POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. (December 9, 2024) – The Sacred Heart University men's fencing team closed out the first semester of competition on Saturday, with a trip to Vassar, which hosted this year's edition of the SHU Tradition Meet at the Walker Field House. Sophomore Chaissen Costello (Tiverton, R.I.) had the strongest outing of any Pio on the day, as he went 10-3, to lead a foil team which had a strong showing.
 
In addition to Costello's performance, SHU got a 9-4 performance from junior David Belluomo, as the duo paced the foil squad to a 26-19 record (.578) at Vassar. The Pioneers struggled across the other two weapons, with epee finishing 16-29 (.356) and sabre posting a 6-39 record (.133).
 
First year Declan McAdoo (Golden, Colo.) and sophomore Stephen Scapicchio (Franklin Lakes, N.J.) both contributed six wins, as each went 6-9 in the epee, while first year Alexander Ligos (Basking Ridge, N.J.) was 7-8 in the foil.
 
On the team front, SHU went 1-4 on Sunday, with a 17-10 victory over LIU in the fourth of the team's five matches. The win came directly after a tightly-contested, 14-13 loss to NJIT. Sacred Heart also suffered defeats against Vassar (19-8), NYU (21-6) and Princeton (22-5).
 
The Pioneers will kick off the second half of the season on Saturday, Jan. 18, when they travel to University of Pennsylvania for the Philadelphia Invitational.