After finishing just one point shy of a national title two years ago, the men's fencing team's foil squad couldn't even make the trip to the United States Association of Collegiate Fencing Clubs (USACFC) championships last season. Unable to afford the high travel costs, Tufts had to sit the tournament out and wait at least another year for the chance to finish what it had started in 2006.
That opportunity came last weekend, when the team only had to trek to Northampton, Mass. for the 2008 club nationals. Given another chance to compete on the national stage, the foilers finally put themselves over the top this time around.
Tufts' trio of senior Dan Tovrov and sophomores Sam McCauley and Dan Jamison bested a field of 32 squads to capture first place in the foil competition on Sunday for the squad's first national championship in recent memory. Foil's victory helped catapult Tufts to a 13th-place team finish overall at the championships.
"It's an incredible feeling," Tovrov said. "I've been on this high for the past few days since it happened. It's the perfect end to my career here, and it's just an awesome feeling."
Tufts clinched the title with a 5-3 victory over No. 1 William and Mary in the gold medal match. With the tournament's top fencer, William and Mary senior Tommy Hennig, a virtual lock to win all three of his bouts, Tufts knew it had to clamp down on the opposing B and C foilists in order to win the best-of-nine match.
"Their best fencer was by far the strongest in the tournament," McCauley said. "We knew that they probably had three victories right there, so of the remaining six bouts, we had to win five. If any of us messed up on one of them, all of a sudden, it would have been that much harder to win. It would have been very easy for us to make a mistake and lose it."
The road to the gold medal match featured several of the best club fencing teams in the nation. To begin the tournament, the foil squad competed in Pool 1 with 11 top-caliber opponents, including Cornell and Army. After losing just five of 29 bouts, Tufts emerged as the winner of its pool and moved on to the single-elimination bracket portion of the competition, where it was seeded third out of 24 squads.
From there, the foilists took down No. 14 Northwestern, No. 6 Clemson and No. 2 Arizona State to advance to the championship match. The early-round successes were vital to giving Tufts the confidence it needed against William and Mary.
"When we went into the [Arizona State] match, we just wanted to stomp on some heads and shock them so that William and Mary would know who we were," Tovrov said. "Once we did that, that's when the pressure was taken off. So in the gold medal match, we were able to just come out and fence."
The team's confidence was several matches in the making, as throughout the season, Tufts proved it could compete with the best. On Feb. 17, for instance, the foilers took fourth - just one bout behind Boston College - at the 2008 New England Championships, a competition also open to varsity teams. Once it realized it could contend with such talented squads, Tufts began expecting big things from itself at Nationals.
"During the regular fencing season, we fenced varsity teams such as MIT and Brandeis," Jamison said. "They all have multiple coaches and practice three hours a day every day of the week. We practice two hours a day, three days a week. We were underdogs against them, and we fenced pretty well. At club nationals, we were with club teams that practice only as much as we do and aren't recruited at all. So we knew we had a shot to do very well."
Tufts' all-freshman epee squad provided the fencing team another highlight of the tournament, overcoming its inexperience to take 20th place. First-year Huy Ngu placed eighth in the individual epee championships, while Jamison took 12th in the foil. The sabre squad also came in 20th.
The foil team will graduate Tovrov, a four-year contributor, but McCauley, Jamison and freshman Eric Berg are expected to create a formidable trio next year. Considering the talent returning, a repeat bid is not entirely out of the question.
"I would like to go," Jamison said. "Obviously it's expensive, but I think we'd have a chance to do very well. Eric can hopefully be our B strip, and Sam is a very good fencer. He'll just continue to get better because he literally does something related to fencing on an hourly basis."
"Not that we weren't motivated before - we were obviously extremely motivated to get to this level - but I think that motivation is going to stay there and it's just going to drive these guys," Tovrov added. "I'm very confident that each fencer will step up their game one more time."
