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(note that the linked video has been sized down for quicker online loading)

Relive this classic showdown between a pair of former NCAA women's foil champions – Harvard fifth-year senior Emily Cross ('05 NCAA champ) and Penn State junior Doris Willette ('07 champion) – who also were members of the four-fencer team that comprised the U.S. women's foil contingent at the 2008 Olympic Games, in Beijing. Willette held leads of 3-1, 4-2 and 6-4, but Cross surged to a 7-6 lead before Willette tied the bout late in the third period. Cross had "priority" during the 1:00 overtime (meaning she would be declared the winner, if no touch was scored in OT) – but Willette won in the most thrilling fashion (8-7), scoring her touch with only 0:01 left on the clock (winning touch included in the footage).

CF360 founder/editor Pete LaFleur was on hand to document portions of the Cross-Willette bout, along with the other women's foil foil semifinal and both women's epee semifinals (all of which took place at the same time!). More great video is coming to the site – all linked on the EXCLUSIVE VIDEO tab (we also will provide a heads-up on the CF360 Blog whenever new video/photos are posted).

Here are links to video/audio clips currently available via the "EXCLUSIVE VIDEO" sidebar tab. You can access the video/audio files via that main page, or simple click on the links below. (Note that these video files have been adjusted, for quicker loading/playing). More video – action and interviews – still to come.

(1) NICK CHINMAN – The Penn State junior discusses winning the 2009 NCAA men's foil title, his introduction to fencing in his hometown of Boulder, Colo., the benefits of being part of the Nittany Lion fencing tradition – and more (3/21/09).

(2) ALEKSANDER OCHOCKI – The Penn State freshman reflects on winning the 2009 men's sabre championship.

(3) EMMANUIL KAIDANOV  (audio only) – The longtime Penn State coach was gracious enough to take 10 minutes with CollegeFencing360, reflecting on PSU's 2009 NCAA championship. (Note that a typed transcript of this interview will be posted on the CF360 blog ... we also will be archiving all of the NCAA coverage in one place, for easy reference in the future.)

The 2009 NCAA Fencing Championships showcased 145 of the nation's elite collegiate fencers, with 24 of them reaching the various medal rounds. In some cases, even fencers who fell short of their weapon's "final-4" ranked among the best in the tournament – based on victory total and/or "indicators" (total-point differential).

The two lists included below show the fencers who posted the most round-robin wins and the top indicator scores (both sampled from all six weapon groups). There also are some brief notes, summarizing these "best-of-the-best" rankings.

MOST ROUND-ROBIN WINS (2009 NCAAs)

22-1/+77 ... Becca Ward  (Women's Sabre, Duke ... Fr.; Portland, OR)

22-2/+67 ... Oksana Dmytruk  (Women's Foil, Ohio State ... So.; Kiev, Ukraine)

21-2/+36 ... Courtney Hurley  (Women's Epee, Notre Dame ... Fr.; San Antonio, TX)

21-3/+57 ... Emily Cross   (Women's Foil, Harvard ... 5th-Yr. Sr.; New York, NY)

Gotta grab some nourishment and hit the road for a bit ... but more to come later today and on through next week (CF360 has a ton of photos, video, audio, historical notes, etc. that you are sure to love – but need a little time to break it all down, digest it, follow up with research ... oh, yes, sleep also would be good, etc.). There also could be even more offerings coming to the site soon ... we'll leave you hanging for now.  

WF Final: Doris Willette (PSU) 15, Hayley Reese (ND) 5
WE Final: Anastasia Ferdman (PSU) 15, Noam Mills (HARV) 9
WS Final: Becca Ward (Duke) 15, Caroline Vloka (HARV) 4

The round-robin phase is complete at the 2009 NCAAs, with Penn State capturing the team crown (195), followed by Notre Dame (182), Ohio State (165), Columbia (151), Harvard (116), St. John's (115), Penn (103), Princeton (103), Stanford (73) and Yale (68).

The foil semifinals will feature OSU's Oksana Dmytruk (#1 in round-robin) vs. ND's Hayley Reese (#4) and #2 Emily Cross (Harvard) vs. #3 Doris Willette (PSU).

In epee, ND's duo of Ewa Nelip (#4) and Courtney Hurley (#2) both advanced to the medal round. Nelip will face Harvard's Noam Mills (#1) and Hurley will bout against PSU's Anastasia Ferdman (#3).

This has been an impressive year for freshman women's sabreists across the country, so perhaps it's only fitting that two of the most elite – Duke's Becca Ward and Harvard's Caroline Vloka – will meet in the 2009 NCAA women's sabre final (2:00 p.m. today).

Ward dominated the round-robin phase, losing one bout (22-1) with a +77 in total-point indicators and only 37 touches allowed (1.6 per bout). She then defeated 2007 NCAA champion Daria Schneider (Columbia) in the semifinals, 15-9.

Vloka was second in the round-robin (20-3/+53) and went on to defeat St. John's junior Dagmara Wozniak, in a 15-11 semifinal. Wozniak was third in the round-robin (19-4/+57), narrowly edging Schendier (19-4/+56) by one touch. Yet another freshman, Penn State's Monica Aksamit, missed out on a medal-round spot based on indicators (she was 19-4/+7, seven touches back of Schneider).

Friday's men's sabre final also featured two freshmen, with PSU Aleksander Achocki rallying to edge Daryl Homer of St. John's, 15-14.

 Second-day bouting started early (8:30) in women's foil, due to the extra fencer in the field and the resulting four-fencer group. Here's where the 25 fencers stood, following Saturday's four rounds (14-15 bouts per fencer):

2009 NCAA Fencing Women's Foil
(four-round/14-bout standings; nine bouts left on Sunday)  
1. Emily Cross (Harvard) ... 15-0/+42 total-point indicators
2. Oksana Dmytruk (Ohio State) ... 13-1/+43
3. Hayley Reese (Notre Dame) ... 12-2/+37
4. Nicole Ross (Columbia) ... 12-3/+29

5. Samantha Nemecek (Northwestern) ... 12-3/+28
6. Doris Willette (Penn State) ... 11-4/+28
7. Katharine Pitt (Yale) ... 10-5/+7
8. Allison Glasser (Penn State) ... 9-/+12
9. Adi Nott (Notre Dame) ... 8-6/+7
10. Pilar Alicea (UC San Diego) ... 8-6/+4
11. Melissa Parker (Temple) ... 7-7/-3
12. Abby Caparros-Janto (Columbia) ... 7-8/E

13. Devynn Patterson (Northwestern) ... 7-8/-4
14. Shelby MacLeod (Harvard) ... 7-8-17
15. Lindsay Knauer (Ohio State) ... 6-8/-5
16. Sophie Ciarvino (NYU) ... 6-9/-9
17. Laura Paragano (Penn) ... 5-9/-7
18. Lucille Jarry (Princeton) ... 5-9/-13
19. Alyssa Lomuscio (Fairleigh Dickinson) ... 5-10/-18
20. Jessica Wacker (Stanford) ... 4-11/-21
21. Amanda Rysling (NYU) ... 3-12/-26
22. Jessica Tranquada (Cornell) ... 3-12/-15
23. Valeria Makeeva (Yale) ... 2-13/=26
24. Andrea Oliva (Princeton) ... 1-13/-28
25. Nora Szita (St. John's) ... 2-13/-45

Collegiate epee competitions typically are dominated more by veteran fencers than youngsters, with foil and sabre more likely to see freshmen quickly step into elite status. But Saturday's women's epee bouts at the NCAAs featured freshmen – Notre Dame's Courtney Hurley and Harvard's Noam Mills – holding down the top two spots while fellow rookies also occupied the 5th and 7th-place spots (Princeton's Susannah Scanlan and Columbia's Neely Brandfield-Harvey, respectively).

