Banner Season: Varsity Blues fencers prepare to fight for five straight titles at upcoming men’s championship
St. Catharines, Ont. – The fight for five gets underway on Saturday for the Toronto Varsity Blues, who have been the crème of the men’s fencing crop for the last half decade. The reigning champs, who went down to the wire a year ago to keep their banner season streak intact, will once again face the fencing elite at Brock’s Ian Beddis Gymnasium this weekend, as 12 teams compete to hoist the Charles Walter Trophy as the OUA men’s champions.
2020 OUA Men’s Fencing Championship Fan Guide
Third-year standout David Chen-Li (Halifax, N.S.) is back to lead the Blues foil contingent, hoping to improve on their silver medal team finish from last year. Chen-Li, sophomore Teo Lemay (Ottawa, Ont.), and rookie Edward Li (Toronto, Ont.) placed second at the RMC Cup this season, while Chen-Li and Lemay also individually earned gold and silver, respectively, at the Canada Cup last weekend. They will be joined by Ben Xu (Saint John, N.B.) in the team relay competition.
With the departure of 2019 OUA all-star Colin Dale, Toronto’s epee team will look to veterans Ben Musci (Toronto, Ont.) who won the senior event of the Brock Open, as well as Beston Leung (Markham, Ont.) to lead their title defence. Sophomore Johnathan Zimmerman (Okotoks, Alta.) will compete alongside the aforementioned pair in the team relay for the second straight season, with rookie Colin McCurdy (Oshawa, Ont.) set to make his championship debut.
Finishing just two points behind the four-time reigning champion Blues a year ago were the Carleton Ravens, who will once again turn to the strength of their foil team to carry them toward the podium in 2020.
Among those suiting up for the Ravens in that regard are Phil McCully (Ottawa, Ont.) and Daniel Manyoki (Ottawa, Ont.). McCully enters as a past winner of the individual foil event and has been part of the gold medal winning team four times, while Manyoki was a silver medalist at last year’s edition and will once again be a key figure in the team’s charge for repeat success.
The final member of last year’s podium, the RMC Paladins, are also looking to make their 2020 banner season showing a memorable one, as they look to challenge for the overall title. Three of the four members of last year’s medal-winning sabre team and epee team are returning, as the former will look to defend their place atop the podium and the latter eyes an even better finish this time around. A strong recruit for the foil team – Andrew Willison (Halifax, N.S.) – makes them another one to watch for the Kingston squad, who did well as a whole to bring in some new faces.
“The people that graduated from the program were people who learned to fence at RMC and we’ve replaced those with people who were existing fencers coming in,” said head coach Patricia Howes. “My expectation is that the team should be able to be consistently up in the top three, but it’s still going to be tough.”
Among those who will seek repeat glory for the Paladins are seniors Garrett Whelan and Byoungchan Kim. Whelan has reached the podium at all three of his previous OUA championships and will look to add to his collection of provincial hardware in his fourth go-around. The Grandora, Sask. Native was able to up his game in preparation for this weekend’s event in large part thanks to his involvement at the World Military Games in the fall, at which he was a member of the Canadian Armed Forces Fencing Team, competing against Olympic-calibre athletes. While Whelan will anchor the sabre squad, Kim is set to take on a leadership role for the epee group. The fourth-year fencer from London, Ont. has landed on the OUA epee podium twice in his three previous championships, scoring a team silver in his first year and team bronze in 2019.
Just off the podium last year, the Brock Badgers are relying on their added strengths in all three weapon disciplines to go beyond their fourth-place finish. They will enter the weekend’s action having earned successive medal results from the early season’s invitationals at Queen’s, Western, and Brock, respectively. With their eyes on joining the top-three contingent, the host squad will turn to Aaron Olmstead as a leading figure. The Kingston, Ont. native earned a silver medal in the sabre event a year ago and also helped the Badgers to a bronze medal in the team event, and like the group as a whole, the OUA all-star will aim to take a step up this weekend.
Another team who hopes to make a splash toward podium contention is the Ryerson Rams, who after top-six finishes in three consecutive years, are looking to trend onward and upward. The Rams have had at least one individual medal winner for the last nine years, and not only will the likes of Alex Zwegers (Mississauga, Ont.), Omer Ghazali (Oakville, Ont.), and company be striving to keep the streak alive, they’ll look to bring the team to their first overall podium in program history.
Zwegers, who kept the medal-winning streak intact a year ago, is back to fight for another top-three finish for Ryerson and enters the championship on a high note, having won the Canadian U23 National Championship just a few days ago. The momentum and confidence will do the sophomore well in the OUA finale as he leads their epee efforts. Ghazali, meanwhile, will lead the foil discipline and after finishing 13th a year ago in the weapon, he has his sights set on besting that mark in his third appearance.
Much like the returnees that the Rams will rely on, the Queen’s Gaels will turn to their experienced epee team that took home silver a year ago. The group that consists of Gavin Crowder, Matthew Litwin, Rory McEwen, and Spencer McGregor will have a medal on their minds once again for the Tricolour; a feat that would go a long way toward the team build on their fifth place finish and achieve their goal of hitting the overall podium.
While experience will guide several squads, it won’t be the case for each of the weekend’s participants. One team that will be relying on the youth movement is the Western Mustangs, who have a large group of first-year fencers on the roster. The newcomers have blended well with the returnees, and according to head coach Brad Winder, “through dedicated training, many tournaments, and camps, the team has developed into a strong contender in the OUA”.
In his second year with Western – his first resulting in an individual silver medal – Rick Wu will captain the epee team. The Markham, Ont. native has kept the hardware haul rolling since his first banner season performance, including a bronze medal at the RMC Invitational, and enters the weekend ranked fourth in Canada in U23 and 35th in the Senior division.
Another Mustangs captain, Anthony Tran (Guelph, Ont.) will be one to watch in the sabre discipline. He is a strong, steady competitor who has a knack for finishing in and around the top in tournaments he enters. While he may be one of the quiet leaders of the team, the senior fences with grit and determination, both of which are attributes that should help Western make good on their coach’s comments.
Another younger team making the trek to St. Catharines is the Trent Excalibur, who are in search of their first OUA banner in program history. While they have yet to top the provincial podium, the primary goals for the youthful group in this edition will be to gain experience and improve on last year’s showing. Among those to watch for the Excalibur will be Nate Theobald (Oakville, Ont.), who is hoping to carry the momentum he’s been building into the championship, and Sean Baxter (Peterborough, Ont.), who will make his triumphant return to the sabre field after a year off.
Like Trent, plenty of other schools will be hoping for a turn of fortunes and a boost in the overall standings after their previous banner season results. Among those looking to make the climb this weekend are the Guelph Gryphons, McMaster Marauders, Waterloo Warriors, and York Lions, who combine to round out the weekend’s 12-team field.
The individual events will kick off the championship on Saturday, February 1, with foil and epee start at 9:00am and sabre set to start at 10:30am. The semifinals and finals for all three disciplines will follow at approximately 3:30pm. On Sunday, the team relays will be front and centre, with all three weapons getting underway at 8:45am and medal matches following at 2:45pm. All of the action will take place at Brock University’s Ian Beddis Gymnasium in St. Catharines.
