Date: Tuesday, March 4, 2003

WOMEN'S FENCING CONTINUES SUCCESSFUL SEASON AT NCAA REGIONALS

MEDFORD – The Tufts University Women's Fencing team is enjoying unprecedented success this winter, and the season's not finished yet. Members of Head Coach Jason Sachs' team will compete at the NCAA Regional Championships hosted by New York University on Sunday (Mar. 9).

Fencing at Nationals for Tufts will be freshman Sasha Brodski (Chestnut Hill, MA), senior co-captain Frances Harper (South Pittsburgh, TN) and junior Talia Alxander (Charlottesville, VA) in Epee. In the Foil division for Tufts will be freshman Julia Shih (North Caldwell, NJ), sophomore Zinger Yang (Taipei City, Taiwan) and junior Christina Zahara (Georgetown, MA). Senior Mika Mutoh (Aichi, Japan), senior Kasara Williams (Fortuna, CA) and freshman Kat Zouein (Leawood, KS) are the Saber squad.

The NCAA regionals are entirely individual. The Jumbo nine will be competing to qualify for the NCAA national competition in Colorado Springs on March 21-22. In order to qualify for regionals, individual fencers must have won 25-percent of their bouts against the NCAA schools the team faced this season.  Tufts qualified the maximum three each per weapon.

"This is a first," Sachs said. "We normally qualify about six."

The Jumbos enjoyed great success also as a team this season. They took home four trophies from the NIWFA (National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association) Championships at Stevens Tech last Saturday (Mar. 1).  Tufts was the Division III team champion and earned the West Point Trophy as the runner-up overall behind Division I Temple. Fourteen teams total were in the competition. Tufts also won the Giorgio Santelli Trophy as Saber Team Champions. The highlight of the day came in Sabers when Williams shocked everyone by winning the individual title, 15-9, against Temple's Sakinah Shaahid, who was fourth at last year's NCAA Championships. Williams earned the NIWFA Trophy with the victory.

"It was one of those beautiful moments that all athletes who work hard dream about," Sachs said.

Brodski placed third in epee, Zouein was third in saber and Yang took sixth in foil also for the Jumbos at the NIWFA's. Tufts placed fifth in foil and seventh in epee as a team at the competition.

The New England Championships were held at New Hampshire on February 23 and Tufts placed second out of 12 teams. MIT won, Boston College was third, and Brown took fourth. The Jumbo saber team won their competition, foil placed third and epee was sixth. Six of the nine Tufts fencers (three per weapon) made the individual finals. Zouein, Mutoh and Williams were first, second, and fourth, respectively, in the saber individuals, while Yang (fifth) and Shih (ninth) made the foil finals, and Brodksi (ninth) made the epee finals.

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