PHILADELPHIA — After the women's team took to the strips at the Liacouras Center on Saturday to open the Nikki Franke Classic on the campus of Temple University, the Haverford men's fencing team wrapped up the two-day event by competing in its season opener on Sunday in North Philadelphia.
Épée
First-year Ian Alvarez posted a strong collegiate debut with a 16th-place finish, while classmate Jack Richards tied for 23rd. Kenji Gullo placed 72nd overall.
Alvarez tallied three wins in his opening pool, defeating Michael Cianci (TCNJ), Kieran Jackson (Stevens), and Aidan Kumar (NYU). In the second round of pools, Alvarez dispatched Sean Bradley (TCNJ). In the direct elimination tableau, Alvarez excelled, knocking off a pair of Division I opponents — Thomas Huang (Boston College), 15-14, and 12th-seeded Brayden Gyure (North Carolina), 15-11 — to advance to the table of 16, where he fell to Szymon Wojciechowski (NYU), 15-9.
Richards notched two wins in his first pool, defeating Riley Parker (Stevens) and Emmit DeHart (Yeshiva). He added three more victories in the second round against Alex Moses (Penn), Peter Nikolov (NYU), and Steven Zhang (Hunter). Advancing to the direct elimination tableau, Richards edged Ethan Dennis (Duke), 15-14, before falling to William Lehr (NYU) by the same score in the round of 32.
Gullo went winless in his opening pool but rebounded impressively in the consolation rounds, taking third overall after a perfect 5-0 run with wins over Ethan Black (Drexel), Steve Zhu (Hunter), Justin Hart (Florida), Willmer Gutierrez (Swarthmore), and Cianci (TCNJ).
Foil
Rookie Oliver Po was the top Haverford foil finisher in 35th place, edging teammate Michael Pyo (36th). Dean Myers finished close behind in 38th, while Andrew Strayer (50th), Henry Fedonchik (53rd), and Conrad Seib-Levinson (57th) rounded out the foil contingent.
Po went a perfect 4-0 in his first pool, earning wins over Liam Thomas (Stevens), Sabit Kilinc (NJIT), Cristian Porras (North Carolina), and Henry Stirling (Boston College). He added two more wins in the second round against Manuel Reyes (Florida) and David Belluomo (Sacred Heart) before being defeated in the direct elimination tableau by Nicholas Reznick (Stevens), 15-12.
Pyo earned two wins in his opening pools against Ricardo Pires (Stevens) and Steven Yu (Rutgers), then added victories over Diego Lara (Wagner) and Dev Badlandi (Stevens) in the second round. He was defeated by Owen Li (Duke) in the opening round of direct eliminations.
Strayer tallied wins over Samuel Wallach (Yeshiva) and Luke Zhang (Penn) in his first pool, and added a victory over Pires in the second round before falling to Yi Peng Sha (Johns Hopkins), 15-13, in direct elimination.
Fedonchik picked up wins over Connor Williams (North Carolina) and Liam Conroy (Wagner) in the opening pools, then defeated Yu (Rutgers) in the second round. He fell to Farr Dickson (NYU), 15-10, in direct elimination.
Seib-Levinson earned wins over Dillon Miller (Stevens), Josh Sima (Johns Hopkins), and Aden Lyons (Yeshiva) in his opening pool before advancing to the direct elimination tableau, where he fell to Porras (North Carolina), 15-8.
Sabre
Osaretin Idahor paced the Fords in sabre, finishing 43rd, while rookie Stephen Yarosh placed 64th and Ryotaro Sakazaki was 71st.
Idahor recorded a win over Zak Martin (Florida) in his first pool before adding victories over Markelo Deona (NJIT) and Maddox Pace (Rowan) in the second round. In the direct elimination tableau, Idahor fell to William Xu (Boston College).
Yarosh bested Pace (Rowan) in his opening pool before advancing to the consolation bracket, where he placed third after a perfect 4-0 run with wins over Kyle Atay (Swarthmore), Zachary Suranie (Temple), Henry Wildes (Yeshiva), and Joshua Kievit (TCNJ).
Sakazaki went winless in his initial pools but rebounded with victories over Alberto Bombanati (Temple), Eitan Nissel (Yeshiva), Vance Maeshiro (Swarthmore), and Martin (Florida) to finish fourth in the consolation rounds.
With strong competition marking the start of the season, Haverford returns to action next weekend (November 1-2) at the Drew Invitational in Madison, N.J.