Hurley – who was "runner-up" to her older sister Kelley in qualifying for the lone U.S. women's epee spot on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team – went 13-1 on Saturday (+30 on indicators), followed by Mills (12-2/+29), Penn State junior Anastasia Ferdman (12-2/+26) and ND junior Ewa Nelip (11-3/+26). Hurley's only loss came versus Northwestern junior Christa French, while Mills lost to Ferdman (3-5) and Temple's Kristin Howell (4-5). Mills – who fenced in the '08 Olympics for Israel – and Hurley will meet in Sunday's second round (the sixth overall round).

A blockbuster women's sabre field gathered today for the first four rounds (14 bouts per fencer) at the NCAA Championships. When initially looking solely at the number of returning women's sabreists who competed in the 2008 NCAAs (only seven of the 24 are back), it would appear to be a down year in terms of the depth in this weapon. ... But that's leaving out two key subgroups: Olympic-caliber fencers (who did not fence in the '08 college season) and a crop of talented freshmen.

Three elite women's sabreists – Columbia's Daria Schneider ('07 NCAA champion), Penn State's Caity Thompson ('07 runner-up; 4th in '06) and St. John's standout Dagmara Wozniak (5th in '07) – all have returned to college fencing, after taking a year off to focus on Olympic qualification (Wozniak was a member of the '08 U.S. Olympic squad).

There is another Olympic sabreist – Duke freshman Becca Ward – who has dominated college fencing this season, including her first-place standing today after going 13-1 in the round-robin (the NCAA's final three rounds/nine bouts are on Sunday). Ward brought home bronze individual and team medals from the Beijing Olympics, before embarking on her college career.

Continuing with our focus on key bouts, Penn State closed its day in women's sabre by taking three of the four bouts vs. Ohio State. Monica Aksamit posted wins over Margarita Tschomakova (5-3) and Falencia Miller (5-1), while Caity Thompson beat split 5-1 bouts vs. Miller (win) and Tschomakova (loss).

Here's an updated look at the key bouts (final one of the day will be PSU-ND women's foil, in round-3). Note that team leader Penn State has gone 7-5 in its key bouts so far today, while OSU was 3-5 and ND is 6-2 (pending the foil showdown with PSU).

KEY SATURDAY MATCHUPS
Women's Foil: Penn State vs. Ohio State (PSU 2, OSU 2) ... Penn State vs. Notre Dame (round-3)
Women's Epee: Ohio State vs. Notre Dame (ND 4, OSU 0)
Women's Sabre: Penn St. vs. Notre Dame (ND 2, PSU 2) ... Penn St. vs. Ohio St. (PSU 3, OSU 1)

Notre Dame has jumped up in the NCAA fencing team competition, after sweeping Ohio State in the first round of women's epee bouting. Courtney Hurley posted a 2-1 overtime win over Julia Tikhanova and added a 5-2 victory over Miriam Baranov, while Eva Nelip beat both of the OSU fencers in 5-1 bouts.

The Irish – who entered the day five point behind OSU and 14 back of leader Penn State –then held ground by splitting four women's sabre bouts vs. PSU. ND's Sarah Borrmann (the defending NCAA champ) beat Monica Aksamit (5-2) but lost to Caity Thompson by the same score. Eileen Hassett had the reverse split, with a 5-3 win over Thompson but a 1-5 loss to Aksamit.

Note that the key matchup list posted earlier on the blog was a bit off, but is updated below. It's a big day for the PSU women's foilists and sabresits ... (more to come later in the day)

KEY SATURDAY MATCHUPS

Women's Foil: Penn State vs. Ohio State (round-2) ... Penn State vs. Notre Dame (round-3)

Women's Epee: Ohio State vs. Notre Dame (ND 4, OSU 0)

CF360 was able to obtain the final "Fencer Strength Factor" (FSF) numbers that comprised the primary formula used in selecting entrants to the 2009 NCAA Championship. Bear in mind that the  FSF numbers primarily are used to compare fencers from within the same region – thus, the relative nature of these "seeds" can be skewed a bit (fencers who have missed some colllege events, due to international events, also may be seeded below their talent level). Most notably, 2008 Olympians Emily Cross (foil, Harvard) and Becca Ward (sabre, Duke) are "seeded" (albeit hypotheticall) in the middle of their fields – but both clearly can be at the top of their respective podiums on Sunday.

Included below are the 24 NCAA entrants in each of the women's weapons, listed (hypothetically and unofficially) by what their seeding would be based on their final FSF number:

WOMEN'S FOIL NCAA "SEEDS"
1. Oksana Dmytruk (Ohio State)
2. Doris Willette (Penn State)
3. Samantha Nemecek (Northwestern)
4. Nicole Ross (Columbia)

WOMEN'S FOIL
Group-A – Penn State's Doris Willette and Allison Glasser; Fairleigh Dickinson's Alyssa Lomuscio

Group B – Princeton's Lucille Jarry and Andrea Oliva; Penn's Laura Paragano 

Group C – Northwestern's Devynn Patterson and Samantha Nemecek; Stanford's Jessica Wacker

Group D – Notre Dame's Adi Nott and Hayley Reese; Temple's Melissa Parker  

Group E – Ohio State's Oksana Dmytruk and Lindsay Knauer; UCSD's Pilar Alicea

Group F – Harvard's Emily Cross and Shelby MacLeod; Cornell's Jessica Tranquada

Group G – Yale's Valeria Makeeva and Katherine Pitt ; St John's Nora Szita  

Group-H – Columbia's Abby Caparros-Janto  and Nicole Ross; NYU's Sophie Ciaravino and Amanda Rysling

WOMEN'S EPEE (split teammates: Columbia and Harvard)

Group-A – Notre Dame's Ewa Nelip and Courtney Hurley ; Yale's Rebecca Moss  

Group-B – Ohio State's Julia Tikhonova and Miriam Baranov; Stanford's Kersten Schnurle  

Group-C – Princeton's Jasjit Bhinder and Susannah Scanlan; Penn's Stephanie Wheeler  

Group-D – Northwestern's Christa French and Kayley French; Air Force's Simone Barrette  

Congratulations go out to Penn State's Nick Chinman (foil) and Aleksander Ochocki (sabre), along with Wayne State junior Slava Zingermann (epee) – as each claimed NCAA individual titles to cap Friday's bouting. Zingerman became a rare three-time NCAA champion, following his 15-9 win over Princeton sophomore Graham Wicas. 

The PSU duo both won thrilling 15-14 final bouts, with Ochocki rallying to edge St. John's freshman Daryl Homer while Chinman had a similar large surge to nip Notre Dame freshman (and 2008 U.S. Olympian) Gerek Meinhardt.

Plenty more coming to CF360 soon (and throughout the night) ...   

