PHILADELPHIA, PA – Nicole Yu and Josephine Chang led Johns Hopkins with a pair of top-10 finishes at the Coach Nikki Franke Classic Saturday. Yu led the Blue Jays as she finished in a tie for third in the Epee while Chang took seventh place in the Sabre.
 
In her first collegiate event, Yu finished with a 10-4 record and advanced to the semifinals in the Epee. Her run ended with a loss in the semis to the eventual winner. Yu's third-place finish in the best by a Blue Jay freshman in the Epee at the Frank Classic (formerly Temple Open) since at least 2000. It is also just the fourth top-three finish by any Blue Jay Epeeist at the event. Mickey Zhang finished in 15^th place, a career best, with a 6-5 record on the day. Thansi Garikipati placed 37^th, out of 87, in her collegiate debut. She finished the day with a 7-3 record.
 
Chang turned in her third career top-10 finish at the Franke Classic and led a contingent of six Blue Jays in the Sabre. She went 9-3 on the day to place seventh out of 78. She now has 294 wins in her career and needs six to become just the second fencer, in any weapon, in program history with 300 wins. Maya Balakumaran finished in a tie for 18^th, a career best, and went 9-3 on the day. Alexis Li posted a 5-6 record in her first collegiate meet and placed 26^th. Ky McSweeney placed 34^th with a 6-5 record while Maddie Huang placed 41^st (7-4) and Jessie Tong took 42^nd place (4-7).
 
Rosy Cepero led the Blue Jays with a 17^th place finish in the Foil, out of 68 fencers. She won eight off 11 bouts and her finish is a career best. Bethany Lee also had a career-best finish, taking 18^th place with a record of 6-5. She needs just two wins to reach 200 for her career. Another Blue Jay making their debut, Nina Markovsky went 5-5 and placed 23^rd. Julianna Wu finished with a 6-4 record to place 24^th.
 
Hopkins returns to action on Sunday, November 2 at the Drew Invitational.