the day after Slope Day. If you are interested in coming, please fill out this form.

January 12, 2009 - Nick fences Battle in Seattle

Nick Heiner '12 fenced the Battle in Seattle, hosted at Rain City Fencing Center. With 14 As and Bs and 68 competitors, it was an A2 event. Heiner took 7th. (Official results)

January 3, 2009 - Tasha and Longda fence Duel in the Desert

Tasha Hall '10 and Longda Yin '07 fenced the Duel in the Desert. Hall was eliminated 14-15, finishing in the 16. Although this is less impressive than her past results at this tournament, it is a strong return to fencing after a semester abroad.

Sunday, December 21, 2008 - New Website Announcement

Welcome to the new Cornell Men's Fencing Team website. If you are a current member of the guys or girls team, you can log in to access additional content. Log in using your netid and the password I emailed you.

This website was made by Nick Todd Heiner and Initech (Nicole Gumbs, Soyoung Lee, Ben Perry, and Chethan Sabaru). It is maintained by Nick Heiner (nth23@cornell.edu), although he would love contributions from other people.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008 - Update from Captain Greg Calosso

The years that I've spent as a member of the Cornell Men's Fencing Team can be nothing but cherished. We have had amazing times together over my years on the team and have gone through both great victories and devastating losses.

I entered Cornell freshman year and was unsure if I would join the team or not. I remember attending the Club Sports Series on Appel Fields during orientation week when I spoke with former Captain Ari Cuenin and Sabre Captain Justin English and decided I would be joining this venture. I look at the two graduates now and see that they have stayed together, Ari in Duke Law, married; Justin in UNC working on a Ph.D, engaged to be married. So much has changed. Full Story

November 9, 2008 - MACFA Meet 1 at Haverford

The match against Haverford was sure to be tough as they had only lost one senior since last year and had an overwhelmingly impressive recruited freshman class. The match began with Men's Captain Greg Calosso and the Sabre Squad facing the young highly ranked Haverford Sabre squad where the Red went down hard losing 3-6 with two wins from Calosso and one from Jeremy Shiff '11. Next came the Epees led by Angel Vasquez '11, who did better but still lost 4-5. The young phenom Red Foil Squad was pressured to have to go 7-2 or better to be able to win the match.
Full Story