IRVINE, Calif. - The UC San Diego fencing team kicked off its season at the annual College Open tournament at UC Irvine on Sunday.
Facing many of their conference rivals in an individual competition, the Tritons put together an impressive performance. In the six events, UCSD fencers seized three gold medals to go along with four silver medals and four bronze medals.
On the men's side, UCSD foil dominated their competition. Returning All-American junior Benjamin Dorn convincingly won the gold. Sophomore Michael Fong took second place and freshman Joseph Schenkel took third. Three more newcomers to the team ranked in the top seven finishers with Nalin Desai taking fifth, James Galamba and Alex Lavin taking spots five, six and seven respectively.
"Never before has UCSD fielded a squad with such depth of quality as this season's men's foil squad," Tritons' head coach Heidi Runyan said.
UCSD men's sabre also posted a 1-2-3 finish. Junior Jonathan Ott took the gold using a commanding defensive set of actions throughout the day. Senior Bryan Kim took second with an exciting victory over Tritons' freshman Christopher Bonner, who finished third. Before that bout, Bonner had dispatched UCLA's Kyle Chan, who had won the event last year.
Women's foil saw UCSD team captain and All-American Pilar Alicea go undefeated en route to winning the event for the second year in a row while freshman Rose Forcier took third.
Women's sabre had three UCSD seniors displaying strong results. Alicia Trigeiro took silver, Anne Schnecker took a bronze and Samantha Rojales took sixth place.
Victoria Mo displayed skillful fencing with a silver medal finish in the women's epee. Teammates Amy Bianchini and Casey Gillcrist added fifth- and sixth-place results respectively.
In the men's epee field, dominated by tough challengers from Arizona State, UCSD was denied a medal. Nicholas McGuinness took fifth and freshman Alfred Rico placed seventh.
The Triton team will be traveling to Cal Tech in Pasadena, Calif., next Saturday to fence their first team meet of the season.
