Club Corner: Fencing team competes in NEIFC championships

Photos courtesy of Qiao Se Ong ’25.
Left: Mount Holyoke Fencing competed in the NEIFC championships on Saturday, Feb. 25 at Wellesley. Right: Sabreist Danyah Shaikh ’25, above, scored against Boston University at the NEIFC championship.

By Genevieve Zahner ’26

Staff Writer

Mount Holyoke Fencing competed in the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference Championship hosted by Wellesley College on Saturday, Feb. 25. The team competed in all three weapons, including épée, sabre and foil. 

“This was the first competition of this semester, and it was definitely a great way to start our spring season,” Co-Captain and Sabre Weapon Head Eli Gerbi ’25 said. “I know I was able to execute skills that I couldn’t last year and beat people I wouldn’t have been able to even a semester ago. I also saw some definite improvements in other members of my squad, and many of the errors that we had worked so hard to correct were minimal or nonexistent. Everyone was ‘fencing smart,’ and that alone is a huge thing that says so much about this ability to adapt, learn and stay confident on [the] strip.”

Gerbi spoke about the admirable performance of many team members who only learned to fence this year.

“We have a very young team right now. Around half of them only started fencing in the fall of 2022 or later, and have put in so much effort, time and work to get where they are today,” Gerbi said. “For some of them, this was their first tournament, and for most of them, it was only their second or third. The environment of a tournament can be hard to get used to, but they all did such a great job staying calm, adapting to other fencers and referees and supporting each other.”

Competing in the Senior Team Women’s Foil event, Mount Holyoke was represented by Halina Smolen ’26, Lauren Macias Severino ’25 and Catalina Dippel ’25. In the initial pool round, the foilists had 17 victories and 114 touches scored. Their performance led them to place 15th, beating the University of Rhode Island and the University of Massachusetts.

Mount Holyoke’s fencers competing in the Senior Team Women’s Épée event were Maya Frey ’23, Ruth Pelligrino ’24 and Rebecca Moberg ’26. The épéeists won 11 bouts and scored 109 touches in the pool round and went on to place 15th, winning against Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Boston University.

The Senior Team Women’s Sabre event was completed by Gerbi, Danyah Shaikh ’25 and Qiao Se Ong ’25. In pools, the sabreists won 20 bouts and scored 146 touches. They then placed 10th out of 17 teams, above Smith College and trailing Stony Brook University.

 “As a whole, both my squad and the team put up some really good performances and everyone came home with at least one bout they were proud of,” Gerbi said. “I am so proud of my team and my squad for what they did and have done this year.”

Mount Holyoke swimming and diving finishes in eighth in NEWMAC championship

By Genevieve Zahner ’26

Staff Writer

Mount Holyoke Swimming and Diving competed in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference Championship this weekend, coming in eighth place out of 10 teams and beating Smith College and Clark University. The meet started on Thursday, Feb. 16, at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and finished on Sunday, Feb. 19.

Day one of the NEWMAC Championship saw Mount Holyoke finishing in eighth for the day with 34 points. The competition opened with the 4x200 freestyle relay. Mount Holyoke’s A relay of Hannah Heierhoff ’25, Maggie Freisthler ’26, Ruth Bailey ’26 and Evelyn Bushway ’24 placed ninth with a time of 8:13.10.

Day two ended with the Lyons in seventh place with 133 points, putting them ahead of Babson College by 12 points and behind Wellesley College by 76.5 points. Mount Holyoke finished eighth in the 200-yard freestyle relay, with the team of Megan Schneider ’25, Heierhoff ’25, Carolina Loayza ’26 and Adji Diouf ’24 coming in at 1:40.39. Schneider came in 29th in the 50-yard freestyle event in 25.31 seconds, ahead of teammates Diouf, who completed the event in 25.44 seconds, and Loayza, who finished in 25.64 seconds.

Maddy Sewell ’24, the only diver on the team, received a second-place ranking in three-meter diving, scoring 464.5 points in the finals. Sewell’s finish earned 21 points for Mount Holyoke and earned her Second Team All Conference honors.

During the third day, Mount Holyoke had 172 team points. Diouf, Bushway, Loayza and Schneider all competed in the 4x50 medley relay, taking eighth place with a time of 1:50.20 and beating the previous team record of 1:50.25 set in 2015.

“That was something I don’t think the swimmers were expecting to happen, including myself,” Bushway said. “We were not thinking about the record board and times going into that race.”

Additionally, Loayza placed 11th in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 59.15 seconds after shaving 0.61 seconds off the preliminary time. Bushway placed 14th in the 400-yard individual medley in 4:43.92, and Heierhoff placed 15th in the 100-yard butterfly in 1:01.31. In the 100-yard backstroke, Heierhoff placed 30th and Diouf placed 28th, while in the 100-yard breaststroke, Schneider placed 27th.

The fourth and final day of competition ended with Mount Holyoke taking eighth place with 275 points. Highlights of the final day for the Lyons included Heierhoff earning 14th place in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:17.02, Loayza taking 15th place in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:17.75, Seran Goudsouzian ’24 finishing 24th in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:39.91, Schneider finishing 25th in the 100-yard freestyle in 55.18 seconds and Diouf finishing 30th in the same event in 56.11 seconds. Bushway finished in 12th place in the 1650-yard freestyle, completing the event in 18:50.42, and also competed in the 400-yard freestyle relay alongside Schneider, Loayza and Diouf, which they placed eighth in.