MEN'S FOIL SEMIFINALS

Gerek Meinhardt (ND) def. Kurt Getz (COL) ... 15-9

Nick Chinman (PSU) def. Miles Chamley-Watson (PSU) ... 15-14

MEN'S EPEE SEMIFINALS

Graham Wicas (PRIN) def. Jason Pryor (OSU) ... 15-14

Slava Zingerman (WSU) def. Bengi Ungar (HARV) ... 15-11

St. John's freshman Daryl Homer defeated Ohio State senior Mike Momtselidze in the first men's sabre semifinal (15-10) while another freshman, Aleksander Ochocki held off his Penn State teammate Daniel Bak (the '08 NCAA runner-up) in the other spirited semifinal (15-13). Bak scored four straight points to force a 12-12 tie, but Ochocki (who never trailed) closed out the win over his fellow Nittany Lion.

CollegeFencing360 editor Pete LaFleur is on-site and doing some big-time multi-tasking, with blog entries, photographs, video, text-messages, etc. CF360 has plenty of visual material (photos, videos) archived from the past two days and will be posting some later tonight.

Also, we are receiving some great help from various fencers at the venue – allowing us to track the flow of the scores (with some details on scoring actions) for the semifinal and final bouts.

As mentioned earlier in the blog, Ohio State senior foilist Andras Horanyi (Boulder, Colo.) likely will not advance to the medal round – and thus he won't have the chance to capture a rare third NCAA title. Wayne State junior men's epeeist Slava Zingerman (Ashkelon, Israel) still has that chance, entering today in second place among the 24 NCAA entrants. If he can finish among the top-four and then win the medal round, Zingermanwould join an exclusive group of fencers who have totaled three-plus NCAA titles.

Interestingly enough, the 12 previous fencers with three or more NCAA titles include more from Wayne State (3) than any other school, plus two each from NYU, Ohio State and Penn State (also one each from Columbia, Notre Dame and Stanford). Those "three-peat/four-peat" champions include nine men (four foilists, four sabreists, one epeeist) and three women (two foilists, one epeeist).

FENCERS WHO HAVE WON THREE OR FOUR NCAA INDIVIDUAL TITLES
Bruce Soriano (3) ... men's sabre ... Columbia (1970-72)
Risto Hurme (3) ... men's epee ... NYU (1973-75)
Greg Benko (3) ... men's foil ... Wayne State (1974-76) 
Ernest Simon (3) ... men's foil ... Wayne State (1978, '80-'81)
Michael Lofton (4) ... men's sabre ... NYU (1984-87)
Nick Bravin (3) ... men's foil ... Stanford (1990, '92-'93)
Thomas Strzalkowski (3) ... men's sabre ... Penn State (1992-94)
Olga Kalinovskaya (4) ... women's foil ... Penn State (1993-96)
Alicja Kryczalo (3) ... women's foil ... Notre Dame (2002-04)
Boaz Ellis (3) ... men's foil ... Ohio State (2004-06)
Adam Crompton ... men's sabre ... Ohio State (2003-04, '06)
Anna Garina (3) ... women's epee ... Wayne State (2004-05, '07)

During the six-weapon era of the NCAA Fencing Championships (since 2000), there has been an elite group of men's fencers who have dominated the round-robin phase – as individuals and/or as a duo alongside their college teammates. Various lists highlighting these accomplishments are included below, with seven fencers having the chance on Friday to add their names to these lists: Penn State foilists Miles Chamley-Watson and Nick Chinman 11, PSU sabreists Daniel Bak and Aleksander Ochocki, Ohio State sabreists Mike Momtselidze and Max Stearns, and Notre Dame foilist Gerek Meinhardt.

Top Men's Weapon Duos (2000-08; six-weapon era)
(based on combined round-robin wins; max. is 46)

43 – Ohio State Foil, 2006 
... Andras Horanyi (22; 1st in round-robin/runner-up) and Boaz Ellis (21; 2nd in r-robin/won title)
42 – St. John's Sabre, 2001 
... Keeth Smart (22; 1st in r-robin/runner-up) and Ivan Lee (20; 2nd in r-robin/won title)
41 – Ohio State Sabre, 2006 
... Adam Crompton (21; 1st in r-robin/won title) and Jason Rogers (20; #2 in r-robin/placed 3rd)
40 – St. John's Sabre, 2003 
... Ivan Lee (23; 1st in r-robin/runner-up) and Sergey Isayenko (17; 5th in r-robin)

Homestanding Penn State will sleep with the day-1 lead at the 2009 NCAA Fencing Championships, after winning nearly 75% of its bouts (61 of 84) over the course of four rounds (14 bouts per entry) in Thursday's action. Ohio State stands in second place, only five wins back (56) while Notre Dame is the third-place team (47). PSU, OSU and ND are the only teams that qualified the maximum 12 entrants.

Columbia (11 entries; five men/six women) has 40 wins and is within striking distance of the Irish. The Lions could make a big push over the final two days (when the women compete), in this four-day battle. St. John's qualified five men and five women, but the Red storm stumbled to 7th-place on Thursday (33), one win behind Stanford and five back of Penn.

Penn State narrowly held the midday lead (44-42, two wins ahead of OSU), thanks to a 25-3 performance from the Buckeye sabreists (PSU was 24-4). The Nittany Lions then padded their cushion, led by 23 wins in foil to go with 14 in epee (OSU also had 14 epee wins, plus 17 in foil). Notre Dame was led by its foilists (20 wins) and had 17 sabre victories, but the ND epee duo managed only 10 wins in 28 bouts.

(analysis to follow)

2009 NCAA Men's Epee (day-1 totals; 14 bouts)

1. Benji Ungar (Harvard) ... 11-3/+31

2. Slava Zingerman (Wayne State) ... 11-3/+22

3. Daniel Trapani (Air Force) ... 10-4/+20

4. Graham Wicas (Princeton) ... 10-4/+18

5. Ben Wieder (Pennsylvania) ... 10-4/+8

6. Peter French (Air Force) ... 9-5/+10

7. James Moody (Penn State) ... 8-6/+10

8. Mike Elfassy (Princeton) ... 8-6/+8

9. Lorenzo Casertano (Columbia) ... 8-6/+0

10. Mykhaylo Mazur (Wayne State) ... 8-6/+0

11. Jason Pryor (Ohio State) ... 7-7/+7

12. Igor Tolkachev (Ohio State) ... 7-7/+1

13. Kevin Mo (Stanford) ... 7-7/-5

14. Michael Pearce (Yale) ... 7-7/-8

15. Stanley Vaksman (St. John's) ... 6-8/-5

16. Karl Harmenberg (Harvard) ... 6-8/-6

17. Maxwell Dettlinger (Penn State) ... 6-8/-8

18. Dwight Smith (Columbia) ... 6-/-8

19. Karol Kostka (Notre Dame) ... 5-9/-2

20. Clayton Kenney (Stanford) ... 5-9/-5

21. Greg Schoolcraft (Notre Dame) ... 5-9/ -10

22. Jonathan Parker (Duke) ... 4-10/-19

23. Nicholas Vomero (St. John's) ... 3-11/-19

(analysis to follow, also foil and epee standing)

Place   School   Total   MS   MF   ME 1. Penn State  61 24 23 14 2. Ohio State  56 25 17 14       
3. Notre Dame 47 17 20 10       
4. Columbia  40 10 16 14      
5. Pennsylvania   38 15 13 10     6. Stanford  34 16 6 12       

7. St. John's 33 19 5 9      
8. Princeton 29 4 7 18      
9. Harvard  27 6 4 17      
10. Duke 24 5 15 4      
11. Wayne State      23 4   19     12. Air Force  19     19      

13. Yale  18   10 8      14. UC San Diego     11 1 10       15. Brandeis  10 4 6        15. North Carolina   10 10         17. Brown  9   9        18. NYU  6 3 3        19. Vassar College   3 3         20. Boston College   2 2    

Thursday's five rounds of men's sabre bouting are finished for day-1 at the 2009 NCAAs, with Ohio State enjoying a strong showing as All-American Mike Momtselidza (13-1/+47) and newcomer Max Stearns (12-2/+25) combined for a 25-3 record (including Momtselidze's 5-4 win over Stearns). Momtselidze's only loss today came in a 5-4 bout versus Alejandro Rojas of St. John's. The only other loss for Stearns was a 5-2 bout against Penn's All-American Jonathan Berkowsky.

