Natalie Shearer and Daphne Chan Nok Sze lead a scary talented freshman class.
First-year Natalie Shearer took down fellow Wildcat freshman Kira Erikson 15-14 to win the Division I women’s sabre title in an instant classic to cap a weekend that saw Northwestern rack up 18 podium finishes at the Remenyik Invitation inside Ryan Fieldhouse.
Shearer battled back from adversity to win her first collegiate title, mounting a comeback from 5-1 down early in the bracket before eventually taking down Erikson in the final.
“In my head [I was thinking] if this was a pool bout, this would already be over,” said Shearer, referring to her comeback win in an interview posted on Northwestern Fencing’s instagram page, “But then I told myself don’t look at the score, just think about what you’ve been doing, what you can be doing, and take it from there.”
Joining Shearer on the podium for the Division I women’s sabre division were fellow Wildcats Erikson, Adele Bois, Megumi Oishi, Nisha Hild and Xiaohan Chen. Bois and Oishi, two heroes of the Northwestern squad that took home the program’s first outright Central Collegiate Fencing Conference (CCFC) a year ago, finished tied for third, while Hild and Chen finished in seventh and 10th respectively. Northwestern’s Amy Lu finished 18th and Kailing Sathyanath finished in 20th to close out a very purple top 20.
Shearer wasn’t the only Wildcat freshman to win a title. Daphne Chan Nok Sze, who represented Hong Kong at the Olympics this summer cruised to an individual victory in the Division I women’s foil division. Nok Sze, who placed 15th in Paris (15th!!!), beat fellow Wildcat Yukari Takamizawa in the championship bout. Yejine Lee finished in seventh for Northwestern, followed by her teammates Samantha Serba in 11th, Briana Ho in 13th, Rowan Park in 15th, Allusion Lee in 17th, Juliana Hung in 18th and Ophelia Tong in 23rd.
Northwestern picked up another individual title – its third of four on the day – in the Division I women’s epée division as junior Karen Wang took down her teammate Athina Kwon in the final. Wang, who had a bit of an out-of-character performance in her debut at the October North American Cup (NAC)last week, was back in the form that saw her earn first team all-CCFC honors and an NCAA tournament appearance a year ago.
Kwon bested Northwestern’s own Amanda Pirkowski, a graduate student who transferred from Notre Dame in the offseason, 15-14 to reach the championship bout. Pirkowski, who was Northwestern’s high-finisher at the NAC last week, split third place honors with her teammate Anna Damratoski.
Four other ‘Cats finished in the top 20 with Ava Wade-Currie finishing in 12th, Helin Chen finishing in 13th, Christina Liu finishing in 14th and Kaylin Nguyen finishing in 18th. Julia Douglas finished in 24th, Asha Henry in 29th and Emma Ning placed 33rd to finish a banner day for Northwestern in the top division bouts.
In the junior women’s sabre division, Natalie Shearer earned ANOTHER individual title, capping one of the more impressive outings for any Northwestern first-year in recent memory. Maybe the best performance from a freshman since Boo Buie put up 26 in a loss to No. 15 Michigan State in 2019? At least a top 5 freshman performance by a Northwestern freshman of the decade.
Xiaohan Chen came in third for the Wildcats, followed by Amy Lu in fifth and Nisha Hild in ninth.
Yukari Takamizawa, who made her season debut this weekend, earned another silver medal in the junior women’s foil division. In the junior women’s epée, Christina Liu grabbed another podium appearance with a sixth place finish. Emma Ning joined her on the podium two spots behind in eighth.
That’s 18 podium appearances from 15 different Northwestern Wildcats across six different events. NU fencing looks more than capable of defending its CCFC title this spring.
The ‘Cats are back in action on October 27th for their Fall Duals meet on campus at the Patten Gymnasium before they travel to San Diego for the Western Invitational on the weekend of November 2.