NORTHAMPTON, Mass. – First years Phillip Winston Nunnink (Kansas City, Mo.) and Grant Smith (Oakland, Calif.) finished ninth and 10th, respectively, to lead the Wheaton College (Mass.) men's fencing team in its first-ever competition at The 2024 New England Intercollegiate Fencing Conference Big One Invitational hosted by Smith College at Scott Gym in Northampton, Mass.

Nunnink and Smith both posted perfect 6-0 records for the Lyons in their pools in the senior men's foil, which featured 89 competitors. 

Nunnink earned a 15-6 victory over Jonathan Wun of the Tufts University fencing club in the Table of 32, before being edged in the Table of 16 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology junior Tony Xiao (San Ramon, Calif.), 15-14.

Smith downed Brandeis University first year Brandon Zhao (Melrose, Mass.), 15-8, in the Table of 32. Smith fell in the Table of 16 to senior Jacob Bartel (La Mesa, Calif.) of Sacred Heart University, 15-10.

First year Logan Perez (Randolph, N.J.) registered a 4-2 record in his pool for the men's senior foil and ranked 30th on the day for Wheaton. The rookie opened Table Competition by defeating Trey Brattain from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 15-4, before recording another win (15-6) over Patrick Lin of Stony Brook University. Perez was upended in the Table of 32 by Varun Gupta of the Northeastern University fencing club, 15-4.

First year Oliver Smink (Rochester, N.Y.), who ranked 21st out of 76 competitors for the day,  turned in a 4-2 mark in his pool in the senior men's saber for the Lyons. Smink came away with a 15-11 win over Oliver Treja from Northeastern, before suffering a loss in the Table of 32 against Stony Brook's Jonathan Angel, 15-12.

Wheaton sophomore Julian Fencil (Guilford, Conn.) was 2-4 in his pool and went on to defeat Jackson Hutton from Northeastern 15-4. Fencil eventually fell in the Table of 32 to Coleman Keady of University of New Hampshire fencing club, 15-10. Senior Ryan Daudelin (Duxbury, Mass.) joined Fencil in the saber and posted a 0-6 mark in his pool. 

The Lyons return to action tomorrow when they compete at the Drew Invitational hosted by Drew University in Madison, N.J.