The Queen’s fencing team competed in the OUA finals held Feb. 17 at the Royal Military College. The team ended its season in spectacular fashion, earning a variety of medals and awards.
Women’s captain Joanne Ko brought home a gold medal for her performance in the épée individual event.
Ko also won the Dr. Al English trophy, awarded to the winner of the épée individual event every year, and led the women’s épée team to a bronze in the team event.
Ko said the individual and team competitions each demand their own skill-set.
“The two events require different mentalities.” she said. “[The women’s épée team] provided a tremendous amount of and allowed me to focus mentally on the individual event.”
The women’s épée team captured third place with 30 points, five points behind the University of Toronto and ten points behind first-place RMC. The women’s team finished sixth overall out of eight teams.
The men’s team saw similar success the day before. Men’s sabre captain Greg Nonato claimed a bronze in the individual event and the sabre team also won bronze.The men finished fourth overall.
Nonato said the coaching strategy helped the team as
a whole.
“The coaches put together a really good seasonal plan,” he said. “We focused on the three main components of fencing: physical conditioning, mental training and fencing strategy.” Nonato said his mental focus during the individual tournament helped, too.
“I’ve always had faith in my physical abilities, it’s just been my mental game,” he said. “I’m in my fourth year and so I had a lot of experience to draw upon, and I just never gave up. The bout isn’t over until it’s over.”
Fencing head coach Hugh Munby earned the Christian Vidosa Trophy as the OUA Coach of the Year.
Munby said he’s also looking forward to an even more successful fencing season next year.
“I am pleased with the team overall,” he said. “There was a strong effort from everyone, particularily the women’s épée. We have a number of fencers leaving this year which is always sad, but I look forward to the new recruits. … We’re going to continue conditioning the fencers the way we are and hopefully earn us some medals next year.”
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