Among the other top teams with double-digit qualifiers (10-12), Penn State was only one win shy of OSU's pace (24-4) – with 2008 NCAA runner-up Daniel Bak currently in second (12-2/+37) while freshman Aleksander Ochocki is fourth (12-2/+24). St. John's posted 19 wins (11-3/+23 by Haryl Homer, 8-6/ from Rojas), with Homer (5th) in strong contention for a spot in Friday's semifinals (top-4 advance to 15-touch DE bouts, with 11 more round-robin bouts earlier in the day) while Rohas stands in 10th. Columbia's only men's sabre entrant – defending NCAA champ Jeff Spear – currently is 7th, at 10-4 with a +19 in total-points indicators. Notre Dame sophomores Avery Zuck (6th place; 10-4/ +19) and Barron Nydam (7-7/-9) combined for 17 wins.

(Note: NYU men's sabreist Hugo Rodrigues withdrew due to injury and was replaced in the field by UNC's Kevin Zeichmann, the top men's sabre alternate/injury replacement from the Mid-Atlantic/South Region ... note that this change shifted some of the travel groups, compared to what earlier was posted on the CF360 blog.) 

Here are the matchups for today's four rounds. Note that during round-1, fencers face their group/travel partners (in addition to fencing against another group).  There are five total bouts per fencer in round-1, then three bouts in all other rounds:

MEN'S FOIL

ROUND-1

GROUP A – Dorian Cohen (DUKE), Daniel Cohen (DUKE) , Alexis Landreville (SJU)

vs. 

GROUP B – Michael Fong (UCSD), Benjamin Dorn (UCSD), Alex Khoshnevissian (STAN)

GROUP C – Andras Horanyi (OSU), Colin Sutter (OSU), Will Friedman (BRAN)

GROUP E – Zane Grodman (PENN), Vidur Kapur (PENN), Kai Itameri-Kinter (HARV)

vs.

GROUP F – Gerek Meinhardt (ND), Enzo Castellani (ND), Alexander Kao (NYU)

GROUP G  –  Shiv Kachru (YALE), John Gurrieri (YALE), Jonathan Yu (BROWN)

CollegeFencing360 is excited to have the insight of Wendell Kubik, the former fencing coach at Air Force and a former president of the U.S. Fencing Coaches Association (he also fenced four years at the NCAAs). Both of  his college-aged sons – Notre Dame's Mark Kubik (a senior) and Steve Kubik (sophomore) – have earned All-America honors for the Irish at previous NCAAs (Mark in '07, Steve in '08), but both were victims of ND's tremendous men's foil depth this season and failed to qualify for the '09 NCAAs.

With both Kubik brothers not in the field, CF360 felt that their dad would be a perfect "non-attached" observer to provide his take on the 2009 NCAA men's foil competition. 

First, here's a reminder of who is in the 2009 NCAA men's foil field: Brandeis (1) - Will Friedman ...  Brown (2) - Adam Pantel and Jonathan Yu ... UC San Diego (2) - Ben Dorn and Michael Fong ... Columbia 2) - Sherif Farrag and Kurt Getz ... Duke (2) - Dan Cohen and Dorian Cohen ... Harvard (1) - Kai Itameri-Kinter ... NYU (1) - Alexander Kao ... Notre Dame (2) - Enzo Castellani and Gerek Meinhardt ... Ohio State (2) - Andras Horanyi and Collin Sutter ... Pennsylvania (2) - Zane Grodman and Vidur Kapur  ... Penn State (2) - Miles Chamley-Watson and Nick Chinman ... Princeton (1) - Alexander Mills ... St. John's (1) - Alexis Landreville ... Stanford (1) - Alex Khoshnevissan ... Yale (2) - John Gurrieri and Shiv Kachru.

This is Pete LaFleur checking in from Penn State. Got thrown a curve last night at the Pittsburgh airport, as one of my bags did not arrive. Of course, that included a couple photo/video items (microphone stand and monopod), but we should be able to work around it - and hopefully get the second bag soon. A long day of travel  ended with checking into the hotel at 3:30 (eastern) this morning and grabbing a quick power-nap. The coffee is brewing and ready to start cranking out some unique and unprecedented live coverage of this four-day NCAA Fencing odyssey.

Will be catching up on a variety of posts during the day, in addition to passing along information from the tournament. (FYI -the timestamps on this blog are aligned with mountain time - but may try to change the clock, so that it's not confusing).

The final national collegiate fencing poll has been announced for 2009, as selected by the U.S. Fencing Coaches Association (USFCA). All of this info. will be posted later in release format, via the RANKINGS tab. 

Notre Dame maintained the top spot in both the men's and women's polls, with most of the the other teams keeping their spots as well.

Here's a quick summary of teams that moved up or down, in relation to the previous poll:

• The Penn (now #3) and Ohio State men (#4) swapped places, while the Harvard men bumped up from #9 to #7 and the Stanford men from #10 to #9 (the St. John's men dropped one spot, to #8, while the Duke men slipped from #8 to #10).

• The Harvard (now #3) and OSU women (now #4) switched places, as did the Northwestern (now #6) and Penn women (now #7). There also was shifting in the final three spots of the women's poll, with Princeton moving up from #10 to #8 while Temple (now #9) and St. john's (now #10) each dropped down a spot.

MEN

1. Notre Dame (1)

2. Penn State (2)

The 145-fencer field for the 2009 NCAA Fencing Championships includes plenty of first-year participants (many of them part of an impressive freshman grouping) – but there also are several battled-tested veterans (eight men, five women) who will be making their fourth appearance at the NCAAs.

More than half (7) of the 13 fencers who are four-time NCAA entrants come from two weapons (four men's epeeists and three in men's foil). The 13 include two each from Harvard, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Stanford, plus single fencers from Brandeis, North Carolina, Northwestern, Stanford and Yale.

There also are 21 fencers in the 2009 NCAA field who will be making their third appearance. The most noteworthy fencers on these two lists are Ohio State senior men's foilist Andras Horanyi and Wayne State junior men's epeeist Slava Zingerman, who each will be looking to win the NCAA title in their respective weapons for the third time (there have been only 12 previous fencers in NCAA history who have won three or more titles – see the "History tab").

(reminder: please credit CollegeFencing360.com's research, if using this data for publication or on other websites.)

(OK, this is quite a long post ... but an interesting assortment of info. for you to peruse.)

