Nov. 14, 2011
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - This past weekend a select number of members from the men's and women's fencing teams traveled to Austin, Texas to compete in the North American Cup Tournament. The four-day event proved to be extremely successful for the youthful group representing Penn State.
Freshman Alina Antokhina placed second overall in the women's foil. She was competing against 123 fencers and nearly clinched first place before falling to Lee Kiefer. Kane Gladnick, a fellow freshman and teammate, took 13th in the women's foil.
Oksana Samorodov, in her first year of collegiate action, placed sixth out of 165 fencers in the women's epee. The freshman, from Moscow, has proved herself to be a dominating force for the Nittany Lions thus far in the season. The only veteran representing the women's team, sophomore Nicole Glon, placed 20th out of 108 fencers in the women's saber.
The competitors from the men's team also had strong performances led by freshman David Gomez- Tanamachi who placed 15th in the men's foil. Jeremy Goldstein, a sophomore, tied for 39th with Dillon Lew.
In the men's saber competition, a bracket that featured over 130 fencers, freshman Alex Schneller tied for 22nd with Edward Chin. The men's epee featured 218 competitors, the most of any other event. Sophomore Sam Freiman went on to place 33rd in the Under 20 Division.
Next up the Nittany Lions will host the Garret Open this weekend, Nov. 19-20. The 40th annual Garret will feature fencers from Harvard, Princeton, Penn, Duke, UNC, Notre Dame, Ohio S, Cornell, JMU, Yale, Temple and Johns Hopkins. The competition will begin at 8 a.m. both days.