To participate in this 12-hour intercollegiate conference, each school must have members fencing with each of the different swords-foil, saber and epée-and be able to provide its own equipment. Due to lack of membership and equipment Amherst had not able to participate in recent conferences, but now the Jeffs are back.
"This was the first time Amherst College had enough members and equipment to field a full team in a long, long time and so this was incredibly exciting for us," said captain Padraic Gerety '07.
This year, Dan Berman '09, Viet Dzung '08 and Chen Xie '09 fenced epée. Gerety, Ben Purkis '07 and Dan Lees '08 participated in the men's foil category, with Chris Forney '07 and Ste Xue '06 as alternates. The men's saber squad was comprised of Tim Shapiro '07, Kyle Virgien '08 and Ben Kaufman '07, with sophomores Ryan Kao and Cong Geng as alternates.
As for the ladies, Hilary Palevsky '07, Maya Miller-Vedam '09 and Marissa Drehobl '08 made up the epée squad, while sophomores Laura Sarli, Lidya Tarhan and Iris Hartley fenced with foil. First-years Erin Chung and Jennifer Li completed the team by competing the sabre competition.
"A number of our fencers were relatively new to competition in general and so I was quite proud of everyone for pulling together and making the team feel stronger than ever," said Gerety.
Indeed, for many Amherst fencers, this was their first exposure to an intercollegiate competition, and many of them were relatively new to the particular weapon they were competing with.
"[The tournament] was a little overwhelming, but it was great to see all this great fencing, some from our own teammates," said Li, who is a rookie to the sport.
In addition to having completely new fencers, some of the Jeffs were competing in unfamiliar events. "This was my first competition fencing saber. It was exciting to fence a new weapon," said Chen, who had fenced foil in previous competitions. "More importantly, [it was] great to compete as a team. On Sunday, we really were there for each other."
Not only were the athletes there for each other, Head Coach Jeff Lord was present for the entire event. "Our coach was invaluable not only in terms of fencing strategy but in providing a positive and sobering attitude that kept our wits about us," said Gerety.
"He was very helpful," added Lees. "He brings his experience as someone who's been fencing [for] a long time. He's seen a lot of tricks, and knows you cannot win every bout."
The women's sabre team placed 15th, while foil placed 12th and epée 15th. The men's team placed 12th in the sabre category, 7th in foil and 12th in epée.
"The other teams were very good, and although we didn't place high, we did very well, especially considering that a large portion of the team consisted of people with two weeks' experience with their weapons," said Chung. "We also prided ourselves on good sportsmanship."
"I think, considering our preparation and experience, that Amherst did very well. I must also say that we have the most civilized fencing team in all of New England, as we were the only team without a yeller or a shrieker," added Li.
The team is now preparing to compete in the Six Weapon Open at the Prise de Fer Fencing Club in North Billerica, Mass., which takes place in early March.