Charles Roth's seventh-place finish leads the way for UNC fencing at Penn State Open

The North Carolina fencing team competed in the 47th annual Garret Open, which was hosted at Penn State on Saturday and Sunday.

What happened?

The North Carolina women’s fencing team competed in the women’s foil, women’s epee and women’s saber events on Saturday.

To open the competition, five Tar Heels competed in the women’s foil event. After the opening round, Aubrey Molloy, Sophia Mandour, Sarah Followill and Carlexa Fevry advanced to the second round. 

In the second round, Molloy was eliminated, but the other three Tar Heels advanced. In the third, Followill secured one victory, Mandour had four victories and Fevry had zero victories, but they were all eliminated. 

The next event was the women’s epee, and Darby Haskel, Charlotte Summers and Claire Harmon competed. Both Haskel and Summers advanced to the second round. 

In the second round, Haskel was eliminated, while Summers advanced after securing two victories. In the third, Summers secured four victories and advanced to the round-of-16, where she was eliminated.

In the women’s saber, seven Tar Heels competed, and Julia Parzecki, Abigale Parker and Clara Somfelean all made it to the third round. 

In the third round, Parzecki won three bouts, Parker won one and Somfelean won four. Somfelean and Parzecki both advanced to the fourth round, but their competition ended in that round when both lost their bouts. 

On Sunday, it was time for the men’s events. 

In the men’s foil event, five Tar Heels competed, and all five advanced to the second round. Will Palazzolo and Lucas Fernandez won three bouts each and Connor Head won two, advancing all of them to the third round.

In that round, Palazzolo won three bouts, Fernandez won two and Head was eliminated after wining one bout. Both Fernandez and Palazzolo advanced to the final 16, but lost and were eliminated.

In the men’s epee, Cameron Santos, Joe Taylor and Charles Roth advanced to the second round. With all three of the Tar Heels in separate pools, Santos and Roth won three bouts, and Taylor won two to advance to the next round.

In the third, Roth and Tayor won three bouts, and Santos won two, both of whom advanced. In the fourth round, Taylor and Santos both lost their bouts and were eliminated. Roth survived by winning his bout and advanced to the quarterfinals, but he was later eliminated in that round after losing a bout. 

In the men’s saber, Bernard Witek and Beni Rabinowitz survived the first round and advanced. In the second round, Witek was eliminated, but Rabinowitz advanced to the third round after two victories.

As the lone Tar Heel left, Rabinowitz had three victories and advanced to the table of 16, where he was eliminated after losing a bout, 15-11.

Who stood out?

Mandour stood out in the women’s foil event, and was the highest-placed Tar Heel in the first day of competition. In this event, she had eight bout victories, four of which came in the third round. She went on to place ninth in the event. 

In addition, Roth stood out for North Carolina as well. In the men’s epee, Roth won ten bouts through four rounds. Plus, he was the only Tar Heel throughout the weekend to advance to the final eight. Although Roth did not reach the semifinals, he did finish in seventh place.

Why does it matter?

After starting the season at the Temple Open, the Tar Heels returned to a big competition where they faced fencers from other solid colleges. In addition, this is the first time UNC will face Penn State fencers this year. On Jan. 12, the teams next meet, they will take on Penn State in a dual meet. 

When do they play next?

The North Carolina fencing team will compete in the Penn State Dual meet on Jan. 12, 2020.

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