Final Results

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Cornell fencer Victoria Wines saw her sensational sophomore season come to an end in the first semifinal of the 2015 NCAA Fencing Championships held this afternoon in Ohio State University's St. John Arena.  Wines wraps up the competition tied for third place to earn the bronze medal along with Princeton's Anna Van Brummen.
 
Additionally, in the foil competition, Ediona Sera and Angelica Gangemi finished in 22nd and 24th place, respectively. Sera earned five wins over the two days, while Gangemi picked up four victories.
 
As a team, the Big Red finished in 17th place.
 
Wines faced NJIT's Julia Garcia in the first semifinal. Garcia, the No. 1 ranked junior women's epee fencer in Spain, jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead at the start of the second period before Wines went into a split and earned her first touch to make it 3-1. Garcia responded with three unanswered touches, including two nice counterattacks, to push her lead to 6-1.
 
Wines began a hard-fought comeback with three consecutive points before the fencers closed the second and opened the third period with double-touches, putting the score at 8-6. Wines then pulled within one point (8-7) with an outstanding counterattack and the fencers traded points to 9-8, but that was as good as it got for the sophomore, as Garcia responded with a 4-1 run to go up by four points with time running out in the final period. Wines posted back-to-back touches, including a beautiful over the shoulder attack to make it 13-11, but with just 16 seconds remaining in the competition, Garcia was able to take advantage of a charging Wines to take the 15-11 victory.
 
Wines finished the round robin competition in first place with a record of 17-6, edging out Van Brummen, who also finished at 17-6, but Wines registered a +28 indicator while Van Brummen finished at +27.
 
With her third place finish, Wines has posted the highest finish at the NCAA Fencing Championship in school history and becomes the Big Red's first All-American since Meghan Phair took fourth place and earned All-American honors in 2004. 
 
Cornell has won seven individual national championships in women's fencing, with the last coming when Kim Charlton '94 won the title in the foil competition at the National Intercollegiate Women's Fencing Association (NIWFA) Championship, a precursor to the NCAA tournament.