NORTHAMPTON, Mass. – Highlighted by Corey Zhao's individual epee title, the MIT men's fencing team produced six top 10 performances at the season-opening The Big One Invitational hosted by Smith College on Sunday. Eric Min was the runner up in the foil competition while Inkosi Brou tied for third place in sabre.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED - Epee:

• Zhao went 5-1 in his pool and then posted victories against Glenn Gabriel Shepard of Dartmouth (15-6), Stephen Scapicchio of Sacred Heart (15-14), Aedin Lai of Northeastern (15-9), teammate Zachary Gao (14-13), and Troy Song of Tufts (15-14) to take the title and record a career-best finish.
• Gao tied for third place after a 6-0 performance in his pool, registering wins over Ollie Cobb of Bowdoin (15-8), Grady Hegland of Sacred Heart (12-11), and Kerem Koyluoglu of Brown (15-9) but was topped by Zhao (14-13) in the semifinals.
• Rishi Shiv recorded a career-best ranking of sixth place. He won all six bouts in his pool and defeated James Devereux of Dartmouth (15-10) and Aaron Ottaviano of Tufts (15-7) but lost to Troy Song of Tufts (15-10) in the Round of 8.
• Michael Sha finished in 26^th place as he went 3-3 in his pool, defeated Arsenii Zharkov of Amherst (15-8) in the first round of direct elimination action but fell to Declan McAdoo of Sacred Heart (15-2) in the Round of 32.

HOW IT HAPPENED - Foil:

• Min won all six bouts in his pool and defeated Nathaniel Boutin of Northeastern (15-4), Ethan Capra of Vassar (15-10), Ansel Edison of Brown (15-7), and Chaissen Costello of Sacred Heart (15-9) before falling to Yi-Tung Chen of RISD (15-5) in the championship.
• Andy Zhang tied for third place after going 6-0 in his pool, defeating James Geckeler of WPI (15-6), Trey Plastaras of Sacred Heart (15-6), and Giovanni Chess of Sacred Heart (15-6) but was outlasted by Yi-Tung Chen of RISD (15-11) in the semifinals.
• Yehong Jiang recorded a career-best finish of 24^th. He went 4-2 in his pool, defeated Matthew Johnson of Sacred Heart (15-9) in the first round of direct elimination action but lost to Yi-Tung Chen of RISD (15-4) in the Round of 32.
• Michael Samuel claimed the next spot with a career-best showing of 25^th place. Following a 3-2 mark in his pool, he topped Patrick Chen of Stony Brook (15-10) in the first round of direct elimination but dropped a 15-5 decision to Mateo Weiss of Vassar in the Round of 32.

HOW IT HAPPENED - Sabre:

• Brou went 5-0 in his pool, defeated Jacob Berger of Northeastern (15-11), Ekam Bhatia of Northeastern (15-3), and Simeon Dalekov of Sacred Heart (15-13) but lost to Tolga Aslan of Sacred Heart (15-11) in the semifinals to tie for third place.
• Rohan Dalal ranked 11^th following a 4-1 showing in his pool, a victory over Luke Lesueur of Northeastern (15-6), and a loss to Devan McCarthy of Vassar (15-11).
• Eric Wang placed 17^th as he won all six bouts in his pool but was narrowly edged out by Elio Bureau of BU (15-12) in the Round of 32.
• Zachary Tong rounded out MIT as he was 34^th overall. He went 4-2 in his pool and was bested by Summer Janyong of BU (15-14) in the second round of direct elimination action.

UP NEXT:

• MIT will host the Beanpot on Wednesday, November 18 at 5:00 PM in the Johnson Athletic Center Track.

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