(Thanks go out to the SID offices at NYU and Columbia, for helping pass on the scoresheets and some details from this event.)
Wednesday night's Cole Center Sports Center action at the NYU quad meet produced one noteworthy upset – as the host men's team turned in a narrow 15-12 win over 4th-ranked Columbia. The upset certainly came with a caveat – as the Lions were forced to fence without the services of four top fencers. Despite that setback, the Columbia men still may have owned the talent edge – but the Violets came up with the key wins to claim the victory (essentially by a two-bout swing, as Columbia would have won 14-13 with two more bout victories).
The Columbia men actually won two of the weapons (6-3 win in epee and 5-4 in foil), but the closeness of the foil competition brought the sabre results into play. NYU capitalized on the absence of two top Lions sabreists (most notably defending NCAA champion Jeff Spear), as the host sabre squad went 8-1 to deliver the 15-12 team win.
In addition to Spear (who is competing at a Grand Prix World Cup event in Moscow), fellow All-American Max Czapanskiy (epee) and 2008 NCAA paricipant Sheriff Farrag (foil) also did not attend the NYU event, while injured sabreist Alex Rudnicki was limited to fencing only a couple of bouts (losing all three). Farrag is attending a World Cup event in Venice while Czapanskiy and Rudnicki both were injured over the weekend, in Columbia's final match (vs. Harvard) at the Ivy League Round-Robin Championships. The righthanded Rudnicki attempted to fence as a lefty at NYU, but the sabre-team regular could manage only three bouts over the course of his team's three matches (max. of nine bouts per fencer).
The Columbia men did manage to defeat Vassar (20-7) and Sacred Heart (16-11) while the #4 Columbia women's team dominated its three opponents, losing a total of only 12 bouts while outdistancing NYU (23-4), Sacred Heart (20-7) and Vassar (26-1). The Lions may prove to be the nation's top all-around women's team, as evidenced by Wednesday's domination of a Vassar team that scraped together a total of only 20 touches (0.7/bout) against Columbia.
In Wednesday's other matches, the NYU men posted victories over Sacred Heart (16-11) and Vassar (17-10), while the Violets women had similar wins (18-9 vs. Sacred Heart, 19-8 vs. Vassar).
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TOP FENCERS – Columbia sabreist Jackie Jacobson won all nine of her bouts at NYU, as did men's foilist Kurt Getz ('08 NCAA 3rd-place finisher), while their fellow All-American Nicole Ross (foil) was 7-0 for the Lions ... their men's epee teammates Lorenzo Casterano and Dwight Smith (a two-time All-American) both went 7-2, with women's epee newcomer Neely Brandfield-Harvey adding a 6-1 record in her three matches ... several fencers helped the NYU men post their unbeaten evening, as sabreists Ben Radding was 7-2 and his weapon teammates – All-American Sam Roukas and Jarred Hammond (a former NCAA entrant) – each went 6-3 ... NYU epeeist Oung-Jo Yuh added his own 6-3 record, as did the epee duo of Byron Neslund and Ricky Woodward ... on the NYU women's side, foilists Zoe Evans and Amanda Rysling both registered 7-2 records in the home quad-meet ... Vassar men's sabreist Andrew Fischl (a 2008 NCAA Tournament qualifier) won all six of his bouts, as did Sacred Heart freshman sabreist Marty Williams (his foil teammate Dan Convery-Zupan went 5-1).
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NYU-COLUMBIA MEN'S MATCH DETAILS – Colmumbia veteran leaders Getz (foil) and Smith (3-0) swept their bouts against NYU, but only two others (epeeist Casterano and foil sub Asher Grodman) managed to go 2-1 ... NYU countered with five fencers who all posted 2-1 records against Columbia (each of the sabreists did so, plus NCAA foil veteran Alexander Kao and epee newcomer Woodward) ... Hammond (5-3) and Roukas (3-5) split their bouts against Trevis Joyner (a regular member of the Columbia lineup), with Roukas adding a 5-3 win over the injury-hampered Rudnicki ... Kao – a somewhat forgotten commodity who fenced in the '06 NCAAs, studied in France during the '06-'07 year and took a year off from school in '07-'08 – make a key impact with his 5-3 win over Columbia regular Isaac KIm (Yu also topped Kim, 5-3) .... Woodward scored a huge victory over Castertano (5-4), helping NYU compile its winning victory total ... the various Columbia replacement fencers combined to go 3-5 vs. NYU (not including Rudnicki's 0-1 record against the Violets).
