Jan. 27, 2010
BALTIMORE, MD - The Johns Hopkins men's fencing team returned to action after the holidays at the US Fencing North American Cup in San Jose, CA. The following week, Hopkins took on three top 10 Division I opponents at the Penn State Invitational. The Blue Jays went 1-3 overall at the invitational, picking up their lone win against the Drew Rangers.
At the North American Cup, freshman Sid Menon (Glen Allen, VA/Deep Run) competed in the Junior Men's Sabre, finishing 99th out of 132 competitors. Senior Max Wieder (Westfield, NJ/Westfield) competed in the Division I Men's Sabre and finished 112th out of 147 competitors.
At Penn State, Hopkins took on top-ranked and defending NCAA Champion Penn State, sixth-ranked Penn, 10th-ranked Duke and Drew. Hopkins lost to Penn State (22-5), Penn (22-5) and Duke (23-4), but picked up a 15-12 win over Drew.
Against the Nittany Lions, junior Nick Krywopusk (Richboro, PA/Princeton Day School (NJ)) led the Blue Jays with a 2-1 record in the Epee. And in the Sabre, Wieder also went 2-1, including a win over the defending NCAA Champion, Alex Ochocki.
Against the Quakers, senior Ian McCue (Yardley, PA/Princeton Day School (NJ)) picked up the lone win in the Foil, going 1-2 for the Blue Jays. In the Epee, Krywopusk and senior Chris Mihalsky (Edmond, OK/Edmond) each earned a win. And in the Sabre, Wieder and freshman Nicolas Barbera (Mountainside, NJ/Union County) each won one bout.
Krywopusk won two of his three bouts in the Epee against Duke to pace Hopkins. While in the Foil and Sabre, senior Harry Oppenheim (Weston, FL/University School of NSU) and Wieder each won one bout.
Against Drew, the Rangers won the Epee, 6-3. But Hopkins took the Sabre (7-2) and the Foil (5-4) to take the match. Krywopusk again paced Hopkins in the Epee, winning two of his three bouts. In the Foil, Oppenheim went 3-0 and clinched the win with his win over Richard Chiu. In the Sabre, Wieder and Barbera each went undefeated to lead Hopkins.
Hopkins returns to action this weekend at the Northwestern Duals in Evanston, IL on January 30-31.