The Lafayette fencing team took part in the Vassar Invitational on Sunday, finishing the day with mixed results.
On the men’s side, Lafayette defeated Cleveland State (14-13), Denison University (17-10) and Drew (14-13). The Leopards fell to another Drew team, Long Island University, Vassar and Cornell.
Sophomore Benito Hergert led Lafayette with 17 wins, while freshman Tyler Morse and sophomore Antoine Mannes each had 14 wins.
Also finishing with double-digit wins were sophomore Amir Whitehead and freshman Alex Brown. Whitehead had 12 wins while Brown finished with 10.
On the women’s side, Lafayette beat Vassar (16-11) and Haverford (16-11) before falling to Denison, Wellesley, Cornell, Tufts and Drew. They finished the day 2-5.
Junior Amanda Manubag led the way for Lafayette with 13 wins. Following in her footsteps was freshman Emily Wells, who had 11 victories, along with senior Danielle Long and sophomore Zoe O’Connor, who each had 10 apiece.
Long said that the team faced tougher schools at Vassar compared to last week’s Drew Invitational. The team aims to keep its composure in future competitions.
“I would say the main thing for us to work on is making sure we aren’t letting bad referee calls completely throw us off our game,” Long said. “It can definitely be hard when you feel like you have to fence both your opponent and the ref, so we just need to work on keeping a level head throughout each bout.”
Indeed, all bouts last weekend were extremely intense, as the Leopards competed for eight hours.
“I think we did a great job at staying motivated and ready for the entire tournament on Sunday. It’s a super long day from around 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., so it can sometimes be hard to keep up the energy,” Long said. “But everyone stayed motivated for the entire day and was able to push through and get some wins.”
The men’s team will compete at Hunter College in New York this Sunday, while the women’s team will compete again in January at the University of Pennsylvania.
