WALTHAM, Mass. – Four members of the Brandeis University fencing team have earned All-Northeast Region honors from the United States Fencing Coaches Association. Fencers who placed among the top 12 rankings in their respective weapons at the regional championships earned All-Division All-Region honors, while those who were among the top Division III fencers in the region were Division III All-region honorees.
The Judges' honorees included junior Maggie Shealy of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and first-year Tony Escueta of Grand Prairie, Texas, who were both All-Division honorees in sabre. Both fencers will represent the Judges at the 2022 NCAA National Collegiate Fencing Championships this week. Shealy was the Judges' leading fencer all season long, posting an 81-19 record in dual matches. An NCAA qualifier as a first-year in 2020, she was unable to compete when the championships were cancelled due to COVID-19. This year, she was an at-large selection to the NCAA field.
Escueta was Brandeis's top male fencer this year, posting a 52-20 record in dual matches, posting only six losing records along the way. Escueta placed 11th at the NCAA Northeast Fencing Regional championships, exactly to his seed. He earned one of nine automatic berths from the region, as three of the fencers in front of him were from schools that already had two representatives in the field. Escueta is one of four Division III qualifiers in the men's sabre field, the largest group of D3 representatives in any weapon.
The other two honorees were from the epee squads. Junior Ben Rogak of Setauket, New York, also earned All-Division honors for the men, while first-year Bronwyn Rothman-Hall of San Francisco, California, was a Division III winner for the women. Rogak reached the final pool at the Regional Championships, placing 12th. This was the second time in his career that Rogak reached the final 12, and he was an alternate to the 2020 championships. Rogak went 35-26 this year in dual matches, but was not seeded high enough to make it to NCAAs.
Rothman-Hall led the epee squad with 30 wins this season, fifth most of anyone on the team. She was 30-54 overall. Seeded 37th headed into the Regional Championships, she just missed a spot in the semifinal round and placed 24th, fourth among Division III competitors in the region.
In addition to their individual awards, the Brandeis fencing teams ended the regular season nationally-ranked in Division III by the USFCA. The men placed fourth in the final rankings, while the women were seventh in Division III. With Shealy and Escueta representing the Judges, Brandeis will have the second-most Division III fencers at the NCAA championships, trailing only NYU, with five. The NCAA Championships get underway on Thursday at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Shealy will compete in the women's sabre starting at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, with Escueta fencing in the men's sabre on Saturday and Sunday.