MADISON, N.J. - Coming off a regular season that saw the women's team and the men's team score best-ever 42 and 41 win seasons, respectively, the Rangers will be well represented on Saturday at the NCAA Regionals at Lafayette College.
The 21 confirmed or alternate entries for the Rangers are the highest among Division III programs in the Mid-Atlantic/South Region.
The women's team will feature
Caitlin Kotz,
Lydia Segal and
Lauren Rusk in foil;
Grace McCarthy and
Claudia West in epee, and
Emily Huber,
Kayla Ogden,
Emily Jones and
Olivia Yepez in saber. Freshmen McCarthy, Rusk, Jones and Yepez are headed to their first NCAA regional championship.
This is the fourth NCAA regional championship for Kotz and the third for Segal. Kotz led all Rangers fencers with 87 dual-meet victories this season. Segal had a stellar year with 82 dual-meet victories and a NIWFA conference championship silver medal.
Emily Huber recorded a squad-high 76 dual-meet saber victories and is coming off a bronze-medal performance in last weekend's NIWFA conference championships.
"Emily performed well at last year's regionals, even though she had a damaged left shoulder and had to fence opposite-handed," remarked Head Coach
Vincent Paragano. "She performed remarkably well considering that she got about one week of right-handed practice. It will be interesting to see what she can do fencing with her naturally-stronger left hand."
On the men's side,
Josh Ryan,
Joe Storey,
Jeremy Ferreira, and
Topher Infinito are confirmed entries in Epee. Ferreira surprised everyone last year by competing well into the third round of pools. Meanwhile, freshmen Storey and Infinito will be getting their first taste of NCAA championship experience.
The men's saber field will include
Ryan Baldi,
Brian Heist, and
Nathan Milgram as confirmed entries. Freshman
Jake KurtzFreilich will be on standby as an alternate. Milgram recorded the highest win total for the men's saber squad this year with 42 dual-meet victories. Baldi and Heist were right behind him with 40 and 37 wins, respectively.
William Badrigian,
Drew Laun,
Aleko Graham, and
Henry Engel have been designated as alternates and are all hoping to get into some meaningful action in foil. This will be the first NCAA Championship for freshmen Badrigian, Laun-Wilson and Engel.
"There is no way to capture the speed of the NCAA championships in words. You have to experience it to understand it," added Paragano. "We will be going up against some of the best fencers from some great programs like Penn State, UPenn, UNC and Duke. It is sensational that we have this many freshmen making it to this level so early in their college careers. It will set us up well for next year and beyond."
