Full strength women's fencing team excels in Penn State Intercollegiate Open

At it's dual meet at Ohio State on Nov. 16, the North Carolina fencing team was missing several key female fencers. But a week later at the Penn State Intercollegiate Open, the script was flipped: the women's team was at full strength while the men's team was missing bodies. 

“We had much of our men missing,” Coach Ron Miller said. “Most everyone was disappointed with the team results last weekend."

But it wasn't the results themselves that kept the men from traveling to Pennsylvania. Miller went on to further explain how many of the men were missing due to exams and illnesses.

But at full strength, the Tar Heel women had a good showing at the Penn State Intercollegiate Open.

Out of the three events, UNC's women faired best in the sabre. Gill Litynski finished second in the event with Sarah Hanvy, Diana Philpot, Caitlin Malone and Meredith Bozentka finishing just outside the top 16.

“Anytime you can put a player in the top 16, you are doing well,” Miller said.

Additionally, Elli Moreno, still a freshman, finished 20th in the epee event, which Miller considered impressive for such a young fencer.

“Elli performed well and she is one of our captains,” Miller said.

In the foil event, Amanda Lalezarian, who is also an assistant visual editor at The Daily Tar Heel, finished in 20th place, for the top UNC score in that event.

“We all played very well,” sophomore Evan Philpot said. “The No. 1 thing to improve on is not underestimating ourselves."  

For the few men who did compete, Philpot and Christoph Rudenz were the only Tar Heels who competed in the sabre, but they ended up tying for third place.

In the men’s epee, senior Parker Williams finished 23rd. UNC had five representatives in the foil event: Gabe Foster, Harry Adams, Ezra Baeli-Wang, Jake Bernstein and Will Woliver-Jones, who finished 28th, 33rd, 33rd, 36th and 37th, respectively.

“Parker Williams did outstandingly,” Miller said.

The fencing team will not play another tournament or dual meet until January and will actually hold no team practice until the second week in January as well. But both players and coaches expressed that it is key that they get ready for the season ahead and not slack off during December. 

Players can still train with coaches at Chapel Hill if they want — the team just will not be meeting as a whole.

“We have almost a month off before we compete again,” Miller said.

With the holidays approaching, some members of the team are looking forward to the break in team action to refocus individually.

“I have a really great opportunity to train with my coach back home,” Litynski said.

Looking forward to the spring season, there are a lot of challenges: over half of the team is comprised of either sophomores or freshman and are training hard for the aspect that UNC excels in the most. 

“Dual meets are our strength,” Miller said.

sports@dailytarheel.com