MADISON, NJ – Johns Hopkins won four of its five matches on the first day of the Ranger Invitational Saturday. JHU earned wins over Detroit Mercy (19-8), Stevens (17-10), Lawrence (19-8) and Wayne State (18-9) and dropped a close 14-13 match to Cleveland State.
 
Hopkins opened the day against Cleveland State, with the Blue Jays grabbing wins in the Sabre (7-2) and Epee (5-4), while the Vikings took the Foil, 8-1. James Knox led the Epee squad with three wins while Ayan Bhatnagar won two of his three. In the Sabre, Alex Chterental won each of his three bouts while Alexander Pi and Noah Zeng won two bouts each.  
 
JHU rebounded with a weapons' sweep en route to the win over Detroit Mercy. Cyrus Contractor won all three of his bouts and Ariel Eybelman and Zeng each won two. In the Foil, it was Yi Peng Sha leading the way with three wins to go with a pair of wins for Borna Andric. The Epee squad completed the sweep, led by Bhatnagar's three wins.
 
Hopkins then earned wins in the Sabre (8-1) and Epee (6-3) to beat Stevens. Chterental and Zeng combined for six wins to lead the Sabre squad, while Knox did the same in the Epee. Nathan Kim won a pair in the Epee for the Jays and Sha accounted for all three wins in the Foil.
 
The Blue Jays again rode wins in the Sabre (7-2) and Epee (8-1) to a team win over Lawrence. Pi won all three of his bouts while Zeng and Leonid Kotov each won two. Kotov's first win was the 100^th of his career. In the Epee, it was Athreya Aravind and Knox leading the way with a combined six wins. The Foil squad dropped a tight 5-4 bout, led by Andric's three wins.
 
Hopkins closed out day one with a weapons' sweep over Wayne State. Kotov and Zeng won two bouts each, with Kotov clinching the win a 6-3 win in the Sabre. Sha won all three of his bouts, including the clinching win in the final bout, to lead the Foil squad to a 5-4 win. Knox again won all three of his bouts to lead the Epee squad to a 7-2 win.