DURHAM, N.C. – Brandeis University senior sabre fencer Maggie Shealy of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, turned in one of the best single-day performances in Brandeis fencing history today on Day 3 of the 2023 NCAA National Collegiate Fencing Championships at the Cameron Indoor Arena at Duke University today.
Shealy went 13-2 overall on the day and finished in second place in the women's sabre standings. She is tied with Chloe Fox-Gitomer of Princeton in overall wins, with the Tiger fencer owning +43 indicator compared to Shealy's +23.
Shealy started off the day winning her first six matches during the opening round of action. She defeated Fix-Gitomer, 5-4, in that round, as well as Ryan Jenkins of Princeton. Her other victims in that round came from Penn State, Brown and Duke twice. Shealy's only loss came to Sophia Kovacs of North Carolina in the final match of the round. At 6-1, Shealy was in fourth place after Round 1.
In the second round of the day, Shealy went 3-1 and improved to second place in the standings. After dropping her opening match to Julieta Toleda of Ohio State, Shealy came back to win her next three matches, defeating Yale's Sydney Hirsch and Sky Miller and Megumi Oishi of Northwestern.
The third round of the day was a fantastic performance for Shealy, as she went 4-0, with three of her wins coming by 5-4 scores. Shealy knocked off Vivian and Hailey Lu of Pennsylvania, and Nora Burke and Vera Kong of Columbia University. Burke and Vivian Lu are currently in fourth and fifth place, respectively, and Burke was a national semifinalist in 2022. Overall, Shealy finished the day 5-1 in matches decided by 5-4 scores.
With her 13 wins today, Shealy is just one win shy of her total from last year, when she finished in eighth place to earn second-team All-America honors, with eight bouts remaining tomorrow. She will meet fencers from St. John's, MIT, and Harvard, in Round 4 and Stanford, Air Force and Notre Dame in Round 5.
With Shealy's 13 points, in addition to the 21 earned by men's sabre fencers Tony Escueta and Lev BenAvram on the first two days of action, Brandeis has 34 points total to rank in 12th place in the team standings. The Judges have clinched the top scoring total among Division III teams with 10 more than New York University. Brandeis also ranks third among New England schools, behind only Harvard (101 points, 5th place) and Yale (49 points, 10th place). Shealy's 13 points are good for fifth among all women's sabre squads, whether they have qualified one or two fencers for nationals.
