February 2, 2020

Banner Season: Men's fencing crown stays with Varsity Blues who capture fifth straight banner

St. Catharines, Ont. (via Brock Badgers) - The Toronto Varsity Blues held off the RMC Paladins to hoist their fifth consecutive provincial banner as the 2020 OUA Men’s Fencing Championships wrapped up on Sunday evening (Feb. 2) at Brock University’s Ian D. Beddis Gymnasium.

The Varsity Blues finished with 337 points, ahead of the RMC Paladins (272) and bronze medalist Queen’s (180).

“We mix hard work with fitness and the technical aspect of our sport,” said head coach Thomas Nguyen. “I think our edge comes from the program we designed. We harness the potential of our athletes and we push them to the furthest possible level. Our athletes and coaches are always striving for more.”

Brock’s Logan Wilford was awarded the George Tully Trophy, presented to the male fencer most proficient in skill, style and sportsmanship as judged by a panel of judges, while Patricia Howes of RMC earned OUA Coach of the Year honours.

TEAM RELAYS: The RMC Paladins were the first to reach the podium on Day 2 as Garrett Whelan, Hugo Clements, Kyle Grenier and Timothy Ro vanquished Queen’s team of Alex Sun, Kenneth West, Kerith Tung and Luke Steverango in the sabre team relay final. The Toronto Varsity Blues team of Seth Logan, Filbert Yung, Cameron Haigh and Minsor Huang defeated the Ryerson Rams to claim bronze.

David Chen-Li, Teo Lemay, Edward Li and Yiming Xu of the Varsity Blues united to take down Carleton’s Philip McCully, Daniel Manyoki, Buster Biggs and Rami Shaklab to win the foil team relay. In the bronze-medal match, Waterloo’s Gareth Marks, Ryan Brennan, Dexter Van Leeuwen and Justin Quong defeated RMC.

The Blues captured gold in the epee team relay as Ben Mucsi, Johnathan Zimmerman, Beston Leung and Colin McCurdy outlasted the Queen’s Gaels squad of Matthew Litwin, Spencer McGregor, Rory McEwen and Isaac Hogan. Western’s John Huang, Rick Wu, Turner Tobin and Ryan Odwyer won the bronze medal over RMC.

INDIVIDUAL COMPETITION: No. 1 seed Gareth Marks of Waterloo captured the Charles Walters Trophy as individual foil champion by defeating Ethan Haines of Ryerson by a score of 15-10 in the final. Malcolm McLeod of the Brock Badgers held on to defeat Toronto’s David Chen-Li 15-13 to win bronze for a second consecutive year.

In the individual men’s sabre final, No. 2 seed Garrett Whelan of the RMC Paladins outlasted No. 1 Alex Sun of Queen’s 15-12 to win the Schwende Trophy. Brock’s Aaron Olmstead claimed bronze by upending RMC’s Hugo Clements 15-8.

Ben Mucsi of Toronto won the Desjarlais Trophy in the individual epee final. Mucsi overcame an ankle injury to beat Brock’s Logan Wilford 15-12. In the bronze-medal match,Byoungchan Kim of RMC dispatched Kyle MacKinnon 12-11.

FINAL STANDINGS

Toronto, 337

RMC, 272

Queen’s, 58

Brock, 151

Western, 149

Ryerson, 132

Carleton, 112

Waterloo, 85

McMaster, 58

Trent, 15

Guelph, 7