This blog post is sure to interest avid followers of certain teams, as well as fans of college fencing as a whole. Former fencers who are included on these lists also may take a walk down memory lane, as they scan the various names of their former teammates and former opponents.

The complete lists (at the very bottom of this post) highlight the fencing programs that have sent the most fencers (18, 19 of the max. 20) to the NCAAs, during the 10-year period since women's sabre made its debut at the NCAA Championships in 2000.

There are 26 "elite weapon groups" included below, and they break down as follows:

• Six each from Notre Dame and Ohio State
• Four each from Columbia (MF, MS, WF, WE) and St. John's (MS, ME, WF, WS)
• Two from Ohio State (ME, MS)
• One each from Harvard (WF), Northwestern (WF), Penn (MF) and Princeton (ME)

(reminder: please credit CollegeFencing360.com's research, if using this data for publication or on other websites.)

It took a while to crunch all these numbers and crosscheck them, but this lists looks to be correct for breaking down the 1,441 NCAA fencing entrants in the six-weapon era (2000-09). Note that in the process of crosschecking, CF360 found a couple of corrections to the earlier NCAA Fencing Historical Lists #1 and #2 (these changes have been made to those blog postings). Namely, Penn State actually has totaled 116 six-weapon-era entrants rather than 115 – drawing PSU in a virtual tie with Notre Dame, which has sent 117 fencers to the NCAAs over the past 10 years. (Plenty more coming to the blog later today, Sunday and on through next week).

NCAA Fencing Championship Entrants (Six-Weapon Era; 2000-09)

79 – Princeton
78 – Penn
75 – Stanford
73 – Harvard

55 – Yale
47 – NYU
46 – Northwestern (women's team only)
41 – Air Force
41 – Wayne State

39 – Duke
38 – Temple  (women's team only)
37 – Rutgers  (no longer sponsors varsity fencing)
30 – UC San Diego
30 – North Carolina

(Over the next few days, the CF360 blog will be passing along a series of interesting lists and factoids – relating to the 2009 NCAA field and the history of the NCAA Fencing Championship. We kindly ask that any media, SIDs or internet posters who reference such information please credit CollegeFencing360.com with the research.)

It's hard to believe that we are in the midst of the 10th year since the dawning of "Y2K" (in many ways, doesn't that seem like it was yesterday?). The 2000 NCAA Fencing Championships – held that year at Stanford – marked the first season that women's sabre was an officially-contested weapon in NCAA fencing. Thus, the 2009 NCAAs commemorate the 10th year of the six-weapon NCAA Championships formay, with schools that sponsor both men's and women's varsity teams having the chance to send a maximum of 12 fencers to the NCAAs.

Nine teams – led by a core group of Notre Dame, Penn State, St. John's, Columbia and Ohio State – have combined to have the most total NCAA Fencing Championship entrants during the six-weapon era (the others include Penn, Princeton, Stanford and Harvard). Here's a breakdown of which teams have sent the most fencers to the NCAAs over the past 10 seasons (2000-09):

Note: in a continuing effort to bring more consistency to the reporting and coverage of college fencing, it should be noted that the correct (and elongated) name to used for the March 19-22 tournament is "2009 NCAA Men's and Women's Fencing Championships" (the words "National Collegiate" sometimes can be replaced with "NCAA"). The team title is best referenced as "NCAA Combined Men's and Women's Fencing Championship." The word "finals" should not be used when referring to the NCAA Championships, much as the word "qualifier" is not necessary when referencing the NCAA Regional events (instead, these events simply are "NCAA West Regional," etc.).

The CF360 blog noted on Sunday that any proclamations about fencers being "automatically" qualified for the NCAAs were premature – because, in fact, fencers had only been nominated by regional committees for consideration in the NCAA field. Adding further confusion and more inconsistency was the fact that these nominations are not meant to be public knowledge (and never were formally announced).

Due to the strong number of female candidates, CollegeFencing360.com is honoring three women as co-national fencers of the week (for the NCAA Regionsl weekend, March 7-8). There also is a second group of eight (honorable mention) – with all of these 11 of these fencers comprising the first NCAA Regional Honor Roll (as selected by CF360).

The complete weekly awards release will be posted on this site later today (via the Awards tab) – but for now, the 11 fencers being honored by CF360 for their Regional performances are listed below. Note that there were plenty of candidates to select from, with victory and indicator totals, plus strength of opponents, playing a role in the selections.

(Note that CF360 also plans to honor various fencers who rose to the occasion with clutch Regional performances while under pressure, due to their precarious seed location and the value that their results held for potential team success in the NCAA Championships):

BECCA WARD
(Duke ... Women's Sabre ... Fr. ... Portland, Oregon)

(note: Several school websites are reporting that their fencers have received "automatic" or "qualifying" spots in the NCAAs, but the entire NCAA Championships field is not official until released by the NCAA on March 10. At present, the only information available (on some sites) reflects the formal entrant recommendations made by the four regional committees and presented  to the NCAA for approval. The March 10 announcement also will reveal the two at-large entrants (selected from a national pool) in each weapon. It is conceivable – but unlikely – that a fencer thought to have qualified may not be confirmed by the NCAA as an official regional qualifier to the NCAAs ... of course, such a fencer then still could receive an at-large spot. At this time, it's more appropriate to use terminology such as "probable" or "tentative" qualifiers – as has been done on several school sites.)

This weekend's four NCAA Regionals produced mixed results for the top teams. Here are some of the more noteworthy end results (team details follow below):

After a flurry of posting over the past few hours, the CF360 blog will be taking a short break. Check back later in the day for some breakdown analysis from today's regional action (and some catchup from Saturday, as well).

Final standings for the Northeast Regionals men's sabre competition are included below (the Northeast has an allocation of eight men's sabreists for the NCAA Championships). Three of the initial top-12 seeds failed to reach the third and final pool round (final-12): 

•  #8  Robert Gobin  (St. John's ... placed 13th)
•  #9  Benjamin Radding  (NYU ... placed 17th)

•  #10  Alex Snow  (Vassar ... placed 18th)

These top-12 finishers initially were seeded outside the top-12:

•  #23  Trevis Joyner  (Columbia ... placed 11th)
•  #15  Peter Tyson  (Brown ... placed 9th)
•  #13  Adam Austin  (Brandeis ... placed 5th)

MEN'S SABRE FINAL STANDINGS – NORTHEAST

1. Homer, Daryl ... St. John's  

2. Staller, Valentin ... Harvard   

3. Souders, Peter ... Boston College 

4. Fischl, Andrew ... Vassar  

5. Austin, Adam ... Brandeis  

5. Spear, Jeff ... Columbia  

7. Rojas, Alejandro ... St. John's  

8. Roukas, Sam ... New York

Daryl Homer (left) 

9. Tyson, Peter ... Brown  

10. Rodrigues, Hugo ... NYU

11. Joyner, Trevis ... Columbia  

Final standings for the Northeast Regionals women's epee competition are included below (NCAA allocation is eight spots, via the formula that factors in regular-season and Regional performance). Among fencers who competed on Sunday, only two of the initial top-12 seeds – both from Columbia – failed to reach the third and final pool round (final-12): 

•  #3  Tess Finkel  (Columbia ... placed 19th)
•  #10  Maryya Urbanowicz  (Columbia ... placed 15th)

note that #6 seed Katherine Thompson (Cornell) did not compete on Sunday

These top-12 finishers initially were seeded outside the top-12:

