Fencing Qualifies Three for Finals
Yesterday members of the fencing team traveled to MIT for the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships, where three fencers — coincidentally, one from each squad — qualified for the Finals that will be held at Penn State during the second weekend of Spring Break.
“It was really tough,” said junior epee co-captain Tasha Hall, who qualified on the epee squad. “[Junior Sallie Dietrich] and I both made it to the final 12, and it was pretty intimidating. There were foreign [fencers] there who are really good and some of the top people from Nationals.”
Each squad in each region of the country selects a certain number of people to make it to the Finals. Those fencers are selected based on how they perform at Regionals and also how they performed all season.
Hall placed seventh out of the eight sabers who qualified for Finals, and Dietrich has been entered into a lottery and may also be able to attend.
Additionally, senior co-saber captain Alex Heiss qualified for Finals, placing ninth of the 10 sabers.
“I’ve qualified for the past three years, so I wasn’t going to let my senior year slip away,” she said.
Sophomore foil co-captain Jessica Tranquada placed sixth out of the nine qualifying foilists, and is happy that this year the Finals don’t fall on Dragon Day, since she is an architecture student.
Looking ahead, Heiss is optimistic about the Red’s performance at Finals.
“We all have a good chance at doing well at NCAA [Finals] because everyone who’s going has been there before,” she said. “We all have some experience.”
— Compiled by Jasmine Marcus
Equestrian Ties for First at Last Regular Season Show
The equestrian team enjoyed a successful, albeit muddy, weekend at Hartwick, tying archrival Skidmore with 43 points –– good for first place at the Red’s last regular season horse show. Cornell finishes the year 40 points behind Skidmore, which is a smaller deficit in comparison to last season’s results. Rounding out the final standings in Oneonta, N.Y., were Binghamton, Morrisville and Albany (33), Siena (31), Cobleskill and Oneonta (30), Hartwick (29), Ithaca (28), Colgate (23), Hobart (22), Hamilton (13), RPI (10) and Elmira (9).
The day started off sunny and dry, but those conditions didn’t last long, eventually giving way to mud and rain. Kicking things off for the Red were senior tri-captains Dana Kendrick and Caroline Shulman, who both rode to first-place finishes in their respective sections. In Intermediate Fences, junior Georgina Melbye’s ride earned her a blue ribbon and a ticket to the Regional Championships, to be held in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on March 28. Junior Zoe Samuel also qualified for Regionals with a third-place finish in Novice Fences. Kenrick and Shulman both returned to the ring to claim second in Open Flat. Cornell qualified two more riders for Regionals when sophomores Kelsey Craig and Mary Winans finished first in their respective Novice Flat classes. Sophomore Morgan Broccoli picked up another blue ribbon for the Red in Advanced Walk/Trot/Canter, while freshman Carolyn Tsai secured her first IHSA win in Beginner Walk/Trot.
Shulman finishes the year just six points behind the leader in the Cacchione Cup standings, with Kendrick one point behind her.
— Compiled by Alex Kuczynski-Brown