PHILADELPHIA (Nov. 5)- Temple women's fencing made a strong showing Saturday, November 5 at the 21st annual Temple Open.

The Owls dominated women's foil with seniors Jamie Beecher (Brentwood, N.Y./Brentwood) and Gina DeIeso (Franklin Lakes, N.J./Indian Hills) in a bout for the gold medal at the end of the day. Defending champion Beecher defeated

her teammate for first place. Junior Stephanie Izzolino (Maplewood, N.J./Columbia) finished fifth in foil. Rounding out the top ten was Freshman Maggie Castellano (Tunkhannock, Pa./Tunkhannock).

Junior Julia Korony (Columbia, S.C./A.C. Flora) had a strong day in epee. She was defeated in the gold medal bout by Kimberly Linton from the University of Pennsylvania. Korony's biggest victory of the day came over Princeton's Maya Lawrence, a 1999 Pan Am Games participant. Lawrence went on to tie for third place along with Beth Athenas from the University of North Carolina. Temple Freshman Sara Forsythe (Hackettstown, N.J./Hackettstown) finished fifth in

epee.

Temple's strongest finish of the day for sabre came from Sophomore Sakinah Shaahid (Pittsburgh, Pa./Schenley) who finished fifth.

Fencing action continues today with men's foil, epee and sabre. Temple women's fencing is next in action on Saturday, November 11 at the Penn State Open.