From Brandeis University Athletics
The Brandeis University women's fencing team saw two first-year competitors place within the top seven in their respective weapons at today's NCAA Northeast Regional at Cornell University, the final meet for qualification for the NCAA National Collegiate Fencing Championships in Detroit March 19-22.
Leading the way was the women's sabre squad, where rookie Jessica Morales (Wilmington, Mass./Wilmington) and classmate Maggie Shealy (Chapel Hill, N.C./Chapel Hill East) were seeded sixth and 14th headed into the regional championships. Both went 6-0 in the first round of competition to advance easily to the second round. Morales was tied for the top touch differential, known as the indicator, finishing plus-16, while Shealy was third at plus-11. Morales went 4-2 in the semifinal round with a plus-four indicator, picking up wins over St. John's, Yale, Sacred Heart and Brown to advance to the final round as the sixth seed, while Shealy earned the 11th of 12 spots in the finals after going 3-3 with a plus-one indicator. She bested foes from Cornell, Columbia and Yale to reach the final round.
The final round of 12 was evenly balanced, with the top three finishers going 8-3, followed by five more who went 6-5, including both Shealy and Morales. Shealy had plus-one indicator to finish in sixth place after defeating two opponents from Yale, two from Columbia – including the bronze medalist – one from Brown, and her teammate Morales. Morales was seventh in the pool with a zero indicator, scoring and receiving 42 touches. She earned wins over both Yale fencers, and one each from St. John's, Harvard, Columbia and MIT.
With their sixth- and seventh-place finishes, Shealy and Morales are likely to be named to NCAA Championship field, though the official announcement takes place on Tuesday. They would be the first Brandeis women to reach the NCAAs since Caroline Mattos '16 in 2014 did so in foil, and the first sabre fencers since Anna Hanley '11 in 2009. It would be the first time since 2002 that multiple Brandeis women went in the same year, when Tracy Marien '04 and Jessica Lewis-Turner '04 did so.