Three fencers competing in national championship

Julian Cardillo '14 appearing for third straight year

Photos/Jan Volk-Sportspix

Adam Mandel '15 earned final regional berth to championships.

Three members of the Brandeis University fencing team will represent the Judges at the 2013 NCAA National Collegiate championships in San Antonio, Texas, March 21-24. The Judges will be one of three Division III schools with three fencers at the meet. This is Brandeis’ largest contingent at the NCAA championships since 2009. 

Making his third-straight NCAA championship appearance is junior foil fencer Julian Cardillo. Cardillo, who spent the fall semester studying in Italy, returned to collegiate fencing in January and posted a 25-12 record in dual meets. He finished the season by winning the New England Intercollegiate Fencing Championship at Brandeis.

At the NCAA Northeast Regional qualifier on March 10 at St. John’s University, Cardillo was seeded 14^th. He went 4-2 in the first round to advance in the second position from his pool. He went 3-3 in the second round, claiming the 12th and final spot in the finals on total number of touches. With five wins in the final round, including handing regional champion Brian Kanishige of Harvard his only loss of the finals, 5-4, Cardillo claimed seventh place overall and the sixth qualifying position.

Julian Cardillo '14 is making his third-straight NCAA appearance.

Cardillo is the first Brandeis fencer to reach three-straight NCAA championships since Will Friedman '09, who went four years in a row, also in foil. 

Rookie Caroline Mattos will make her first appearance in the women’s foil competition. Mattos posted a 58-13 record in dual meets, the most wins on the team. She placed second at the New England championships at Brandeis and was seeded 10^th headed into regionals.

Mattos went 4-2 in the opening round of pool play to advance. In the second round, she was even better, going 5-1 to move into the finals in fourth position. Mattos posted a 5-6 record in the Final 12, with wins over the fourth-place finisher Marta Hausman of St. Johns  and opponents from Yale, Cornell and Brown; she finished seventh overall and in the sixth qualifying position. She is the first Brandeis woman to qualify for nationals since 2009 and the first in women’s foil since Kristin Foellmer Suchorski ’96 in 1996. 

Sophomore sabre fencer Adam Mandel was the Judges' top-seeded fencer entering the meet, going in fifth after posting a 42-9 dual-match record and winning the title at the New England championships. Mandel survived the opening round at regionals with a 3-2 record. He improved to 4-2 in the second round to take the seventh spot into the finals. Mandel picked up three additional wins in the finals, including a 5-4 win over two-time NCAA champion, eventual regional champion and U.S. Olympian Darryl Homer of St. John's, 5-4. He also beat foes from Yale and Brown to earn the ninth and final qualifying position from the Northeast Region. He is Brandeis’s first sabre fencer at nationals since Adam Austin ’11 in 2009.