Banner Season: Blues secure tenth consecutive men’s fencing banner
Waterloo, Ont. (C/O Waterloo Warriors) - The Toronto Varsity Blues have won the OUA Men’s Fencing Championship for a tenth consecutive year.
It came down to an eight-point difference between the Varsity Blues and the host Waterloo Warriors. With the banner on the line, the Team Relay Epee bronze medal and Team Relay Sabre gold medal matches were happening simultaneously, with the Warriors needing to win both to claim the banner on home court.
Waterloo was able to take down Toronto in a tightly contested Sabre match, 45-40, but fell 45-38 to the Ottawa Gee-Gees in Epee, failing to earn the points required to make up the Blues’s 29-point day one lead.
Day two started with another gold medal for the black and gold, as they came out on top in Team Relay Foil, with Jiaan Li anchoring the squad after earning an individual gold medal on Saturday. Ottawa took home silver while Western defeated McMaster 45-35 in the bronze medal game to take a ten-point lead for third place in the overall standings, where they would finish the weekend.
In Team Relay Epee, it was the Gee-Gees defeating the Warriors in the bronze medal game, as mentioned. The Varsity Blues added crucial points to their lead with a gold medal, which came as little surprise after their student-athletes placed 1-2-3-4 in the Individual Epee event on Saturday. The Mustangs picked up more hardware with a silver medal.
In Team Relay Sabre, Waterloo’s win over the Varsity Blues was followed by an intense battle for bronze between TMU and McMaster that had the PAC crowd up and cheering for the final match of the day. It was the Bold coming out on top, 45-36, to earn their lone medal of the weekend.
The Team Relay All-stars, awarded to the fencer who has the highest indicator in each team relay event, were presented to Waterloo’s Daniel Manyoki for Foil, Ottawa’s Edward Yang for Epee, and TMU’s Niraj Karki for Sabre.
Ottawa’s Sacha Vasiliev, in addition to his Individual Foil bronze medal, was awarded the George Tully Trophy for Sportsmanship. The Christian Vidosa Trophy for Men’s Fencing Coach of the Year went to Toronto’s Thomas Nguyen.
This is the conference-leading 35th OUA men’s fencing championship for the Varsity Blues since it was first awarded in 1938.
OVERALL TEAM STANDINGS
Toronto Varsity Blues - 343
Waterloo Warriors - 335
Western Mustangs - 181
Ottawa Gee-Gees - 161
McMaster Marauders - 160
Queen's Gaels - 110
TMU Bold - 70
Guelph Gryphons - 37
RMC Paladins - 35
Brock Badgers - 35
Carleton Ravens - 30
York Lions - 1
Trent Excalibur – 0
MAJOR AWARDS
Championship Trophy (Charles Walters) – Toronto Varsity Blues
Desjarlais Trophy (Men's Epee) – Seraphim Jarov, Toronto
Charles Walters (Men's Foil) – Jiaan Li, Waterloo
Schwende Trophy (Men's Sabre) – Matthew Teng, Toronto
Sportsmanship Award (George Tully) – Sacha Vasiliev, Ottawa
Christian Vidosa Trophy (Coach of the Year) – Thomas Nguyen, Toronto
OUA Team All-Stars
Epee: Edward Yang, Ottawa
Foil : Daniel Manyoki, Waterloo
Sabre : Niraj Karki, TMU
INDIVIDUAL RESULTS (each individual medalist is also an OUA all-star)
Foil
1. Jiaan Li, Waterloo
2. Jason Park, Western
3. Sacha Vasiliev, Ottawa
Epee
1. Seraphim Jarov, Toronto
2. Evan Wang, Toronto
3. Nicholas Gutierrez-Sarabia, Toronto
Sabre
1. Matthew Teng, Toronto
2. Richard Yang, Waterloo
3. David Li, Waterloo
TEAM RELAY RESULTS
EPEE
- Toronto (Nicholas Gutierrez-Sarabia, Seraphim Jarov, Ethan Liu, Evan Wang)
- Western (Johnathan Chai, Aaniss Dib, Bowen Yao, Alvin Yeung)
- Ottawa (Edward Yang, Felix Rocan, Campbell Burrows, Dante Fosterdelmundo)
FOIL
- Waterloo (Jiaan Li, Nolan White-Roy, Daniel Manyoki, Connor Tan)
- Ottawa (Daniel Oroszlan, Sacha Vasiliev, Ian Macewen, Julien Turk)
- Western (Jason Park, Dylan Shi, Ulysse Sizov, Frederick Yu)
SABRE
- Waterloo (David Li, Richard Yang, Charles Wang, Lawrence Liu)
- Toronto (Matthew Teng, Leo Chen, Siyuan Shao, Richard Chen)
- TMU (Jafer Kamoonpuri, Niraj Karki, Cedric Bo, Narayan Bhandari)