ND-OSU Men's Recap (NU Duals; 15-12 Irish Win)
The co-#1 Notre Dame and #3 Ohio State men's fencing teams added another chapter to their rivalry on Sunday at the Northwestern Duals, with the Irish using some clutch late wins to claim a 15-12 victory. The Buckeyes owned the edge in foil (6-3) but ND claimed a larger margin in sabre (7-2), in addition to narrowly winning epee (5-4).
Three fencers – ND epeeist Karol Kostka and sabreist Avery Zuck, plus OSU foilist Andras Horanyi – went 3-0 in the match, whiie six others were 2-1: ND foilist Gerek Meinhardt, ND sabreists Bill Thanhouser and Barron Nydam, OSU epeeists Igor Tolkachev and Jason Pryor, and OSU foilist Colin Sutter.
OSU sabre All-American Mike Momtselidze (the '08 NCAA runner-up) posted a narrow win over Nydam (5-4), tying the team score after four bouts, but moments later Thanhouser and Zuck beat Momtselidze by the same 5-2 score (for a 6-3 overall ND lead). On the nearby foil strip, Horanyi's 5-1 win over Steve Kubik cut into the Irish lead (6-4), with the epee bouts starting moments later.
Notre Dame maintained a three-point cushion midway through the match (9-6) before OSU won two straight, including a 5-1 victory by two-time defending NCAA champ Horanyi over the freshman phenom Meinhardt (a member of the '08 U.S. Olympic foil team).
With 10 bouts remaining (six epee, four foil), the Irish clung to a one-point lead (9-8) and had several key bouts left against some of OSU's top fencers. Kostka responded with a clutch 5-4 win over OSU newcomer Tolkachev (whose brother Denis was an elite epeeist for OSU in recent years) and Kubik then defeated Ben Parkins (5-3), in a matchup of 2008 foil All-Americans.
The Buckeyes came right back to win two straight – epeeist Pryor over Greg Schoolcraft (5-3) and Horanyi versus Mark Kubik (5-0), completing his sweep of the Irish (and reversing ND's 3-0 record vs. Horanyi at the previous week's NYU Duals).
The teams again were separated by one point (11-10) when ND epeeist Andy Seroff registered a 5-2 win over Eric Gurnowski, a point that was quickly offset when Sutter beat Zach Schirtz on the foil strip (5-2). The pressure then fell onto a pair of battle-tested veterans, and Kostka edged fellow epee All-American Pryor (5-4) to give the Irish three cracks at the clinching bout (13-11).
Meinhardt quickly took it upon himself to end the match, with a 5-3 win over Parkins for the clinching 14th point.