The weekend of October 17-18, saw the University of Toronto Varsity Blues fencing team compete at the first major tournament of the 2009-2010 season, hosted by Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.

In true Blues form, our U of T athletes made a strong showing to get the new season off to a good start - in spite of some steep competition from some of Canada’s top-ranked fencers.

The Blues came away with two hard-fought medals, while a number of other athletes finished in the top eight. First-year student Alexis Rudkovska narrowly missed a gold medal with a final score of 12-15 in women’s epee, bringing home the Blues’ first silver medal of the season.



Returning fencer and reigning OUA champion, Alison Doyle, a second-year student, also won silver in the women’s sabre event.

Law student Nicole See-Too also had a strong showing and ranked seventh out of 48 in the women’s foil event. On the men’s side of the draw, Blues fencer Eric Ng ranked fifth out of 56 for men’s sabre, while in men’s foil Andriy Mnih and Master’s candidate David Schacter each placed seventh and eighth, respectively, out of a pool of 65.

Our own head coach, Thomas Nguyen, elected to join in on the fun and finished fifth in men’s foil.

The Varsity Blues fencers are in action on Oct. 31-Nov. 1, returning to Kingston but will be hosted this by Royal Military College.

Men’s Foil
Thomas Nguyen – 5th
Andriy Mnih – 7th
David Schacter – 8th
Daylin Boyce – 22nd
Brian Lee – 44th
Samuel Huang – 45th
Adam Smith – 56th
Jason Qian – 60th

Women’s Foil
Nicole See-Too – 7th
Mandy Lau – 10th
Claire Midgley – 12th
Jodi Marr – 14th

Men’s Epee
Iliya Sigal – 25th
Andriy Mnih – 34th
Aleksey Matviyenko – 36th
Jake Wang – 50th
Nigel Thorpe – 60th
Bo Hang Zhao – 70th
Justin Shum – 71st

Women’s Epee
Alexis Rudkovska – 2nd
Amber Wavryk – 13th
Katherine Magyarody – 18th
Claire Midgley – 21st 

Men’s Sabre
Eric Ng – 5th
Sukhveer Matharu – 10th
Chacho Rodriguez – 14th
Akash Toprani – 15th

Women’s Sabre
Alison Doyle – 2nd
Jo Jo Leung – 17th
Stefania Spano – 22nd