'The coolest thing:' Ohio State fencer Gabriel Feinberg of Lincoln is NCAA champ

Gabriel Feinberg wasn’t into sports as a kid.

Sure, he was competitive but Feinberg was also creative. He thought swords were cool. So when his neighbor introduced him to fencing when he was 6, Feinberg was hooked.

“I thought it was the coolest thing I ever heard of,” Feinberg, now 19, said. “I really wanted to do something different.”

On March 27, Feinberg won the NCAA men’s epee championship as a freshman on the Ohio State University fencing team. The 2021 Lincoln-Sudbury grad became the fifth men’s epee NCAA champion in OSU history.

“I was a little emotional,” Feinberg said. “I was screaming.”

What is fencing?

Before Feinberg moved to Lincoln in middle school, he lived in Medford. His neighbor was Julian Cardillo, a successful fencer at Brandeis University.

When Cardillo noticed that Feinberg took an interest in fencing, he gifted the youngster some of his old gear and gave Feinberg a lesson.

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It’s been non-stop fencing for Feinberg since.

“I love the creative aspect of fencing,” Feinberg said. “There’s no defined sense of doing it.”

So what exactly is fencing?

It’s a combat sport that uses three disciplines: foil, epee and sabre. It’s a two-person match where points are won when a player’s weapon makes contact with the opponent. Fencers wear white jackets and pants with a metal mask and other protective gear.

“For me it’s just comfortable. I spend a lot of time in there,” Feinberg said of the outfit. “The only question I usually get is ‘Can you see out of the mask?’”

Feinberg enjoys the freedom of fencing. He likes how it teaches him to take responsibility for his success – and his failures.

“I like how it’s up to you,” he said. “You have to learn to be comfortable with losing and comfortable with it being your fault.”

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“He just doesn’t take no for an answer,” said OSU associate head coach and epee coach Katarzyna Dabrowa. “He does not like losing. It shows in his fencing, he does everything he can on the strip.”

Feinberg sets sight on 2024 Summer Olympics

Feinberg was the fourth seed in the NCAA championship last March. In the semifinals, he defeated top-seeded Ian Sanders (New York University) by the score of 15-14. With the match tied at 14 apiece, Feinberg recorded a dramatic winning touch.

“I just waited for the moment and kept the initiative to attack,” Feinberg said. “I knew I had to make something happen.”

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Feinberg followed up his thrilling semifinal win with a 15-11 victory over second-seeded Nicholas Lawson (Princeton) in the final. The fencers were tied at six after the first break before Feinberg broke away to become the third straight Buckeye to win an individual title.

“There’s no greater feeling than seeing one of your students reach their goal – especially when you know coming in it was a bumpy road for him,” Dabrowa said. “Seeing him compete for the gold medal was just an amazing feeling.”

Following his individual NCAA championship, Feinberg traveled to Dubai for World Championships.

He competed in the individual and team events for fencers 20-and-under. Individually, Feinberg didn’t fare as well as he wanted. But in the team epee event, his squad placed second after losing to Egypt in the finals.

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It’s been a pretty busy year on the strip for the fencer from Mass.

“I’m really not sure how to process it yet but it’s been great,” Feinberg said. “I’m just doing what I want to do.”

Now a sophomore at Ohio State, Feinberg hopes to defend his NCAA title. He wants to win one with his team, too. And he’s also set his sights on another goal: the 2024 Summer Olympics.

“I’m going to see how that goes,” he said.

Tommy Cassell is a senior multimedia journalist for the Daily News. He can be reached at tcassell@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @tommycassell44.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Lincoln-Sudbury alum Gabriel Feinberg wins NCAA title in fencing