Northwestern Excels In Individual Competitions on the Weekend

2/19/2018 4:09:00 PM | Women's Fencing

EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern capped off a successful weekend of individual competition highlighted by Pauline Hamilton's fifth place finish at Junior Olympics and Sarah Filby's 12th place finish at a junior World Cup foil event.

At the Junior Olympics, the national championships for fencers born between 1998 and 2004 held this year in in Memphis, Tennessee, Hamilton advanced to the quarterfinals in epee after going a perfect 6-0 in pools and winning four direct elimination bouts in the main draw. The finish gives Hamilton junior national ranking points that will improve on her No. 26 ranking.

Filby competed at a junior foil World Cup competition in Mödling, Austria on Sunday and, and advanced to the Round of 16 in a field of over 130 fencers. The finish qualified Filby for a spot on the Canadian junior team for the World Championships held from Apr. 1-9 in Verona, Italy. The first year earned eight junior international ranking points to bring her total to 22 while improving to No. 56 in the world.

Five other Wildcats competed at the Junior Olympics, including Alexis Browne who finished in the top-64 in the sabre competition and just two spots away from the ranking points threshold. The first year went a perfect 6-0 in pools to earn the No. 16 seed in the main draw, but her run stopped in her second elimination bout.

Jacqueline Hua also competed in the sabre event and won two pool matchups before narrowly falling in the first round of the knockout bouts, 15-13.

Anya Harkness fenced in the epee event on Sunday and opened her day with four wins in pools. Despite receiving a bye into the second round, Harkness could not advance after dropping a tight 6-5 decision.

Sophomore Amy Jia competed in the foil competition on Monday and got off to a promising 4-2 start in pools. She received a bye into the second round of the draw as well but a 15-7 defeat kept her from the round of 64.

Alexandra Banin advanced into the round of 64 with two direct elimination wins in the foil competition after winning three bouts in pools.

First Year Marta Amador Molina also competed overseas on Saturday in a junior epee World Cup event in Dijon, France as a representative of Spain.

The #B1GCats are back in action this weekend as they kick off the postseason at the Midwest Fencing Conference Championships in pursuit of their fifth title in program history. The two day event will be held at Ohio State in Columbus.