Texas A&M fencing hosted the Southwest Intercollegiate Fencing Association IV tournament on Saturday, April 12, at the Student Recreation Center, the final event of the 2025 fencing season. The tournament marked the end of the 2024-25 SWIFA season with A&M taking the season championship with 11,450 points
Defeating Texas by 110 points in second. A&M took first in epee, foil and sabre season championships, finishing up 380 points over Texas, 1,010 points over the University of Texas at Dallas and 60 points over Texas, in each competition respectively.
During the 12-hour event that competitors described as “grueling,” the Maroon and White competed with three squads each in epee, foil and saber. The epee A team finished 8-0, first overall with the B team finishing 6-1, second overall. C team would lose in the second round, finishing 11th at 1-3.
Biomedical sciences senior Elaine Pham has been with the fencing team for three years and noted this year’s tournament felt different than previous tournaments she’s competed in.
“It’s the finals, so there’s a lot more hype around it,” Pham said. “This year, we were much stronger compared to how we did last year, and everyone was cheering each other on.”
On Saturday, A team foil finished 7-1, second and B team finished 4-4, fourth. A&M’s sabre A team was defeated by Texas’ C team in the third round, finishing 4-2, fifth. The B team made a run to the finals, finishing 6-3, second and C team made an early exit, finishing 3-4, 12th overall.
The epee final, saw two familiar foes face off. When computer science senior Andrew Popovici took on agricultural engineering senior Jackson Barge. Tied at 1-1, instead of taking to the strip for the third bout, the competitors took to their hands for rock, paper, scissors.
The Aggies A team looked stout, going 4-0 in their pool and winning all 12 of their bouts, earning them the one-seed. Popovici didn’t stop there, though, as he looked to keep up the momentum heading into eliminations.
“There’s a lot of downtime between when you’re locked into the pools and when you need to get locked in to the DE’s,” Popovici said. “We’ve set ourselves up for success by doing well in the pools, and that’ll allow us to get focused and back into the game.”
A&M’s B epees would go 3-0 in their pool, winning seven total bouts and being placed at the three-seed. The epee C team went 1-2 in pool play, winning five total bouts and were placed as an 11-seed.
The foil eliminations reached the final round, with the two-seeded A&M foil A team facing off against the one-seeded Texas State foil A team. The Maroon and White weren’t enough as Texas State would win two more bouts, giving A&M a second-place finish 3-5 in the series.
The bout for third place overall heated up, with the four-seeded A&M foil B team taking on the three-seeded UT Dallas foil A team. The Aggies fought hard every bout, but it wasn’t enough as the Comets would sweep the series 5-0.
Pool play for A&M’s C team looked solid against the Texas B team, winning 5-3, 5-4 and 5-3. The A team matched up against UT Dallas for their first match, but would come up just short, finishing 4-5.
Accounting junior and treasurer Kevin Chen stressed the importance of continuing to fight even if the overall match seemed lost.
“The truth of the matter is that it’s not over until it’s completely over,” Chen said. Keeping that in mind, even if they have the momentum, there’s still room to keep pushing and even if they’re a better fencer, they don’t have all the points yet.”
The sabre finals, with A&M’s sabre B team battling against UT Austin’s sabre B team for first place. The Aggies only took one bout, as the Longhorns handed A&M a 5-1 loss and second place.
