Brief: Freshman Massialas leads Stanford fencing contingent at North American Cup
Four Stanford fencers took up their foils this weekend at the North American Cup in St. Louis. Led by freshman Alexander Massialas, who advanced to the men’s individual foil round of 16 at this summer’s London Olympics, led the charge for the Cardinal with a gold medal in the Division I men’s foil.
Rounding out the competition for Stanford, junior Turner Caldwell, the 2012 NCAA silver medalist, took ninth in Division I men’s foil, Francesca Bassa took 33rd in Division I women’s epee and Paul Riviere placed 44th in men’s epee.
But it was Massialas who was particularly dominant, allowing no more than seven touches in his first four matches and knocking off Olympic teammates Race Imboden and Gerek Meinhardt in the semifinals and finals, beating Meinhardt 15-14 to take the gold.
Despite finishing lower down in the final results, Bassa and Riviere both fenced well in the preliminary bouts–Bassa was sixth and Riviere 25th–before falling in the knockout stages.
Stanford’s official season does not get started until the Western Invitational on Jan. 12 in Pasadena, Calif.
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