St. Catharines, ON - The Western Mustangs fencing team take home gold, silver, and bronze at the 2024 Brock Open in St. Catherine's this weekend Nov. 16-17.

Over 600 fencers competing in the Ian Beddis Gymnasium in Brock University this weekend, with over 50 of the competitors being Western Mustangs.

First-year Men's Epee fencer Jonathan Chai secured the first victory of the weekend after defeating David Nutovych from the Centre d'Escrime Excellence in an exciting 15-11 match. Chai, in his first competition as a Mustang, started the event off strong ranking third in the preliminary round. Chai continued to dominate the event, starting from defeating Brock Badger Karl Stang 15-4 in the round of 64 all the way through to his gold-medal winning finish.

The next Mustang to take home a medal was Men's Foil Captain Steven Zhang, who finished the weekend with a third-place finish. Though Zhang had a rocky start to the preliminary round, he quickly found his footing in time for his direct elimination matches. After defeating fellow Mustang Leonardo Cui in the round of 32, Zhang proceeded to win his next two matches decisively, before losing to Ethan Haines from Toronto Metropolitan University 4-15 in the semi-finals.

Second-year Medical Sciences Student Stephanie Shen took home silver in the Senior Women's Epee event. After ranking 14 after the preliminary round, Shen proceeded to win her first five direct elimination matches, including against Aida Heidari from TMU 15-7, Caity McConnal from Trent University 15-4, Patricia Lambrino from Toronto Fencing Club 13-9. In the finals, Shen faced Lilia Mucsi from the University of Toronto, where she lost 6-15 and placed second.

Up next for the Mustangs is the Carleton Invitational January 11-12, 2025.
 
Top Results

Men's Epee
1 Jonathan Chai (Western)
2 David Nutovych (Centre d'Escrime Excellence)
3T Zidong Zhao (Vango Toronto)
3T Nicholas Gutierrez-Sarabia (U of T)
8 Hugo Allard (Western)
21 Max Dominy (Western)
 
Women's Foil
1 Hyeonwon Kim (TFC)
2 Maryna Yanko (Vango Toronto)
3T Jaimie Lina Park (Ottawa Fencing)
3T Shuang Li (CFA/TFC)
9 Robin Wang (Western)
14 Elizabeth Upton (Western)

Men's Sabre
1 Richard Yang (U Waterloo)
2 Simon Li (U Wateroo)
3T Alexandre Prefontaine (Queen's)
3T Zihao Gong (Dynamiques de Brebeuf)
23 Terrence Wu (Western)

Women's Sabre
1 Janna Elshakaniri (U of T)
2 Rebecca Jeffrey (U of T)
3T Danielle Burghgraef
3T Xinyi Cai ( Bergen Fencing Club)
8 Ariana Tang (Western)

Men's Foil
1 Sacha Vasiliev (Ottawa Fencing)
2 Ethan Haines
3T Gordon Ye (Stratford Fencing Club)
3T Steven Zhang (Western)
9 Frederick Yu (Western)
17 Leo Cui (Western)

Women's Epee
1 Lilla Musci (U of T)
2 Stephanie Shen (Western)
3T Ysabel Granert (Toronto Fencing Club)
3T Andrea Csiba (London Fencing Club)
11 Huajin Zhang (Western)
13 Felicity Mei (Western)