From Brandeis University Athletics
Brandeis University hosted the Northeast Regional at the Gosman Athletic Center on Sunday.
Sophomore Leon Rotenstein (Ashland, Mass./Ashland) reached the final round in the men's saber competition. Seeded 16th, Rotenstein went 2-3 in the opening round and snuck into the semifinals on indicator with the 21st and final spot. Senior teammate Kyle Berney (Shreveport, La./Caddo Magnet School) went 4-2 in the round and advanced to the semis in the 10th spot. The two were paired together in their semifinal pod, with Rotenstein taking a 5-0 decision en route to a 3-3 mark overall. He also defeated foes from Columbia and Hunter College. Berney did not earn a semifinal win, finishing in 20th place overall. In the finals, Rotenstein picked up two more wins defeating foes from Harvard and Columbia to place 11th overall.
In the men's foil, it was senior Elishua Litle (Haifa, Israel/Reali – Beit Haram) who reached the final round of 12. The event's 13th seed, Litle earned a bye into the second round. He went 5-1 in the round of 35 to advance as the fifth seed. The Judges put two other competitors into the semifinals, as sophomore Ian Quin (Ramsey, N.J. / Ramsey) and rookie Jared Sugarman (Scarsdale, N.Y. / Scarsdale) each went 3-3, claiming the 19th and 21st spots, respectively. Litle went 4-2 in the semifinals to take the seventh seed into the finals, while Sugarman went 3-3 and missed the finals on point differential by five touches. In the round of 12, Litle posted wins over opponents from NYU, Boston College and Columbia – the latter of whom finished in fourth place – to place 10th overall in the pool.
With several of the competitors who finished ahead of them coming from schools who had already qualified the maximum number for the NCAA Championships, Rotenstein and Litle will both have an outside shot at an at-large berth when the field is announced on Tuesday.
The men's epee squad produced one semifinalist in senior Hunter Stusnick (New Vernon, N.J. / Chatham). Seeded 23rd headed into the meet, Stusnick went 4-2 in the second round with wins over opponents from Yale, MIT, Brown and Vassar to wind up in a four-way tie for eighth place. In the semis, he picked up wins over Columbia and Yale, but it wasn't enough to advance, winding up in 15th place, one win and a couple of touches out of the top 12 and the finals.