POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – At the NCAA Fencing Northeast Regional Championship hosted by Vassar College on Sunday, Niles Liu led the No. 5 MIT men's fencing team with a career-best 12^th place finish in foil. Rohan Dalal paced the sabre squad by ranking 18^th while Corey Zhao was the top performer for the epee contingent as he finished 30^th.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:

• Epee 
  • Zhao paced MIT by finishing in 30^th place.
    • Following a first-round bye, Zhao defeated Jabreel Green of LIU (3-2) but fell to Declan McAdoo of Sacred Heart (5-1), Thomas Huang of BC (5-4), Szymon Wojciechowski of NYU (5-3), Thomas Wheelan of Yale (5-1), and Luka Loncar of Columbia (3-2).
  • Rishi Shiv finished in 31^st place.
    • After a first-round bye, Shiv defeated Luke Strauss of Brandeis (5-4) but lost to Alexander Bezrodnov of Columbia (5-2), Daniel Gao of BC (5-2), Samuel Imrek of St. John's (5-2), Ajit Sivakumar of NYU (5-3), and Henry Lawson of Harvard (5-1) in the second round.
       
• Foil
  • Liu's 12^th place finish was a career-best performance.
    • A recipient of a first-round bye, Liu went 3-3 in the second round as he defeated Alexander Ligos of Sacred Heart (5-1), Brendan Wadley of LIU (5-2), and David Knizhik of Brandeis (5-3) but lost to Adam Wong of NYU (5-1), Castor Kao of Yale (5-2), and Roy Graham of Harvard (5-2).
    • In the third round, Liu posted a 2-4 record as he defeated Yikal Lu of BC (5-0) and Steven Miall of Harvard (5-3) but fell to David Knizhik of Brandeis (5-2), Castor Kao of Yale (5-4), Marsel Nagimov of Columbia (5-1), and Adam Wong of NYU (5-4).
    • Liu then advanced to the final round after outlasting Daniel Zhang (Harvard), 5-4, in a tiebreaker bout.
    • Liu wrapped up the day with a 2-9 record. He overpowered Yikal Lu of BC (5-0) and Yonjae Kim of Yale (5-1), but lost to Samarth Kumbla of Columbia (5-3), David Knizhnik of Brandeis (5-2), Roy Graham of Harvard (5-2), Sebastian Garcia of St. John's (5-0), Castor Kao of Yale (5-4), Vinni Yu of Yale (5-3), Elijah Onik of BC (5-2), Nicholas Kim of Yale (5-2), and Jan Nowak of St. John's (5-3).
  • Andy Zhang ranked 17^th overall.
    • After a first-round bye, Zhang had a 4-2 showing in the second round as he defeated Igor Wozniak of St. John's (5-4), Alex Fortune of Brandeis (5-0), Steven Miall of Harvard (5-4), and Anders Yu of NYU (5-4) but lost to Elijah Onik of BC (5-2) and Yonjae Kim of Yale (5-1).
    • In the third round, Zhang went 2-4 as he outlasted Daniel Zhang of Harvard (5-4) and Michael Yerokhin of Brandeis (5-4) but lost to Elijah Onik of BC (5-1), Sebastian Garcia of St. John's (5-4), Yonjae Kim of Yale (5-1), and Nicholas Kim of Yale (5-1). 
  • Henry Zhang tied for 20^th place.
    • Following a first-round bye, Zhang produced a 3-3 record in the second round as he defeated Caleb Jeon of Columbia (5-3), Phillip Nunnink of Wheaton (5-2), and Chaissen Costello of Sacred Heart (5-4) but lost to Jack Sullivan of Brandeis (5-1), Sebastian Garcia of St. John's (5-3), and Yikai Lu of BC (5-4).
    • In the third round, Zhang edged out Jack Sullivan of Brandeis (5-4) but fell to Anup Banerjee of NYU (5-3), Jan Nowak of St. John's (5-0), Vinni Yu of Yale (5-0), Roy Graham of Harvard (5-2), and Samarth Kumbla of Columbia (5-4).
       
• Sabre
  • Dalal claimed 18^th place in the final standings.
    • In the first round, Dalal topped Karthik Shankar of Vassar (5-1) and Oliver Smink of Wheaton (5-1) but lost to Tai Flot of LIU (5-3) and Lukas Eichhorn of BC (5-2) for a 2-2 ledger.
    • Dalal went 3-3 in the second round as he defeated Nicholas Harvey of Columbia (5-1), Lev Benavram of Brandeis (5-4), and Darli Lukashenko of St. John's (5-3) but lost to Jonathan Morales of Sacred Heart (5-4), David Sagardi Diaz of Vassar (5-3), and Luca Berman of BC (5-0).
    • In the third round, Dalal finished at 1-5 as he defeated Jerry Pan of NYU (5-2) but fell to William Morrill of Columbia (5-3), Masanobu Miyasaki Castro of LIU (5-3), Gabe Babayev of BC (5-4), Tolga Aslan of Sacred Heart (5-3), and Vlad Covaliu of St. John's (5-1).
  • Surya Sakhamuri ranked 36^th.
    • Sakhamuri posted a 2-2 mark in the first round as he opened the day with victories over Devan McCarthy of Vassar (5-3) and Surya Mattoo of NYU (5-3) but lost to Alex Piwowar of Brandeis (5-3) and Eduardo Duarte of LIU (5-3).
  • Eric Wang finished in 40^th place in the overall rankings.
    • In the first round, Wang defeated Avy Nakache-Habib of Yeshiva (5-0) in his first bout but lost to Jason Jensby of Vassar (5-3), Jude Wilson of Brandeis (5-3), and Jonathan Morales of Sacred Heart (5-1).

UP NEXT:

• MIT will learn if any fencers qualified for the NCAA National Collegiate Championship on Tuesday, March 10 via ncaa.com.

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