HOLYOKE, Mass. -- The Brandeis fencing team took home a pair of medals at the 2016 New England Fall Collegiate Invitational, both earned by seniors. Nina Sayles (Mamaroneck, N.Y./Loomis Chafee) earned silver in the saber for the women, while Len Grazian (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) was a men's foil bronze medalist.
Sayles had her best and the team's best performance on the weekend. In pool play, she went 6-0 and out-touched her opponents by a 30-6 margin to earn the second seed in the direct elimination round. After a 15-0 shutout in the second round against a foe from Vassar, she defeated Nicole Kogan of MIT, 15-12, in the round of 16. She took out BU's Caroline Foster, 15-9, in the quarters and edged BC's Laura Donovan, 15-14, in the semis before falling in the gold-medal match to top-seeded Katherine Mentzer of Dartmouth, 15-7.
Grazian, a two-time quarterfinalist in previous years, earned the second seed in the direct elimination bracket after allowing only three touches in six bouts in pool play. He continued to dominate in the first round of direct elimination with a 15-1 win over a foe from BU. In the second round and Round of 16, he knocked off foes from New England rival Sacred Heart, 15-10 and 15-9. In the quarterfinals, he met junior teammate Guillermo Narvaez (Metepec, Mexico / Technologico de Monterrey) and prevailed 15-13. In the semis, he fell to co-2nd seed and eventual champion Umar Mahood of Brown 15-7.
In addition to Grazian and Narvaez in the men's foil, the Judges had two other quarterfinalists. Junior Eli Litle (Haifa, Israel / Reali - Beit Beram) and rookie Ian Quin (Ramsey, N.J./Ramsey) also posted perfect 6-0 records in pool play. Litle steamrolled his first two direct elimination competitors from Tufts and Dartmouth, 15-3 and 15-2, respectively. He edged Jack Holmes of Vassar, 15-13, in the round of 16 before falling to top-seeded Tyler Endee of Sacred Heart, 15-4, in the quarters. Quin bounced foes from Tufts and Umass, 15-2 and 15-8, before defeating fellow Brandeis freshman Sam Chestna (Middleborough, Mass./Homeschool) in the round of 16, 15-6. Quin ended up losing to Masood, 15-8, in the quarters.
The Judges had four other fencers reach quarterfinals.
- In women's foil action, rookie Jessica Gets (Morganville, N.J. / Marlborough) and sophomore Joanne Carminucci (Brewster, NY / North Salem) each reached the final eight. Gets went 5-0 in pool play and seeded seventh, while Carminucci, at 5-1, was the 13th seed. Gets defeated foes from Dartmouth in the first two rounds before knocking off Bailey Partridge of SHU to advance to the quarters, where she dropped a 15-9 decision to eventual champ Jessica Li of MIT. Carminucci breezed into the round of 16, where she knocked off the fourth seed from Brown, Ebba Brunnstrom, before being edged by silver medalist Clarissa Allen, also from Brown, 15-14, in the quarters.
- In women's epee, junior Liz Feller (Cortlandt Manor, N.Y. / Hendrick Hudson)defeated her six opponents by a combined score of 29-10 in pool play to earn the fourth seed in direct elimination. She bageled a foe from Dartmouth in the first round and defeated classmate Savannah Bishop (Alexandria, Va./West Potomac) in the second, 15-8. After a 15-6 win over Jennifer Lamy of Mount Holyoke, she dropped a quarterfinal match against MIT's Taiylor Nunn, who finished in second place. Rookie Dakota Levy(Merion Station, Pa./Barrack) won just two matches in pool play, but defeated two higher seeds in the direct elimination, including the 10th seed from Dartmouth, 10-7, in the second round.
- For the men, sophomore Nick Clancey (Lexington, Kent./Dupont Manual) reached the final eight in epee. He went 5-1 in pool play and earned the 17th seed. His matches in the direct elimination were the most competitive of any of Brandeis's final eight finishers. He topped Brian Gong of BC, 15-12, in the opener, and Sheel Patel of MIT, 15-11, in the second round. Against top-seeded Samuel Judd of MIT, Clancey pulled a 15-13 upset to reach the quarterfinals, where he dropped a 15-6 decision to Sam Koch of Brown, who went on to earn the gold medal.