Northampton, MA - First year Nicholas Lennon earned a third place finish in epee to score a bronze medal while junior Devan McCarthy and sophomore Jason Jensby both finished in the top-six in sabre as the Vassar College Men's Fencing team began the 2026-27 campaign at the NEIFC The Big One on Sunday.

Epee

• Pool Round
  • Senior Christopher Garfield Sebert tallied one victory in pool #6.
  • Junior Adam Elkashef scored three wins in pool #7 to place 29th overall and clinch a spot in the opening tableau.
  • Lennon registered a perfect 6-0 round in pool #8 to tie for first and advance to the final elimination tableau.
  • First year Ciaran May earned four victories in pool #9 to finish 22nd overall and move to the opening elimination bracket.
• Direct Elimination
  • Elkashef moved through to the round of 32 with a 15-13 win over Ryan Hanks (New Hampshire) before falling 15-12 to 10-seed Thomas Levchook (Sacred Heart) to place 23rd overall.
  • May earned a 15-13 win over Josh Grayson (Northeastern) to advance to the round of 32 before narrowly dropping a 15-14 bout to 11-seed Troy Song (Tufts) to finish 22nd overall.
  • Lennon began the round of 32 with a win over 31-seed Lize Deng (Brown) and advanced to the round of eight on a 15-12 win over Ganapathi Iyer (Boston Univ.).
  • Lennon advanced to the semifinal round with a 15-9 triumph over Levchook before falling to Song 15-11 to earn a third place finish.

Foil

• Pool Round
  • Sophomore Aaron Taplin collected three wins in pool #2 to seed 33rd and rank 18th in the opening elimination tableau.
  • Junior Ethan Capra earned four victories in pool #10 to rank 15th overall and advanced to the final tableau.
  • First year Mateo Weiss cruised to a undefeated 5-0 round in pool #11 to seed eighth overall heading into the final elimination bracket.
• Direct Elimination
  • Taplin battled 15-seed Gunnar Baumann (Rhode Island) in the opening tableau and fell 15-11.
  • Capra earned a 15-3 win over Samuel Wilson (Bowdoin) to advance to the round of 16 before falling to two-seed Eric Min (MIT) 15-10 to finish 14th overall.
  • Weiss collected a 15-5 victory over 25-seed Michael Samuel (MIT) before dropping a 15-10 battle to nine-seed Yi-Tung Chen (RISD) to place 10th overall.

Sabre

• Pool Round
  • McCarthy earned a perfect 6-0 round in pool #2 to earn the third seed in the final elimination tableau.
  • Jensby also registered an undefeated round at 5-0 in pool #9 to secure the second seed in the elimination bracket.
  • Sophomore Neal Cusumano tallied four victories in pool #12 to finish 17th overall and take the top seed in the opening tableau.
• Direct Elimination
  • Cusumano defeated Sam Trotz (Northeastern) 15-3 to move to the round of 32 and advanced to the round of 16 on a 15-10 win over 16-seed Cody Cheng (Brown).
  • Cusumano dropped a 15-6 decision against top-seed Tolga Aslan (Sacred Heart) to place 12th overall.
  • Jensby earned a 15-11 victory over Summer Janyong (Boston Univ.) in the round of 32 and rolled into the quarterfinals with a 15-11 win over 18-seed Connor Huang (Tufts).
  • Jensby finished fifth overall after falling in a 15-12 bout against 23-seed Michael Ene (Sacred Heart).
  • McCarthy advanced to the round of 16 with a 15-3 win over 30-seed Aditya Raj (Harvard) and punched his ticket to the quarterfinals with a 15-11 win over 14-seed Rohan Dalal (MIT).
  • McCarthy placed sixth overall after narrowly falling 15-14 against sixth-seed Esteban Mayer (Dartmouth).

Up Next

• Vassar heads to the Drew Ranger Invitational on Saturday.