NORTHAMPTON, Mass. – The Brandeis University fencing team produced four medals, including two golds, while putting seven others in the quarterfinals at today's New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference (NEIFC) Fall Championships, a.k.a. The Big One, held at Smith College.

TOP PERFORMERS

• Senior Maggie Shealy (Chapel Hill, N.C./East Chapel Hill) successfully defended her title in the women's sabre. She went 6-0 in pool play with a +25 indicator to earn the joint second seed in the elimination table. None of Shealy's 15-point matches in the tournament were closer than six touches until the final, when she defeated top-seeded Catherine Tang of MIT, 15-14, to take gold.
• First-year Lev BenAvram (Bethesda, Md. / Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School) captured the Judges' other gold on the day, winning the men's sabre event. He was the second seed, behind only sophomore teammate Tony Escueta (Grand Prairie, Texas / Abeka Home School Academy). Both went 6-0 in pool play, along with junior Berwyn Lu (Atlanta, Ga. / Lovett School), the joint third seed. Escueta finished with a +26 indicator, to +22 for BenAvram and +21 for Lu. BenAvram cruised into the quarterfinals, allowing just four touches in the first three rounds. He edged Justin Zhou of MIT, 15-13, in the quarters. He reached the semis with a 15-8 win over Surya Sakhamuri of MIT and took the top spot with a 15-12 win over Northeastern's Joshua Lo, who had upset Escueta, 15-10, in the quarters.
• Brandeis's other two medals came in the men's epee competition, where sophomore Tal Kronrod (Concord, Mass. / Concord Carlisle) won silver and senior Josh Shuster (Brooklyn, N.Y. / Staten Island Technical) earned bronze. Kronrod went 4-2 in pool play and was seeded just 17^th, while Shuster was 6-0 and +16 in the indicator to earn the sixth seed. Kronrod defeated higher seeds in the round of 32, where he defeated #6 Seth Wyatt of UMass; the round of 16, where he upset top-seeded Chris Picard of MIT, 15-9; and the quarterfinals with a 15-8 win over Maximilian Shah of Williams. He bested 21st-seeded Daniel Boguslavsky of Northeastern in the semis, 15-11, before falling to 10^th-seeded Connor Kravit of Sacred Heart in the gold medal match. Shuster defeated his first two opponents 15-4, 15-9 and 15-10, before knocking off third-seeded Brian Li of Vassar, 15-8 in the quarterfinals, before falling to Kravit, 15-10, in the semis.
• The Judges had three quarterfinalists in the men's foil competition, with senior Elliot Siegel (Newton, Conn. / Hopkins School) and first-year Michael Yerokhin (Paramus, N.J. / Paramus) tying for sixth place and junior Luke Ritchie (Baltimore, Md. / St. Paul's School) taking the eighth spot. All three surpassed their seedings, as Yerokhin and Siegel were seeded seventh into the elimination pool, while Ritchie was 13^th.
• First-year Hannah Du (Winchester, Mass. / Winchester) took fifth place in the women's foil competition, earning the joint-third seed but getting upset, 15-12, in the quarterfinals.
• Senior Monica Aponte (San Juan, P.R. / St. John'S School) was the eighth seed in the elimination tournament and reached the quarters to finish in seventh place.

UP NEXT

• The Judges are back in action on Wednesday, November 16, when they meet Harvard, BC and MIT at the annual Beanpot Tournament.