•  #28  Mary Dannegger (Sacred Heart ... placed 9th)

•  #18  Amanda Green  (Sacred Heart ... placed 10th)

•  #14  Sophie Courser  (Vassar ... placed 7th)

WOMEN'S EPEE FINAL STANDINGS – NORTHEAST

1. Mills, Noam ... Harvard
2. Larsson, Maria ... Harvard
3. Moss, Rebecca ... Yalw
4. Novakovska, Tetyana ... St. John's
5. Brandfield-Harvey, Neely ... Columbia
6. Guy, Joanna ... St. John's
7. Courser, Sophie ... Vassar 
8. Dietrich, Sallie ... Cornell

(more analysis and data, i.e. pool records, to follow)

Final standings for the Northeast Regionals men's epee competition are included below (the Northeast has an allocation of eight men's epeeists for the NCAA Championships). A quick look shows that four of the initial top-12 seeds failed to reach the third and final pool round (final-12): 

•  #2  Mykhaylo Mokretsov  (St. John's ... placed 23rd)
•  #6  Max Czaoanskiy  (Columbia ... placed 14th)
•  #7  Byron Neslund  (NYU ... placed 15th)
•  #12  Nick Johnson  (Vassar ... placed 16th)

These top-12 finishers initially were seeded outside the top-12:

•  #29  Henry Liu  (Brown ... placed 12th)
•  #28  John Choi  (Boston College ... placed 10th)
•  #24  Alexander Cohen  (Yale ... placed 8th)
•  #19  William Bedor  (Brandeis ... placed 11th)

MEN'S EPEE FINAL STANDINGS – NORTHEAST

3. Smith, Dwight ... Columbia  
4. Pearce, Michael ... Yale  
5. Vaksman, Stanley ... St. John's  
6. Ungar, Benji ... Harvard 
7. Casertano, Lorenzo ... Columbia 
8. Cohen, Alexander ... Yale  

Here's another quick look at some final pool qualifiers at the Northeast Regional, in women's foil and epee. There will be a 12-fencer pool contested in each weapon, which takes a while to complete but will help provide the final sorting.

The Northeast has an NCAA Championships allocation of nine fencers in women's foil and eight in women's epee, with teams limited to two entrants per weapon. More analysis to come (including key results from earlier in the day), plus the final-12 in men's and women's sabre.

WOMEN'S FOIL FINAL POOL PARTICIPANTS – NORTHEAST

1. Cross, Emily ... Harvard  

2. Ross, Nicole ... Columbia  

3. Ciaravino, Sophie ... NYU

4. Makeeva, Valeria ... Yale 

5. MaCleod, Shelby ... Harvard  

6. Pitt, Katharine ... Yale 

7. Tranquada, Jessica ... Cornell  

8. Collacino, Jennifer ... Boston College  

9. Braaten, Hannah ... Wellesley  

10. Rysling, Amanda ... NYU

11. Evans, Zoe ... NYU

12. Szita, Nora ... St. John's  

W0MEN'S EPEE FINAL POOL PARTICIPANTS – NORTHEAST

1. Moss, Rebecca ... Yale

(note: headshots of today's Midwest Regional winners will be added later to these blog postings, with other photos possibly accompanying Midwest wrapup posts later tonight.)

Ohio State two-time defending NCAA champion Andra Horanyi has won the Midwest Regional men's foil title, after outdueling Notre Dame freshman Enzo Castellani in the semifinals and besting OSU teammate Collin Sutter in the final bout. Sutter had advanced past another ND freshman, Reggie Bentley, in the semifinals (Castellani later topped Bentley in the third-place bout).

Notre Dame's four-fencer contingent in the Regional men's foil competition included senior All-American Mark Kubik (#5 Regional seed, placed 9th) and three talented newcomers, with #2 seed Gerek Meinhardt – the one-man U.S. men's foil team at the '08 Olympics – finishing fifth, despite maintaining his #2 seed after Sunday's pool bouts.

It will be interesting to see how the final allocation shakes out for the Midwest's four spots in the NCAA Championships men's foil field. Horanyi (#1 iniital seed) and Castellani (#4) appear to have helped their cause with Sunday's results, but it's unclear how Meinhardt and OSU All-American Ben Parkins (#3 seed; placed 6th) will fare when all the numbers are crunched. Sutter (#7 seed) and Bentley (#6) also now have to be in the mix – with there being a possibility that the OSU or ND coaches may have the option to choose what fencer(s) round out their NCAA pair.

Wayne State junior Slava Zingerman – the two--time defending NCAA champion – overcame a slow start to the day (he was seeded 6th entering the quarterfinals) to win the Midwest Regional men's epee title, defeating Ohio State All-American Jason Pryor in a 15-12 title bout. Zingerman earlier had won his semifinal bout vs. Notre Dame All-American  Karol Kostka (last weekend's MFC champion), while Pryor advanced past a semifinal matchup against OSU teammate Igor Tolkachev – who then lost to Kostka in the third-place bout.

The ND duo of Brent Kelly and Greg Schoolcraft met in the fifth-place bout (won by Schoolcraft), while OSU's Sean Harder defeated Cleveland State's John Marshall in the seventh-place matchup.

The Midwest has five allocated men's epee spots for the NCAA Championships, with four of them fairly locked in entering today's action (Zingerman, Pryot, Kostka and Tolkachev). There appeared to be several contenders for the fifth spot, among them the ND trio of Kelly (#5 Regional seed), Schoolcraft (#9) and sophomore Jacob Osborne (#8), plus WSU's Mykhaylo Mazur. Kelly (at Columbia) and Mazur ('07 All-American at OSU) both are transfers with NCAA Tournament experience, while Osborne is competing in his first season of college fencing. With Osborne placing 10th and Mazur a surprisingly low 11th, the final allocation spot might come down to whether Scoolcraft's fifth-place win is enough to bump him ahead of Kelly in the selection formula (40% regular season; 60% Regional) ... with Kelly the probably the favorite to earn the berth.

The Midwest Regional men's epee bouts have progressed through double-elimination phase, with the following quarterfinal matches set:

#1 Igor Tolkachev (Ohio State; #4 initial seed) vs. #8 Sean Harder (OSU; #11 initial seed)

# 5 Jason Pryor (OSU; #2) vs. #4 Greg Schoolcraft (Notre Dame; #9)

#3 Brent Kelly (ND; #5) vs. #6 Slava Zingerman (Wayne State; #1)

#7 John Marshall (Cleveland State; #10) vs. #2 Karol Kostka (ND; #3)

Here were the top-10 men's epee seeds, coming out of the pools and entering the double-elimination:

1. Denis Tolkachev (Ohio State; #4 initial seed)
2. Karol Kostka (Notre Dame; #3)
3. Jason Pryor (OSU; #2)
4. Brent Kelly (ND; #5)
5. Jacob Osborne (ND; #8)
6. Greg Schoolcraft (ND; #9)
7. Slava Zingerman (Wayne State; #1)

8. Mykhaylo Mazur (WSU; #7)
9. Eric Gurnowski (OSU; #6)
10. John Marshall (Cleveland State; #10)

Here were the top-10 fencers in men's foil, coming out of the pool round and entering the double-elimination phase:

1. Gerek Meinhardt (Notre Dame; #2 initial seed)
2. Andras Horanyi (Ohio State; #1)
3. Collin Sutter (OSU; #7)
4. Ben Parkins (OSU; #3)

Here are the bouting schedules for the two NCAA Regionals that are being held today. Note that each region is able to utilize its own format, as can be seen in the different variations used during this weekend.

