Dimas and Smith Earn Medals at 44th Annual Nikki Franke Classic

Saturday, October 26

Philadelphia, Pa.

Temple University

Nikki Franke Classic

Dimas and Smith Earn Medals at 44th Annual Nikki Franke Classic

10.26.24 | Women's Fencing

PHILADELPHIA – On Saturday during the 44th Annual Coach Nikki Franke Classic, the host team Owls fencers had a successful day on the strip, earning six top 15 finishes, including medals in the foil from Constanca Dimas and in epee from Grace Smith.

FOIL

In pool play of the foil, all five of Temple's student athletes moved to the elimination round with four wins apiece. Renee Oymann led the Cherry and White with a perfect touch score of +20, while teammates Anna Novoseltseva added a +17, Dimas earned a +16, Jara Del Cura moved on with a +15, and Natalie Adams Kim followed with a +11.
In the elimination round, Dimas moved her way through the bracket, earning a medal as she defeated NJIT's Elena Fernandez, 15-7, Greta De Back of Boston College in a close match that resulted in a 15-14 score in the round of eight. Dimas followed up the with another 15-14 victory versus De Back's teammate Cameron Cho, but fell in the semifinals to Anna Szantay of LIU, 14-13, good for a tie of third place.
Rounding out the top 15 in the foil were Novoseltseva and Adams-Kim.

EPEE

Just like foil squad, the epeeists also moved all five of its squad through to elimination play. Freshman Victoria Doroshkevich and sophomore Grace Smith won four of five of their bouts with +12 touch scores. Fellow freshman Auprell Edwards earned a +9, transfer Caira Blake recorded a +7, and senor Anne-Mai Melles added a +4.
Sophomore Grace Smith highlighted the epeeists as she earned a medal with an eighth-place finish by defeating Janie McSweeney, 15-8, Junyao Lu of Boston College, 15-10, and Nadia Gaberkorn of Sacred Heart, 15-9, before losing to Nicole Gavrilko of Wagner, 15-13.
Newcomers Auprell Edwards and Victoria Doroshkevich both made it to the round of 32 in the tableau before bowing out.

SABRE

All four Cherry and White sabreists earned spots in the elimination round with senior Eva Ventura with a team-best touch score of +12, freshman Alexandra Papapetropoulou followed with +11, Samantha Nathanson added a +9, and Lauren Johnson recorded +4.
Papapetropoulou shined with a 12th place finish as she defeated Avani Ranka, 15-1, Chesjsa-Kaili Seck of LIU, 15-14, but dropped her last bout to Amanda Li of Penn, 15-10.
The senior Ventura earned a top 15 finish (14th) on the afternoon. The Madrid, Spain native started the knockout round by defeating Temple Club team's Veronica Schick, 15-10, and them moved onto Adele Dai of John's Hopkins, 15-12. Ventura's day ended with a loss to Run Yuan of NYU, 15-14.

ASSISTANT COACH TASIA FORD ON THE OWLS SUCCESS
"The Coach Nikki Franke Classic is our favorite event of the year. It is the first time the team is truly all together in the same space and they can really feed off of one another and support. It is also even more special now that the tournament is named after our founder Coach Franke.

The returners really came together and taught our first years our competition traditions and cheers. The team really started to feel whole and our energy was felt in the room and even more during close bouts.

A big shoutout to our finalists Constanca Dimas and Grace smith. They lead by example on the strip. Their moments of perseverance and "Temple Toughness" was great for our young team to see.

This was a great start to see what we need to work on leading into our regular season completion. Up next is the elite meet at UPenn, we will be ready to take on our competition head on."

UP NEXT
The Owls fencers will be back in action on Nov. 17 as they travel across the city to Penn for the Elite Invitational.

For complete coverage of Temple fencing, follow the Owls on social media @TempleFencing (Twitter), facebook.com/TempleFencing(Facebook), @templefencing (Instagram), or visit the official home of Temple University Athletics at owlsports.com. Please consider supporting Temple Fencing with a donation by clicking here -> https://bit.ly/4cgtfHD