By Josephine Emanuelli
The Drew University fencing teams opened their 2016-2017 season in dominating fashion this past weekend, with the women’s team going 7-0 in the Fall Fencing Classic. The men’s team finished with a strong 6-1 record, with their only loss being to Rutgers University, a Division I program.
Pearl Sutter (’18), sabre captain, led the women’s squad with an undefeated record of 13-0, helping to lead the women to their victory. In addition, strong performances were seen by Claudia West (’19) in epee, as she finished with a 15-2 record and foil captain Caitlin Kotz (’19) finished with a 14-1 record. Kotz is the returning most valuable player on the squad. In addition to these strong performances, four other fencers on the women’s team turned in wins in the double digits. On epee, Lauren Gonnelli (’18) and Anna Scheckel (’18) each had ten wins. Two freshman rounded out the double-digit wins in their collegiate debut, as Marina Hahn (’20) went 10-1 in epee and Lydia Segal (’20) went 10-1 in foil.
The men were led by epee captain Andrew Pidhorodeckyj (’19) as he finished the day 20-0, a perfect start to his season. In addition, Omar Hargrove (’19) went 13-5, adding to the strong record of the epee squad. On their collegiate debut, Zack Benicewicz (’20) and Wyatt O’Leary (’20) both proved they will begin contributing early on to the sabre squad, as Benicewicz went undefeated with a 13-0 record and O’Leary delivered a strong 10-3 performance.
Hoping to continue their momentum, the Rangers travel to the Vassar College Open next Sunday, November 13 where they face off against Vassar College, Stevens Institute of Technology, Queens College, Army, Hunter College, Tufts University, and the City College of New York.
