No. 5 Temple fencing wins 25th consecutive NIWFA title

The Owls swept both the weapon and individual titles.

The women's fencing team and spectators cheer from the sidelines at the Temple Invitational at McGonigle Hall on Feb. 23. | NEIL GOLDENTHAL / THE TEMPLE NEWS

Temple University fencing won its 25th consecutive National Intercollegiate Women’s Fencing Association title in Madison, New Jersey on Saturday.

Temple beat out 11 teams to win the championship. New York University won second place while Johns Hopkins University took third place.

The Owls swept the weapon titles for the first time since 2015 and took the foil and epee titles for the second consecutive year. The team also won individual titles for the first time since 2014. One of the Owls’ goals heading into the championship was to sweep the competition because they have earned two titles in each weapon every season, redshirt-senior epee Quinn Duwelius said.

Freshman Margherita Calderaro won gold in epee while three Temple sabres took three of the top spots in the sabre competition. Freshman Zoe Turner won the sabre title, defeating senior Malia Hee in the championship match. Freshman Emma Pincus tied for third.

Senior Kennedy Lovelace won her second career foil title to complete the individual title sweep. Sophomore Cassie Navalta placed third while junior Megan Ross finished in sixth place.

Calderaro, Turner, Lovelace, Hee, Pincus and Navalta all earned NIWFA First Team honors while Ross earned Second Team honors.

The Owls will continue its postseason competition in the NCAA Regional Championships on March 7 at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Temple, which is ranked No. 5 in the CollegeFencing360.com Women’s Coaches poll, faced three ranked teams, Princeton University, Penn State and Penn, in the Temple Invitational on Feb. 23. The Owls will face similar competition in the regional championships, Duwelius said.

“It’s nice to kind of get exposure and be able to work with what you got and know what actions you can do moving forward because when it comes to regionals, every touch matters,” Duwelius said on Feb. 23.

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