If you visit the Queen’s fencing website on goldengaels.com, you will find a quotation at the end of their season summary that reads, “The hit is swift, the impression endures.” At the OUA fencing championships Feb. 18, the quick hands of a young but talented Gaels team left a lasting impression on the competition, finishing fourth overall on the men’s side, and fifth on the women’s.
The team had a significant turnover from last year, and started the season having taken a significant but unavoidable step back. The team improved significantly, however, and their progress culminated in their very respectable Ontario standings.
“I think there were obviously some people who did extremely well at the finals, and there was a lot of growth by a lot of our team ,” said coach Jennifer Kuk. “This has been a rebuilding time for our team.”
Joanne Ko, the women’s epee captain, echoed her coach, saying that the team had a lot of work to do to regain their status as one of the top fencing schools.
“A lot of people were new on the team this year,” she said. “We worked hard together as a team.”
Queen’s hosted the championships on West Campus, and some of the more seasoned Gaels fencers led the charge. Ryan Nelson and Zach Williams captured silver and bronze respectively in the men’s foil, and Ko snagged gold in the women’s epee. Her performance earned her the Dr. Al English Women’s Epee trophy, marking the fifth consecutive year a Queen’s fencer has taken home the hardware.
Some of the younger fencers also contributed to the Gaels’ success, however, as three rookies—Theresa Smith, Julia Radic and Genna Kusch—ed Ko to earn fifth place in the women’s epee team relay event. Emily Maw, Tonya Chu, Dana Fedderson and Joanna Chen slipped just off the podium with a fourth-place finish in the women’s sabre team relay.
The men’s team had success as well, earning a silver in the men’s foil team relay led by Williams and Nelson, accompanied by Freddie Zhang and Andrew Di Lullo, who placed tenth and twelfth respectively in the individual foil.
Rounding out the individual results, Radic placed fourteenth in women’s epee, and Julia Hong, Maw and Chu came in eight, eleventh and twelfth respectively in women’s sabre.
Kuk said she and the rest of the coaching staff were pleased with the team’s results, especially the individual medals.
“There was a very close final between Ryan Nelson and a Western fencer [David Collins],” Kuk said. “We ended up losing 14-15, so it’s always disappointing losing something that close, but we certainly can’t complain about someone being in the final. [On the women’s side], we were very happy with Joanne Ko. She did extremely well.”
Ko said she felt she had improved over last year, and that she was glad to see her results reflect that.
“I came in third last year,” she said. “I was sort of hoping I would be able to come first [this year].”
Ko gave plenty of credit to the young athletes around her for their strong performances despite so little experience at the university level.
“My team graduated last year—I was the only one back—and one of our rookies, Julia Radic, managed to qualify for the [individual epee] finals, so that’s really impressive,” she said.
She also said her coaches were instrumental in the success of all the fencers, especially the younger ones, through their dedication and flexibility when it came to training hours.
“Our coaches are really ive,” she said. “They’re always ready to give lessons to new fencers, and sometimes class conflicts with practice, so they’re willing to come in earlier or stay later to give lessons.”
Looking ahead to next season, the Gaels will be seeing a number of graduations once more, and will likely lose two top fencers for the season as well.
“We do have a couple of our men’s fencers who are going on exchange—Zach Williams and Freddie Zhang—so our men’s foil team will potentially be quite weak,” she said.
Nevertheless, Ko said she believes the future is bright for the team, if not especially so for the men’s individual foil.
“In of men’s foil, they’ll be in a huge rebuilding year, but I think we can definitely [have great success],” she said. “Hopefully I can keep my spot, and next year I hope our team can medal. [We] will have more experience, so hopefully we’ll be able to have more individuals qualify [for the finals].”
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