WATERLOO, Ont. - The Toronto Varsity Blues lead the banner standings after one day of competition at the OUA Men's Fencing Championship, with the host Waterloo Warriors hot on their heels. 

Day one saw the Individual Foil, Epee, and Sabre events take place, with the team relay events for each discipline still to come on Sunday. 

"It's really great to be hosting for the first time. There's been a lot of people who came out, a lot of good energy," said Warriors Head Coach Paul Godin. 

The black and gold picked up the first gold medal of the weekend courtesy of Jiaan Li (Markham/Unionville High School), who defeated Western's Jason Park in the Individual Foil final. Sacha Vasiliev of the Ottawa Gee-Gees took down Waterloo's Daniel Manyoki (Ottawa/All Saints High School) in the bronze medal match. 

The Individual Epee event was all blue and white, with all four semifinalists representing Toronto. Nicholas Guitierrez-Sarabia and Raphael Het Chit Chan faced off in the bronze medal match, with Guitierrez-Sarabia coming out on top. Seraphim Jarov earned gold while his teammate Evan Wang (Oakville/White Oaks Secondary School) settled for silver. Overall, the Varsity Blues racked up 100 of their 180 points in the Individual Epee event. 

The Individual Sabre event saw two more teammate-vs-teammate semifinals, this time it was two Varsity Blues on one piste and two Warriors on the other. Toronto's Matthew Teng and Waterloo's Richard Yang (Markham/Markville Secondary School) emerged victorious and battled, with Teng earning U of T their second gold medal of the day. David Li (Beijing/St. Andrew's College) picked up a bronze medal for the Warriors with a win over Toronto's Leo Chen. 

The medal count sees the Varsity Blues in the lead with two golds, a silver, and a bronze. The Warriors are right behind them with a gold, a silver, and a bronze. Both schools rank well ahead of the field in terms of points – Waterloo's 151 is 29 behind Toronto and 101 ahead of Ottawa and McMaster, who sit tied for third with 50 points each. 

All 13 participating teams will now turn their attention to preparing for tomorrow's Team Relay events. 

"I think the big thing here is endurance. Compared to a regular season fencing tournament, [the OUA Championship] is a lot more demanding," said Godin, "it's going to be a long weekend when you go the distance." 

The Warriors will have their work cut out for them if they hope to catch the Varsity Blues, who've won each of the last nine OUA Men's Fencing Championships. 

"I think it'll be down to the wire tomorrow on the team events, but I think our boys can do it," said Godin. 

The action will resume at 9:00 AM on Sunday. The medal matches begin at 2:30 and will be broadcast live on OUA.tv.   

RESULTS 

OVERALL MEN'S RESULTS 

MEN'S FOIL INDIVIDUAL 

MEN'S EPEE INDIVIDUAL