Buckingham is last Ford standing at NCAA fencing regional

MADISON, N.J. - After battling through a grueling day of competition, junior epeeist Emma Buckingham nabbed an at-large berth for the Mid-Atlantic Region, and is in contention to qualify to the All-Division NCAA Fencing National Championships.

Buckingham fenced a total of 26 bouts over the course of seven hours to finish in ninth place at the NCAA Fencing Regional held at Drew University on Saturday.

Three Penn State fencers finished ahead of the Haverford junior, but only two fencers may qualify to the Nationals from each school in each weapon. Buckingham, the 2009 Eastern Women's Fencing Conference Epeeist of the Year, therefore moved into the eighth qualifying slot and is potentially an at-large national competitor from the region.

She will be compared to the at-large fencers from the three other regions on the basis of her Regional's result, her win/loss record for the season, and the average strength of her opponents over the season.

With the Northeast and West Regions holding their championships on Sunday, Buckingham won't learn if she qualifies for Nationals until the final tabulations are complete and announced on Tuesday.

Last year Buckingham was 15th at the NCAA Nationals.

Although a record 12 Haverford fencers qualified into the Division-I heavy NCAA Regionals, none of them besides Buckingham managed to reach the final round of the competition.

Last year's men's qualifier to the NCAA Nationals, Remy Olson, was eliminated in the first round with no wins.

Only women's foilists Amanda Levinson and Alice Clark, and men's sabrists Aaron Ruby and Jared Forbus, were able to battle their way to the second round of the competition.

The first round, fought in pools of 6 fencers, presented an insurmountable barrier to the rest of the 'Fords, as nearly 50 percent of the field was eliminated by 10 a.m.

Other highlights of the competition included senior foilist Max Rosen-Long's 5-2 defeat of NCAA All-American and Junior World Cup Champion Nick Chinman of Penn State; freshman sabreur Aaron Ruby's 5-4 defeat of Junior Olympic and Junior National Champion Aleksander Ochocki of Penn State; and freshman Alice Clark's victory over Johns Hopkins' Grace Fried, a perennially tough opponent for the Fords women all season.