“I think as a team, we can be proud of what we have accomplished not only at this meet, but over the course of this season,” Heierhoff said. “Almost everyone swam personal bests or at the very least, season bests.” At NEWMACs, the team dropped 276 seconds in its events.

The NEWMAC Championship concluded the regular swimming and diving season, with an overall dual meet record of 5-4. Sewell alone will go on to compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III Diving Regional Championship at New York University on Friday, Feb. 24, and Saturday, Feb. 25.

Decorated Black athletes broke down barriers in the sports world

Wilma Rudolph, far right, won the 4x100-meter relay at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. She also won the 100-meter and 200-meter dash events. Photo courtesy of GPA Photo Archive via Flickr.

By Genevieve Zahner ’26

Staff Writer

Content warning: This article mentions racism. 

Black athletes were prohibited from participating in professional sports for much of history, but prominent figures such as Debi Thomas and Wilma Rudolph broke down walls and became some of the most decorated athletes. Many eyes now fall upon figures like Simone Biles and Serena Williams when thinking about prolific Black athletes, but there were many other trailblazers before them who paved the way for the future of sports. 

1.  Althea Gibson

Althea Gibson was the first Black tennis player to compete at the U.S. National Tennis Championship in 1950, but that was only the beginning of her success. She went on to win the French Open in 1956, followed by Wimbledon in 1957 and the U.S. Open in 1958, becoming the first Black champion of such events. Gibson was raised in Harlem, New York, and grew up loving sports, particularly ping-pong. She won a local tournament hosted by the American Tennis Association just a single year after playing tennis for the first time. She went on to win the same tournament twice more in 1944 and 1945, and following one loss, she won 10 straight championship titles from 1947-1956. Gibson died on Sept. 28, 2003, of respiratory failure. 

2. Willie O’Ree

Willie O’Ree was the first Black player in the National Hockey League, playing for the Boston Bruins starting in 1958. He grew up in Canada in one of two Black families in his town of Fredericton, New Brunswick. He first played organized hockey at age five with his brother, who taught him how to body check. In 1956, O’Ree started playing for the Quebec Aces, a team with a strong connection to the NHL and a history of integration. He played with the Aces until 1958, when he was called up from the Aces to play for the Bruins, playing his first NHL game on Jan. 18 of that year and making history in the league. O’Ree experienced racial taunts from spectators and players alike, including an incident in which spectators threw cotton balls and a black cat onto the ice. Despite these obstacles, O’Ree became an ambassador for the NHL Diversity program, traveling to boost grassroots hockey programs, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018. 

3. Wilma Rudolph

Wilma Rudolph was the first American woman to win three gold medals at a single Olympics at Rome’s 1960 Summer Olympics. Rudolph participated in track and field and won her medals in the 100- and 200-meter dash, as well as the 4x100-meter relay. Rudolph also won a bronze medal in the 1956 Olympics for the 4x100-meter relay. A survivor of childhood polio, Rudolph was told she would never walk again, let alone run. Rudolph defied these odds and started playing basketball in middle school, for which she was nominated as an All-American athlete in high school. After a meeting with a college coach, she switched to track and field. At the 1960 Olympic Games, her performance earned her the nickname “the fastest woman in the world” after becoming the first American woman to win three gold medals. When coming home, she refused to participate in the homecoming parade if it was not integrated, and she commonly used her fame as a means to bring attention to social issues. Rudolph died of a brain tumor on Nov. 12, 1994.

 4.  Ernie Davis

Ernie Davis was the first Black football player to earn the Heisman Trophy. Recruited by many institutions to play collegiate football, Davis decided to play for Syracuse University as a running back. While on the team, Davis led the Orangemen to an undefeated season and a national title in his sophomore year. Davis had two touchdowns in the 1960 Cotton Bowl versus the University of Texas, which led him to be the Cotton Bowl’s Most Valuable Player. He was an All-American athlete in his junior and senior years and was given the Heisman Trophy in 1961. Davis was the first overall draft pick in the 1962 National Football Draft and was selected by the Washington Commanders. However, after refusing to play for the racist owner of the team, Davis was traded to the Cleveland Browns. Davis was never able to play a game for the Browns, as he was diagnosed with leukemia just prior to the 1962 College All-Star game. Davis died at age 23 of leukemia. 

5.  Debi Thomas

Debi Thomas was the first and only Black figure skating Olympic champion and the first Black athlete to win a medal at the Winter Olympics in 1988. The first time Thomas was introduced to skating was when her mother took her to an ice show, and by the age of nine years old, she was skating competitively and conquering her competitions. Thomas won the national and world figure skating championships during her freshman year at Stanford University and was recognized as the 1986 Athlete of the Year by World Wide Sports. After the 1988 Olympics, in which she took the bronze medal in the short program and fifth in the long program, Thomas skated professionally. During this time, she claimed three professional world titles and performed with Stars on Ice. After four years, Thomas stopped skating to attend medical school at Northwestern University in 1997. Thomas is now a practicing orthopedic surgeon in Indiana.