Some of the top veteran fencers from teams in the 14-team field at the 2009 Notre Dame Duals are listed below. Also note that several newcomers – such as Notre Dame men's foilist Gerek Meinhardt (the youngest Olympian in U.S. fencing history) and national junior epee champions Kevin Mo (Stanford) and Courtney Hurley (ND) – could prove to be some of the nation's top collegiate fencers this season.
Four of the six fencers who won 2008 NCAA titles are from teams in the 2009 Notre Dame Duals field: Wayne State men's epeeist Slava Zingerman (NCAA champ in '07 and '08), Ohio State men's foilist Andras Horanyi (also a two-time NCAA individual champion), ND women's epeeist Kelley Hurley and ND women's sabreist Sarah Borrmann (the other two 2008 NCAA champions were current Columbia men's sabreist Jeff Spear and former St. John's women's foilist Monika Golebiewski).
Horanyi – who is pictured at left – also was the 2006 NCAA runner-up (behind former OSU teammate Boaz Ellis) while ND's Hurley was the '07 runner-up, as a freshman. The 14-team field includes one other fencer who has been an NCAA runner-up: Ohio State men's sabreist Mike Momtselidze ('08; also 4th in '07).
Two other fencers from teams at the ND Duals have reached the semifinal round at previous NCAAs: Notre Dane women's foilist Adi Nott (3rd in '07, 4th in '08; also 6th in '06) and epeeist Ewa Nelip (3rd in '08). Nelip – the reigning national fencer of the week (after going 18-0 at the Northwestern Duals – will not be competing for the Irish this weekend, after being called in by the Polish fencing federation to compete at a World Cup Grand Prix event in Rome.
The 10 varsity team competing at the 2009 ND Duals teams include a total of 27 fencers who have earned All-America (top-12) honors at previous NCAA Championships:
• Five Men's Foilists – OSU's Horanyi and Ben Parkins (9th in '08), and the ND trio of Steve Kubik (8th in '08), Zach Schirtz (11th in '08) and Mark Kubik (7th in '07; also 21st in '06).
• Six Men's Epeeists – WSU's Zingerman and Mykhaylo Mazur (9th in '07, while fencing for OSU), ND's Karol Kostka (11th in '07; also 13th in '08 and 18th in '06), OSU's Jason Pryor (10th in '08; also 17th in '06 and 20th in '07), Stanford's Clayton Kenney (11th in '08, 15th in '07, 20th in '08) and Air Force's Peter French (6th in '08, 14th in '07).
• Six Men's Sabreists – OSU's Momtselidze and Sergey Smirnov (11th in '07; also 14th in '08), ND's Barron Nydam (6th in '08) and Bill Thanhouser (6th in '07; also 13th in '08), Stanford's Teddy Levitt (9th in '06, 14th in '07) and Wayne State's Jakub Gibczynski (10th in '08) ... note that Smirnov has not fenced for OSU at the various college tournaments over the past two weeks.
• Three Women's Foilists: ND's Nott and Hayley Reese (11th in '08), and Northwestern's Samantha Nemecek (7th in '07, 8th in '06 and '08).
• Four Women's Epeeists: ND's Hurley and Nelip, and the Northwestern duo of Christa French (6th in '07, 10th in '08) and Joanna Niklinska (12th in '08).
• Three Women's Sabreists: ND's Borrmann and Eileen Hassett (5th in '08), and Stanford's Eva Jellison (8th in '06, 9th in '08, 10th in '07).
The NU Duals teams include 15 other fencers who have competed in past NCAAs but not been top-12/All-Americans: ND women's foilist Emilie Prot (14th in '07), women's sabreist Ashley Serrette (16th in '07) and men's epeeist Brent Kelly (21st in '08, while fencing for Columbia) ... OSU men's epeeist Sean Harder (19th in '08) ... Northwestern women's epeeist Kaylee French (14th in '07) ...
Stanford men's foilist Phil Arendondo (15th in '08, 20th in '07), men's sabreists Lucas Janson (19th in '08) and Max Murphy (19th in '08), women's foilist Jessica Walker (21st in '08), women's epeeist Brittany Leader (17th in '07) and women's sabreist Sarah Parker (15th in '08) ... Air Force men's epeeist Daniel Trapani (14th in '08) and men's sabreist Michael O'Connor (24th in '07) ... UC San Diego men's foilist Ben Dorn (18th in '08) and men's sabreist Bryan Kim (22nd in '08).