Diversity, empathy fuel national win for Men’s Fencing Club
By Caitlin Hayes, Cornell Chronicle
Fencers Max Dolmetsch ’25 and Riley Xian ’25 went into the U.S. Association of Collegiate Fencing Clubs championships with modest hopes. If they were lucky, maybe they would clinch the top five in the épée, their weapon of choice and one of three used in fencing.
But then they began winning bout after bout. Dolmetsch beat fencers from the team he’d lost to in 2022; Xian won a nail-biting bout by a single point. Meanwhile teammates in the other weapons were winning as well. In the end, the Cornell Men’s Fencing Club claimed the national title and took silver in both foil and saber and gold in épée, on April 13-14 in Virgina Beach, Virginia.
The surprise win was all the sweeter for the team’s upperclassmen, who have spent the last three years rebuilding the club after the COVID-19 pandemic shut it down. In 2021-22, the team had very few junior or senior leaders, and Xian and Dolmetsch were frequently the only épéeists, having to forfeit rounds because they lacked a third fencer.
“We’ve really been partners in crime since then,” said Dolmetsch, an applied mathematics major in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S). “There was a feeling on the team that we were underdogs, but that also motivated us. We’re all here because we love fencing, and we want to win.”