DETROIT - The men's and women's fencing teams hosted its annual Alumni Meet today at Calihan Hall as the day featured the return of members from the 1972 Titan fencing team, the only Detroit team to ever capture a National Championship. The event was a chance for the current Titans to match-up with the Titan fencers from the past.

The most notable return was that of former men's foil team member, Tyrone Simmons, who helped the Titans capture the 1972 national title. During that '72 campaign, Detroit served notice to the rest of the country as a team to be reckoned with posting a 19-1 record on the season. Simmons led Detroit with a 43-4 dual meet record on the season. Ken Blake finished the dual season at 46-6 in the sabre, while Fred Hooker went 33-11 in the epee. Detroit held a slim 49-48 lead over Columbia following the first day of competition and the NCAA Finals and Simmons vowed that he was “...not going to let them even hit me.”

Day-two saw Detroit fence beautifully as Simmons went undefeated in the foil, scoring 115 touches to just 32 for the opposition. Hooker and Blake combined to post a 35-11 record in the epee and sabre. Detroit ended the competition with 73 points, three ahead of New York University and seven in front of Columbia. Simmons ended up winning the foil competition, Blake took second in the sabre, and Hooker captured fourth in epee. In addition to being the first trio of African-Americans to win the fencing crown, all three members of the squad earned All-America honors.

Simmons was also the NCAA Foil Champion in 1971 and was recognized as the Illinois Memorial Award winner, which is presented annually to the College Fencer of the Year, in both '71 and '72. He was also a member of the 1972 Olympic Team and also the 1971 Gold Medal U.S. Foil Team at the Pan American Games. He posted an outstanding three-season record of 126-10 for a winning percentage of .927.

Stepping away from the history lesson, today's event at Calihan Hall brought back 19 total alumni. The competition was won by the alumni fencers who took the event with a 44-36 score.

In the epee competition, the alumni won 17-10. In the foil, the varsity squad took a 14-9 win and in the sabre match-ups, the alumni also walked away with a victory with a 17-12 score.

“A fun time was had by all and it was a great chance for our team to meet past alumni and make connections, but also receive a few pointers from past competitive fencers,” said men's and women's fencing head coach Todd Dressell. “Simmons still has fast hands,” added Dressell.

Dressell wasn't the only one with a comment on the day as Simmons, was impressed with the current men's foil team.

“Those guys are lightning fast,” commented Simmons whose alumni squad could not best the current foil team of senior Brad Coon (Jenison, MI/Hudsonville), junior Michael Purdy-Sachs (Port Huron, MI/Port Huron Northern & Ind. Studies), and also freshmen Yaroslav Ivanov (Louisville, KY/Ballard) and Kyle Cisco (Brownstown Twp., MI/Oscar Carlson).

The next team event for the Titans will be the Midwest Fencing Conference Championships that will be hosted by Notre Dame on March 5-6 as both men and women will be in action in South Bend, IN.