St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Fencing Sweeps Matches at Princeton
2/7/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Fencing
In women's action, their toughest match came against Columbia; dropping the epee, 4-5, then coming back to win the foil 7-2 and the sabre, 5-4, eventually taking the match by a 16-11 score.
In the match against Rutgers, the Red Storm's achilles' heel was again the epee losing by a score of 2-7, though quickly regaining their composure and winning both the foil, 8-1, and the sabre, 7-2, to take the match 17-10. In their final match against Princeton, St. John's won the match by an 18-9 score, winning the foil 8-1, and the sabre 7-2 and losing the epee 3-6.
St. John's was led by the foil team of Irinia Khouade (Khinski, Russia), Liz Thottam (Beverly Hills, Calif.) and Jean Hergenhan (Huntington, N.Y.), who won 23 of their 27 bouts throughout the day. Also Khouade moved her personal record to an impressive 36-0 on the season.
On the men's side, the Red Storm recorded two 17-10 victories, against Princeton and Rutgers. After dropping both the foil and the epee, 4-5, it came down to the sabre, which the Red Storm took by a 9-0 score, lifting them over Princeton. In the match against Rutgers it was again the sabre, which proved to be the difference for St. John's. After winning the epee 6-3, and dropping the foil 2-7, the Red Storm won all nine bouts to seal the win.
Against Columbia, the men dropped the foil matches by a 3-6 score, though bouncing back quickly to win the epee, 6-3, and the sabre, 9-0.
It was the success of the sabre team of Darin Whitmer (Detroit, Mich.), Ivan Lee (Brooklyn, N.Y.) and Sergey Isayenko who helped propel the Red Storm to victory winning all 36 of their bouts, which proved to be important victories for St. John's. Currently, Lee, a senior is ranked second in the country and tied for 40th in the world in the sabre.
The St. John's men's and women's fencing teams return to action on February 22, when they square off against Penn State and Temple University.
