Feb. 13, 2006

Durham, NC - The Johns Hopkins men's fencing team improved to 20-12 on the season at the Duke Invitational, picking up wins over host Duke University (15-12), Cleveland State University (19-8) and MIT (14-13) on Friday. The Blue Jays suffered losses to Brandeis (16-11) and the University of North Carolina (15-12).

Against Duke, Hopkins lost 5-4 in the epee and 7-2 in the saber but a 9-0 victory in the foil led the Blue Jays to a 15-12 win over the Blue Devils. Hopkins swept the epee (5-4), the foil (5-4) and the saber (9-0) in a dominating 19-8 win over Cleveland State. The Blue Jays won a close match with MIT 14-13. Wins in the saber (6-3) and the foil (6-3) helped Hopkins to a win over MIT, despite a 7-2 loss in the epee.

The Blue Jays dropped tough decisions to Brandeis and North Carolina. Against the Judges, Hopkins won in the epee 6-3, but then lost in the foil (6-3) and the saber (7-2). Hopkins defeated the Tar Heels 7-2 in the foil, but lost in the epee (7-2) and the saber (6-3) for a tough 15-12 loss to North Carolina. The Tar Heels won all five dual matches at the invitational.

For the Blue Jays, freshman Daniel Zielinski (Bernardsville, NJ/Bernards) went 10-5 in the epee. Junior Nick Marchuk (Ringoes, NJ/The Hun School) and freshman Den Dorfman (Lebanon, NJ/North Hunterdon) were impressive in the foil, going 11-3 and 10-3 respectively. Freshman Alex Bachman (Morristown, NJ/Oratory Prepatory) was steady in the saber, going 7-7.