The Cleveland State Fencing team had it's first meet at Ohio State on Saturday Oct 4th. The men's team posted and 5-1 record and the women's team were 4-2 for the day.
The highlight of the day was the men's foil team narrowly losing to OSU. OSU finished 4th at the 2014 NCAA Championships. The men's foil team was tied at 4-4 going into the last 5 point bout with Brandon Bauer facing off against Devon Reina of OSU, one of their top freshman recruits. After nearly the entire 3 minutes of fencing time Reina from OSU defeated Bauer in a 4-5 match to defeat the Vikings foil team with an overall record of 4-5. This is the best performance the men's team has had vs. OSU in over a decade.
Senior, Phelan Spence led the men's team with a 18-0 record, including a 3-0 record vs. OSU. Paul Duchow led the men's epee squad for the day. Duchow represented CSU in the 2014 NCAA Championships and was 17-1 on the day with a 2-1 record vs. OSU. Freshman Matthew Gebbett was 14-1 for the day and was 1-1 vs. OSU.
The women's team was 4-2 for the day and was led by freshman Sarah Mok. Mok went 10-4 for the day and was 1-2 vs. OSU. Following Mok was foilist Samantha Finster who was 9-5 on the day. Rounding out the leaders of the Viking women was senior saber fencer Christine Bocci who was 7-5 on the day.
"We performed better than I expected for the day overall. Even though we lost to the OSU men's foil squad; that we pushed their squad as much as we did is a great testament to how hard the team has been working leading into this meet. I am very pleased with our progress and I look forward to our meet at CASE" said coach Tulleners
CSU will be at CASE Western Reserve on Nov. 22nd for their 2nd meet of the season.
