Du takes home foil silver, women's fencing places 5th at NIWFAs

Women's Fencing 3/2/2025 9:32:00 AM Adam Levin '94

Du takes home foil silver, women's fencing places 5th at NIWFAs

MADISON, N.J. – The Brandeis University women's fencing team saw junior Hannah Du (Winchester, Mass./Winchester) earn silver, while two other Judges took home second-team honors at the 2025 National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association championships at Drew University. Brandeis placed fifth overall in the team standings.

TEAM RESULTS

In the team standings, the foil and epee squads each finished in fourth place, while the saber squad placed sixth. Brandeis's 14 points were one behind Drew for fourth and three behind Johns Hopkins in third. Temple won the event with two firsts and a second, while Tufts was second with a first, second and third place finish.
The foil squad totaled 32 bout victories, trailing Tufts (40), Temple (36) and Johns Hopkins (34), despite defeating the Blue Jays, 3-0, head-to-head.
The epee squad registered 27 wins, behind Temple (39), Tufts (34) and Drew (28).
The saber squad earned 26 wins on the day, including seven sweeps. Temple and Johns Hopkins were first and second with 39 wins, while Tufts was third with 31 and Stevens and Drew had 30.

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

Du led the Brandeis charge in the direct elimination individual results with her runner-up finish in the foil. After going 11-2 in the team competition, Du earned the third seed into the tableau.
She defeated the 14^th seed from Stevens, 15-3, in the first round, and knocked off the 11^th seed from Hunter, 15-7, in the quarterfinals. Du upset second-seeded Shannon Chen of Tufts in the semifinals, 15-10, before suffering a 15-4 loss to Temple's Anna Novoseltseva in the gold-medal match.
In saber action, junior Kat Xikes (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) earned the top overall seed in the direct elimination tournament after going 12-2 in the team competition. Xikes defeated her opponent from Navy in the opening round, 15-5, but was upset in the quarterfinals, 15-11, by Temple's ninth seed. Xikes placed fifth overall.
In the epee tournament, sophomore Vera Witte (Ridgewood, N.J./Ridgewood) was seeded 12th after going 7-7 in team competition. She edged the fifth seed from Tufts, 13-12, in the opening round, but fell short of the semifinals with a 15-12 loss to the fourth seed from Drew. Witte earned an eighth-place finish.

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