The Carleton Raven’s men’s fencing team came out of the weekend’s Ontario University Athletics (OUA) fencing championships “as expected,” according to head coach Eli Sukunda.
The event, held Feb. 11-12 at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., saw the host Gaels take the overall win as they edged the University of Toronto Varsity Blues in a tiebreaker.
For their part, the Carleton fencers did a commendable job despite being at a disadvantage with recruiting. Sukunda said despite the issues facing the fencing team, they were proud of the results.
“So many other teams have experienced fencers that come to the school, and we often get none of those,” he said. “What we get comes out of our own program. When we win medals, it’s kind of exciting because [the players] are homegrown.”
The Ravens placed second in the team foil event and also finished third in the individual foil, thanks to second-year athlete Alecs Tudor.
“That was a great result and, in a way, it was the only result we were expecting,” Sukunda said. “Some fruitfulness, you know? You have to have experience.”
The championships were also used as an opportunity to name the OUA all-stars and Carleton was well-represented. Fourth-year athlete Mike Ivankovic was named the sabre all-star, while first-year athlete Alexandre Salat shared the foil all-star nomination with Dean Loubert from Queen’s and Mohammed Alshayeb from McMaster.
“They were both on the cusp to win a medal. When you win an all-star, it’s like plus-minus in hockey. It means you’re the best of the rest,” Sukunda said. “But it’s kind of an honour. They got one in foil and one in sabre, and I thought that was really good for our program.”
Carleton was seen as an underdog entering the tournament, as they lost three-time all-stars Scott McNeil and Ben Riley to graduation in the summer, in addition to a large chunk of their roster. As a result, Sukunda relied on a very young team, which featured eight first-year students.
“We’ve been very strong over the past three years with our teams, and last year we graduated way more than half of the team,” Sukunda said. “So this is a complete rebuilding year. We had two or three experienced fencers on the team, out of 12. All the rest are literally beginner-beginners.”
Having such a young team is both a blessing and a curse because, by pushing through the rebuild, the practice will result in a more experienced team, he said.
“We’ll have a year and some under our belts,” he said. “We don’t lose anybody to graduation, so we’re good to go for two or three years. This is more than a strong nucleus.”
