Marauders men's épée places second at Carleton Invitational

McMaster's men's épée A team finished second overall at the Carleton invitational in last competition before the Ontario University Athletics championships

From Jan 11. to Jan. 12, 2025, the McMaster varsity fencing team competed at the Carleton Invitational, their first team tournament in almost two months. The tournament was open to both university teams and independent fencing clubs.

The invitational started with fencers competing in teams of three or four in épée, foil and sabre. In épée and foil, fencers can only score with the tip of their weapon, while in sabre fencers can score with the side as well.

Team tournaments start with each team being placed in a pool with three or four teams. Every team fences every other team in their respective pool. Then all the teams from each pool get ranked based on their results. From there, a table is constructed and the knockout rounds ensue.

All of McMaster's A teams for each event by weapon and gender finished in the top 10 for their categories, however one team stood out. The men’s épée A team finished first after the pools and made it all the way to the finals, finishing second overall behind Escrime Mont-Royal, who they lost to in their final match 

Oscar Hand, who captained the McMaster men’s épée A team, spoke about the team’s game plan going into the tournament. “The goal for us was to test out our A team against the field before the OUA championships. And it was a big success. We beat the U of T team in the semi-finals which we anticipated to be a real struggle.” said Hand.

Hand also credited his teammates, PJ Kriemadis, Mohab Mefreh and Zachary Smith, for the roles they played in their collective success. “Our best fencer was responsible for creating the lead. My job was to incrementally expand the lead and our third guy was responsible to maintain the lead.” said Hand.

When asked about some challenges they faced, Hand mentioned that the team felt it was a struggle to maintain their stamina throughout their many matches leading up to the final. “We were pretty tired by the final, It felt like we ran out of gas. That was probably a big reason why we lost.” said Hand.

Hand mentioned some strategies that the team has implemented during practices in hopes of better maintaining their stamina at the upcoming men's OUA championships in March 2025. “Something I like to do is bouts to 50 points multiple times in one practice. Doing this helps us get comfortable fencing when we’re really, really tired,” said Hand.

Ahead of the men's OUA championships, the Marauders plan on fine tuning their strengths before they compete.

“At this point, it’s too late to learn new things. Therefore, perfecting your strengths is the best course of action. Once you perfect those strengths, nobody will be able to stop you” said Hand.

The men's fencing team will travel to Kingston on the first weekend of March to compete in the OUA championships which will be hosted by the Royal Military College. Over the weekend of February 10, 2025, the women's team will also be heading to Kingston to compete in their OUA championships at Queen's University.