Yale foil fencer Cory Werk ’06 finally got his revenge.

Werk took home second place in the men’s foil event at the National Collegiate Men’s and Women’s Fencing Championships Sunday after a upsetting top seeded Nitai Kfir of St. John’s 15-12. At last year’s championships, Werk finished third to Kfir’s second.

“Cory [Werk]’s results are fantastic,” team captain James Rohrbach ’05 said. “He really showed a lot of intensity and focus in winning the last bout.”

Rohrbach also attended the national championships, which took place over the weekend at Brandeis University.

Werk won 11 of 14 bouts Saturday and five of nine Sunday to earn the fourth seed going into the direct elimination portion of the tournament. He then defeated Kfir but lost to the second seeded Boaz Ellis from Ohio State in the finals. Werk finished the highest out of all the Ivy League fencers at the tournament.

The tournament was divided into six weapons — women’s epee, sabre, and foil, and men’s epee, sabre, and foil. Twenty-four fencers qualified for each weapon, for a total of 144 fencers.

Over two days, each competitor fenced a five-touch bout round-robin style against the other 23 competitors in that weapon. The top four fencers in each weapon then fenced 15-touch bouts in direct elimination to determine first, second, third and fourth place.

Despite having his eyes set on first place, Werk still feels happy with his showing.

“I’m very pleased with my performance,” Werk said. “I would have liked to have won my last bout, but you always want one more win.”

Rohrbach, who was awarded an at large bid in the nationals for his performance this season, won six bouts for a 22nd place finish in the men’s epee event. On the women’s side, Yale’s Erica Korb ’05 won 13 bouts for an 11th overall finish in woman’s epee, and Alisa Mendelson ’07 won nine bouts to finish 14th in woman’s foil.

The Eli men’s team finished 13th overall out of 32 schools and the women’s team finished 14th out of 25 despite not having any qualifying representatives for the men’s and women’s sabre event.

“Considering that we had four people participating in the tournament, [the team’s finish] is really something to be proud of,” Rohrbach said.