Jan. 25, 2005
EVANSTON, IL -
Michelle Gutierrez defeated 16 opponents as sabre went 9-1 and the Johns Hopkins women's fencing squad finished 4-6 at the Northwestern Invitational last weekend. The Blue Jays defeated Michigan State 17-10, Cleveland State 23-4, University of Detroit-Mercy 22-5, and Lawrence 23-4 and lost to Michigan 14-13, Carolina 15-12, Wayne State 16-11, UC-San Diego 17-10, Northwestern 21-6 and No. 1 Temple 22-5.
"Ann Kim used the depth of her sabre squad to full advantage in this two day event," head coach Jim Murray said. "We had fresh fencers in every meet. It's a challenge to maintain focus over ten meets, but our mix of freshman talent and overall team experience kept the wins coming our way."
Annie Holstein helped the sabre squad with a 14-3 overall record while Liz Ordun's foilists had the most challenging mix of opponents, winning against five of the ten opposing squads.
"Freshman Jen Petsche has made the jump from a talented high school competitor to the college game," Murray said. "Everything happens faster, you have to think faster and get few second chances."
Catherine Gallagher's epee squad saw freshmen Cindy Lu and Sophie Liu fence 30 bouts apiece in their first starts for the Blue Jays.
"In epee no two points are ever the same, and bouting experience is the most important element," Murray said. "Cindy and Sophie gained this experience in every bout and by our closing matches it was like night and day compared to our first meets of the weekend."