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ELITE WOMEN'S TEAM – The Columbia women are positioned to rack up plenty of round-robin victories at the 2009 NCAAs (each school can qualify a maximum of two fencers per weapon, with 24 total entrants in each event) ... the Lions women also would be a possible favorite to win in a format with three fencers per weapon, led by the sabre trio of Daria Schneider ('07 NCAA champion; '08 Olympic hopeful), Jacobson (5th at '08 NCAAs, and younger sister of elite sabreists Sada and Emily Jacobson) and talented newcomer Samantha Roberts (who went 10-2 at Sunday's Ivy League event) ... per Columbia's website, Schneider was injured over the weekend at the World Cup event in France and thus fenced only one bout in each of the matches at NYU (she won all three) ... the Lions also feature a pair of foilists who earned 2008 All-America honors: Ross (3rd at '08 NCAAs) and Abby Caparros-Janto (10th in '08) … Columbia goes four deep at women's epee, led by three of the top 2008 Ivy League finishers – Martyna Urbanowicz (16-2; league champ), Oriana Isaacson (12-6' '08 NCAA qualifier) and Tess Finkel (12-6; two-time NCAA entrant) – along with key freshman Brandfield-Harvey ... Columbia's women won every weapon of each match at NYU, with eight of the wins coming by 7-2 scores or better (the closest result was the 5-4 epee win over Sacred Heart).
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OTHER KEY BOUTS FROM NYU ...
• COLUMBIA vs. NYU (women): The Lions swept NYU's Sophia Ciarvino (a 2008 NCAA qualifier), with wins by Ross (5-1), Caparros-Janto (5-0) and Lucia Mattox (5-3) ... their teammate Stephanie Autio, a sabre team reserve, added a 5-2 win over Alyxandra Mattison (another '08 NCAA entrant).
• COLUMBIA vs. SACRED HEART (women): Scneider and Jacobson both posted wins over Krista Bacci (a 2008 NCAA fencer) ... Sacred Heart's Jo Anne Siskidis turned in a pair of noteworthy wins, vs. Caparros-Janto (5-0) and Alex Huber (5-3) ... the Pioneers nearly upset the Lions in epee, thanks to a sweep of Urbanovicz (5-2 win by Amanda Green, 5-3 by Mary Dannegger and 5-2 by Allison Roach) ... Green also posted a 5-4 win over Branfield-Harvey.
• COLUMBIA vs. SACRED HEART (men): Williams, who could be in the running for a 2009 NCAA Tournament spot, shut out Lions sabreist Joyner ... his teammate Mike DeRose added a 5-2 win over Rudnicki, while Pioneers veteran Covery-Zudan edged Kim in a 5-4 foil bout.
• COLUMBIA vs. VASSAR (men/women): Vassar sabreist Fischl ('08 NCAA entrant) had a 5-3 win over Joyner, while his teammate John Rothman beat Rudnicki (5-3) ... epee newcomer Nicholas Johnson emerged with 5-4 wins over the dynamic duo of Smith and Castertano (his teammate Raffi Radna also had a 5-4 win over Smith) ... the Columbia women surrendered only 20 touches to Vassar in the entire 27-bout match (three lost touches in sabre, 11 in epee and 16 in foil), but epeeist Jacqueline Kory did register a shutout win over Huber.
• NYU vs. SACRED HEART (men/women): Williams added a 5-2 sweep of the NCAA Tournament veterans (Roukas and Hammond) ... former NCAA entrants Mattison and Bacci did not face each other in the women's sabre matchup between these teams ... NYU's Lisa Verzino beat Bacci, 5-4, while Catie Sagevick had her own noteworthy win (5-4 over Mattison).
• NYU vs. VASSAR (men/women): Fischl swept fellow NCAA-level sabreists Roukas (5-3) and Hammond (5-0), with Rothman also topping Hammond (5-4) ... foilist Brian Rouse added a 5-4 win over Kao, while women's epeeist Kory defeated NYU veteran Ciarvino (also 5-4).