Tech Battles at Brandeis Invitational

WALTHAM, Mass. – Facing its toughest lineup of the young season, the MIT men's fencing team fell to Yale (15-12), St. John's (18-9), UNC (14-13), and Brown (14-13) at the Brandeis University Invitational on Sunday. The Engineers concluded the fall semester with a ledger of 3-6 and will return to action on January 28 for another round of Northeast Fencing Conference action.

The epee team had the best showing for MIT as it compiled a record of 25-11. The Cardinal and Gray defeated UNC and Brown by 7-2 margins and tacked on victories over St. John's (6-3) and Yale (5-4). Sophomore Joseph Rafidi (Los Angeles, Calif.) led the way with a total of 10-2 while freshman David Wyrobnik (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) came in at 8-4. Junior Jackson Crane (San Francisco, Calif.) went 6-5 as Thomas Boning won his only bout of the day.

Behind the strength of sophomore Ehsan Izadmehr's (Wayne, N.J.) 9-3 performance, the sabre squad finished at 11-25. The Engineers nearly picked up victories over Yale and Brown, but were edged out by a score of 5-4 for both match-ups. Senior Vinayak Ramesh (El Dorado Hills, Calif.) went 2-10, followed by sophomore Luke O'Malley (Los Angeles, Calif.) at 0-4 and junior Nathan Arce (Madison, Ala.) at 0-8.

The foil team also had an 11-25 outing, which included a tough 5-4 loss to UNC. Senior Daniel Levine (Succasunna, N.J.) paced MIT with a total of 8-4 as classmate Benjamin Nield (Preston, Wash.) had a tally of 3-9. Junior Alexander Siy was winless in his 10 appearances while freshman Daniel Mendelsohn (New York, N.Y.) was defeated in both of his bouts.