8:00 a.m. (all times eastern) – A first round of pools will begin, folllowed by re-ranking, a second round of pools, another re-ranking, and a final/third round of pools (with on 12-fencer pool in each weapon

6:30 p.m. – All bouting is expected to be finished at this time

(note that a detailed schedule was not immediately available for this Regional)

10:00 a.m. (all times eastern)
• Men's Foil and Epee Pools

11:00 a.m.
• Men's Sabre Pools

• Bouting will conclude with a double-elimination, direct-elimination phase (all final-8 places will be fenced out, as will places 9-12.)

WOMEN'S FOIL (7)
Locks (4)
Doris Willette (Penn State; #1 seed/champion)
Allison Glasser (Penn State; #2 seed/3rd place)
Lucille Jarry (Princeton; #3 seed/5th place)
Laura Paragano (Penn; #5 seed/runner-up) 

Possibly Maintained Allocation Spot (3)
Melissa Parker (Temple; #4 seed/7th place)
Andrea Oliva (Princeton; #7 seed/6th place)
Ilana Sinkin  (Penn; #6 seed/14th place)

Saturday's women's competition at the NCAA Midwest Regional produced no real surprises, and it appears pretty clear how the region's allocations to the NCAA Championships likely will shake out (selection based 40% on regular season and 60% on Regional finish):

• Notre Dame and Ohio State should receive the maximum six total women's spots in the NCAAs, with the other three spots going to fencers from Northwestern. Here is how CF360 (and most informed observers) see the Midwest bids shaking out (again, none of this is a stretch):

WOMEN'S FOIL (5)
Notre Dame (2) – Hayley Reese and Adi Nott
Ohio State (2) – Oksana Dmytruk (automatic) and Lindsay Knauer 
Northwestern (1) – Samanta Nemecek

WF notes: All five of these fencers mirrored their Regional finish to where they  were seeded entering the Regional (Dmytruk #1, Nemecek #2, Reese #3, Knauer #4 and Nott #5).

WOMEN'S EPEE (6)
Notre Dame (2) – Courtney Hurley (automatic) and Ewa Nelip/Kelley Hurley
Ohio State (2) – Julia Tikhonova and Miriam Baranov
Northwestern (2) – twins Christa and Kayley French

Thanks go out to the folks at Drew University, who were able to fax results to CF360 earlier in the day before experiencing some fax issues later in the afternoon. They went ahead and scanned the results sheets and e-mailed them (for now, all we have are final standings – no scores or pool info., beyond the first round). Here's the top-10 finishers in each weapon (analysis to follow).

Men's Foil Final Top-10
1. Miles Chamley-Watson (Penn State)
2. Nick Chinman (PSU)
3. Alex Mills (Princeton)
4. Michael El-Saleh (PSU)
5. Dorian Cohen (Duke)
6. Samuel Perkins (PSU)
7. Vidur Kapur (Penn)
8. Dan Cohen (Duke)
9. Alex Grigorenko (North Carolina) 
10. Benjamin Dorfman (Johns Hopkins)

Men's Epee Final Top-10
1. James Moody (PSU)  
2. Graham Wicas (Princeton)
3.  Mike Elfassy (PRIN) 
4. Maxwell Dettlinger (PSU)
5. Jonathan Parker (Duke)
6. Brian Heflich (PSU)
7. Ben Wieder (Penn)
8. Tristan Jones (Duke)
9. Cooper Gegan (PRIN)
10. Jacob Wischnia (Penn)

The fencing is done for today at the Midwest Regional, with the women's foil and epee bouts concluding minutes ago. Notre Dame's Courtney Hurley defeated her teammate Ewa Nelip in the epee final (15-9), while Ohio's State's Oksana Dmytruk topped Northwestern's Samantha Nemecek in the 12-3 foil final.

Oksana Dmytruk (left)

Dmytruk (the '08 NCAA runner-up) won in the quarterfinals vs. teammate Meredith Baskies (#11 initial seed, #8 in DE) and then posted a semifinal victory over ND's Hayley Reese. Nemecek was a quarterfinal winner against ND's Darcie Malynn (#9/#7) and then advanced past the semifinals with a victory over OSU's Lindsay Knauer. The other quarterfinals included Reese's win over ND teammate Radmilla Sarkisova (#10/#4) and Knauer's victory over ND's Adi Nott – in a marquee bout between the two All-Americans.

Knauser and Reese were to meet in the third-place bout while Nott-Sarkisova was the fifth-place matchup and Malynn was to face Baskies with seventh place on the line.

Hurley earlier had defeated her sister Kelley in the semifinals, while Nelip beat OSU's Julia Tikhanova (who was to face Kelley Hurley in the third-place bout). The fifth-place bout was to feature Northwestern twins Christa and Kayley French, with OSU's Miriam Baranov and ND's Diane Zielinski battling for seventh place. Full results and analysis coming soon.

The top-4 women's epee seeds at the Midwest Regional have advanced to the semifinals, with a sister battle set in one of the bouts – as Notre Dame junior Kelley Hurley ('08 NCAA champion and Olympian) with face off against her younger sister Courtney. Yet another ND fencer, sophomore All-American Ewa Nelip will meet Ohio State junior Julia Tikhanova in the other semifinal. Tikhanova (a 2007 foil All-American appears destined to make a run at earning All-America honors in two difference weapons during her career.

Kelley Hurley (who entered the Regional as the #4 seed) advanced out of the quarterfinals with a victory over Northwestern All-American Kayley French (#6), while the younger Hurley sister sister (#2) posted a quarterfinal win over OSU's Miriam Baranov (#8). Nelip – who entered the day as the #1 seed – defeated the other French sister, Christa (#5), in the quarters, with Tikhonova defeating ND's Diane Zielinski (#11).

More to come soon, with updates from the final women's epee bouts.

10. Bianca Cabrerra  (Princeton) ... 3-3 (+1) ... #8 initial seed
11. Kamali Thompson  (Temple) ... 3-3 (E) ... #6 initial seed
12. Mary Vitale  (Johns Hopkins) ... 3-3 (-3) ... #25 initial seed

13. Alicia Rapp  (Drew) ... 3-3 (-3) ... #21 initial seed
14. Caroline Merz  (Princeton) ... 3-3 (-8) ... #9 initial seed
15. Christine Griffith  (Temple) ... 2-3 (E) ... #15 initial seed
16. Jessic Hancock  (Duke) ... 2-3 (-7) ... #19 initial seed 
17. Lyuba Docheva  (Princeton) ... 2-3 (-8) ... #20 initial seed
18. Jessica-Kim Danh  (Penn State) ... 2-4 (E) ... #10 initial seed

Eliminated:
19. Jennifer Sawicki  (North Carolina) ... 2-4 (-1) ... #11 initial seed
20. Olivia Benedek  (Penn State) ... 2-4 (-2) ... #12 initial seed
21. Ashley Donald  (Duke) ... 2-4 (-3) ... #18 initial seed
22. Monica Kim (North Carolina) ... 2-4 (-5) ... #13 initial seed
23. Mary Borgo  (North Carolina) ... 2-4 (-8) ... #27 initial seed
24. Margot Mausner  (Duke) ... 1-5 (-12) ... #23 initial seed
25. Erica Mondadori  (Stevens Tech) ... 1-5 (-15) ... #28 initial seed
26. Laura Sodon  (Stevens Tech) ... 0-6 (-14) ... #29 initial seed
27. Jennifer Clark  (North Carolina) ... 0-5 (-15) ... #22 initial seed

