The No. 1 Irish men's and women's fencing teams won a total 15 medals at the Midwest Fencing Conference Championships this weekend.
Winning gold in two of the six individual tournaments highlighted the performance for the Irish, who also brought home four silvers and nine bronzes.
Senior Hayley Reese captured gold in the women's foil in the morning session by going 6-0 in her pool bouts. Reese defeated Irish freshman Rachel Beck 11-9 in the semifinals and then took out Northwestern's Dayana Sarkisova to take home the gold.
Irish Freshman Adriana Camacho came in a tie for third in the foil.
Junior Courtney Hurley won her second gold in three years i
n the épée, but it was not without some difficulty. She won hard fought bouts in both the semifinals and finals, defeating Karalina Collins of Northwestern 15-8 in the semifinals, and holding off Caroline Piasecka of Ohio State by a score of 15-11 to secure the gold in the finals.
Senior Sarah Borrmann earned the silver in the women's sabre competition. Her run came to an end in the finals with a 15-10 defeat to Ohio State's Margarita Tschomakova.
The Irish had three other fencers in the quarterfinals: sophomore Lian Osier, senior Eileen Hassett and sophomore Marta Stepien, but Borrmann was the only one to earn a medal.
On the men's side, junior Enzo Castellani won the silver in the men's foil. Castellani went 6-0 in pool play and was the top seed heading into the direct elimination portion of the competition. He defeated teammate Nick Kubik in the semifinals by a score of 15-9 before losing to Ohio State's Zain Shaito in the finals.
In the men's sabre division, senior Barron Nydam earned the silver for the Irish. Like Castellani, Nydam went 6-0 in pool play and was the top seed heading into the direct elimination.
He defeated teammate Jason Choy in the semifinals, but then, like many Irish fencers this weekend, fell to a Buckeye in the finals. Ohio State's Rhys Douglas defeated Nydam 15-9 in the championship bout.
The Irish will begin their championship run next Saturday at the NCAA Regionals at Wayne State in Detroit.
