Feb. 24, 2008

NEW YORK, N.Y. - The Bulldog foil squad finished tied for first in the Foil Team competition at Sunday's IFA Championships. The squad's 26-4 record paced the Elis' fourth place finish (51-39 record) in the Men's Three-Weapon Team competition and Yale's fifth place finish (98-90) in the Six-Weapon Team competition. Junior standout Michael Pearce took fourth in the Individual Epee Championships.

The foil squad tied Columbia for the best record in the Foil Team competition. The squad of freshman Nathaniel Botwinick and sophomores John Gurrieri and Andrew Holbrook has been the strength of the Eli team all year and showed why Sunday. Harvard (19-11) and Penn (19-11) rounded out the top four. Botwinick and Holbrook both qualified for the individual piece of the competition with 10-0 records.

Yale's epeeists finished sixth (15-15), while the sabre squad came in ninth (10-20) in their respective weapon's team competitions.

Pearce advanced to the bronze medal match of the Individual Epee Championships, where he fell to Princeton's Mike Elfassy, 15-12. The San Francisco, Calif., native took second at the 2007 IFA Championships and sixth in 2006.

Bulldog fencers return to action on Mar. 2, when they travel to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. for the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships.

Report filed by Nicholas Thorne '08, Yale Sports Publicity