10. Karen Petsche  (Princeton) ... 3-2 (+8) ... #11 initial seed
11. Alyssa Lomuscio  (Fairleigh Dickinson) ... 3-2 (+6) ... #17 initial seed
12. Dana Rosen  (Duke) ... 3-2 (+4) ... #12 initial seed

13. Rocky Rothenberg  (Princeton) ... 3-2 (+3) ... #13 initial seed
14. Sabrina Shapiro  (Temple) ... 3-2 (+1) ... #18 initial seed
15. Anne Jackson  (Penn State) ... 2-2 (E) ... #9 initial seed
16. Allison Putterman  (Duke) ... 2-2 (-1) ... #16 initial seed 
17. Hannah Thurman  (Penn State) ... 2-2 (-2) ... #24 initial seed
18. Jessica Wacker  (North Carolina) ... 2-3 (-1) ... #21 initial seed

Eliminated:
19. Amanda Levinson  (Haverford) ... 2-3 (-9) ... #26 initial seed
20. Alexandra Stein  (Duke) ... 1-4 (-4) ... #19 initial seed
21. Grace Fried  (Johns Hopkins) ... 1-4 (-7) ... #23 initial seed
22. Katherine Kim (Johns Hopkins) ... 1-4 (-10) ... #25 initial seed
23. Alice Clark  (Haverford) ... 1-4 (-12) ... #22 initial seed
24. Sofia DeBenedicts  (Johns Hopkins) ... 1-4 (-12) ... #28 initial seed
25. Rebecca Kellogg  (Fairleigh Dickinson) ... 1-4 (-12) ... #27 initial seed
26. Nisa Aziz  (Stevens Tech) ... 1-4 (-13) ... #32 initial seed
27. Ann Gong  (Princeton) ... 0-4 (-12) ... #20 initial seed
28. Lexi Lyons  (Stevens Tech) ... 0-5 (-20) ... #31 initial seed
28. Colleen Stone  (Johns Hopkins) ... 0-5 (-20) ... #29 initial seed

10. Jonathan Parker  (Duke) ... 3-2 (+1) ... #10 initial seed
11. Jarrett Rodrigues  (North Carolina) ... 3-2 (E) ... #18 initial seed
12. Nicholas Krywopusk  (Penn State) ... 3-2 (-3) ... #24 initial seed

13. Maxwell Dettlinger  (Penn State) ... 2-2 (+2) ... #6 initial seed
14. Eric Hsieh  (North Carolina) ... 2-2 (+1) ... #5 initial seed
15. Brian Heflich  (Penn State) ... 2-3 (+2) ... #11 initial seed
16. Graham Godwyn  (Duke) ... 2-3 (+1) 
17. Ben Gellis  (North Carolina) ... 2-3 (-1) ... #14 initial seed
18. Tristan Jones  (Duke) ... 2-3 (-1) ... #7 initial seed

Eliminated:
19. Nat Sulat  (Princeton) ... 2-3 (-2) ... #3 initial seed
20. Noah Weiner  (Lafayette) ... 2-3 (-4) ... #23 initial seed
21. Steven DiPaola  (Stevens Tech) ... 2-3  (-5) ... #25 initial seed
22. Harry Oppenheim  (Johns Hopkins) ... 1-3 (-7) ... #15 initial seed
23. Lee Flaherty  (Haverford) ... 1-3 (-9) ... #26 initial seed
24. Sam Monk  (Penn) ... 1-4 (-4) ... #13 initial seed
25. Joel Thompson  (North Carolina) ... 1-4 (-7) ... #27 initial seed
26. Thomas Ronan  (Johns Hopkins) ... 1-4 (-10) ... #19 initial seed
27. Keith Vandingstee  (Stevens Tech) ... 0-5 (-13) ... #28 initial seed
28. Remy Olsen  (Haverford) ... 0-5 (-14) ... #20 initial seed
29. Ian McCue  (Johns Hopkins) ... 0-5 (-14) ... #29 initial seed

Following up on the previous post, here are the top-10 seeds for the Midwest Regional women's foil direct-elimination:

Midwest Regional Women's Foil DE (top-10 seeds)
1. Oksana Dmytruk (Ohio State) ... #1 initial seed
2. Samantha Nemecek (Northwestern) ... #2 initial seed
3. Hayley Reese (Notre Dame) ... #3 initial seed
4. Adi Nott (ND) ... #5 initial seed

5.  Lindsay Knauer (OSU) ... #4 initial seed
6. Camille Provencal-Dayle (NW) ... #7 initial seed
7. Darcie Malynn (ND) ... #9 initial seed
8. Allison Henvick (OSU) ... #8 initial seed
9. Holly McKibben (OSU) ... #12 initial seed
10. Devynn Patterson (NW) ... #6 initial seed

Provencal-Dayle appears to be the fencer with the best shot of fencing her way into the NCAA Championships (the Midwest has five allocated women's foil spots).

Also earlier today at the Midwest Regional, the two women's epeeists from Detroit (Brittany Cook  and Hannah Borland) were eliminated after competing in the preliminary pool, which trimmed the field from 20 to 18.

Fencing is underway at the Mid-Atlantic/South and Midwest regionals (women's bouting). The Midwest pools break down as follows:

Foil (18 fencers): three pools of six (top-16 to DE)

Epee (20 fencers): preliminary pool of six (top-4 advance) ... three full pools of six (top-16 to DE)

Sabre (14 fencers): two pools of seven (all advance to DE)

WOMEN'S SABRE SEEDS – NORTHEAST REGIONAL
(Northeast will have 10 allocated WS spots for NCAA Champ.; TBA 3/10)

1. Daria Schneider  (Columbia)
2. Dagmara Wozniak  (St. John's) 
3. Jackie Jacobson  (Columbia)
4. Caroline Vloka  (Harvard)
5. Dora Varga  (St. John's) 
6. Samantha Roberts  (Columbia)
7. Martyna Wieczorek  (St. John's) 
8. Jennifer Ivers  (Yale)
9. Alex Heiss  (Cornell)
10. Anna Hanley  (Brandeis)
11. Lisa Verzino  (NYU)
12. Alyxandra Mattison  (NYU)

13. Katerine Arden  (Yale)

14. Randy Alevi  (Brown)

15. Robin Shin  (MIT)

16. Aleksandra Mackiewicz  (Brown)

17. Hayley Levitt  (Harvard)

18. Deborah Gorth  (Brown)

19. Chelsea Rosenbauer  (Boston College)

20. Molly Kozminsky  (MIT)

21. Julie Carlsen  (Vassar)

22. Krita Bacci  (Sacred Heart)

23. Gwendolyn Waichman  (Cornell)

24. Erica Seigneur  (Vassar)

25. Alexandra Turner  (Brandeis)

26. Sarah Danley  (Tufts)

27. Catherine Sagevick  (Sacred Heart)

28. Lauren CHILTON  (MIT)

29. Casey Farin  (NYU)

30. Amanda Cortes  (Boston College)