• Ohio State senior Andras Horanyi – the two-time defending NCAA champion – won his third career Midwest Fencing Conference men's foil title, en route to being named the CF360 national fencer of the week. Hornyi, who went 34-4 in regular-season varsity bouts, entered the weekend as the MFC's #1 men's foil seed and allowed only five total touches while breezing through his six pool bouts. ... as the #3 seed in the direct-elimination (based on +25 in pools), Horanyi ultimately had to battle past four top fencers to claim the top spot. He allowed a total of only 28 touches (7.0 per bout) in those final four challenging matchups, with a 15-8 win over OSU teammate and fellow All-American Ben Parkins (round-of-16), a 15-7 quarterfinal victory over ND freshman Reddie Bentley (#6 DE seed), a 15-8 semifinal against ND sophomore All-American Steve Kubik (#2 DE seed, and a dominant 15-5 win in the title bout against talented ND newcomer Enzo Castellani (#5 DE seed). Parkins was the #14 DE seed but actually was #2 entering the MFC pools (Castellani was the #3 intitial seed, Kubik #7 and Bentley #5).
• The final 15 bouts of the MFC men's foil competition included only three upsets (based on DE seed), with two of them scored by Castellani: in the quarterfinals vs. Illinois upstart Phillip Chan (15-2) and in the semifinals against ND sophomore All-American Zach Schirtz (15-8). Castellani (#3) actually was seeded higher than Chan (#60) and Schritz (#6) in the intitial seeding, but Schritz was #1 going into the DE, Chan was #3 and Castellani #5. All of the fencers seeded 1-16 for the DE advanced to the round-of-16.
• The only other upset (again based on DE seed) in the late rounds saw #10 Nick Crebs (ND) defeat #6 Joe Streb (OSU) in he round-of-16 (15-10).
• Chan crashed the ND-OSU quarterfinal party, as the only fencer in the men's foil final-8 (see below) that is not from one of those top teams. In fact, Chan's final fifth-place finish likely was the top finish by a non-varsity/club fencer in all six of the MFC weapon competitions. ... Chan's huge jump from the #60 initial seed to #3 for the DE was due to his 6-0/+25 showing in the pools – highlighted by a 5-2 win over OSU's Parkins. He went on to post a round-of-32 win (15-9) over Detroit's Craig Budzynski (#9 initial seed) in the round-of-32, then posted a round-of-16 win over another Detroit fencer, Michael Purdy-Sachs (15-8), before losing to Castellani in the quarters.
• Purdy-Sachs also was a high seed (58) who ended up in the final-16 (he went 5-1/+16 in his pools and was seeded 13th in the DE, which was his final place after the loss to Chan). Wisconsin's Ryan Petty entered the MFCs as a #35 seed and went 5-1 in pools (+7) for a new #15 seed (he ended up 15th, after a 15-4 loss to ND's Steve Kubik).
• Crebs (#13 initial seed) topped OSU's Colin Sutter (#8) in the pool phase, 5-3.
• Four fencers who were among the intital top-16 seeds failed to finish among the final-16. Most notably, Detroit's Budzynski (#9 initial seed) managed only a 3-2/+6 record in the pools, with 1-5 losses to OSU's Streb and ND's Xavier Lebec (Budzynski) before ultimately being eliminated by Chan in the round-of-32. ... The other three initial round-of-16 seeds who missed the round-of-16 ended up placing just a few spots out of the final-16. ND's Teddy Hodges (#14 initial seed) was 4-1/+13 in the pools (lost 1-5 to OSU's Joe Doherty) and ended up 17th, after a round-of-32 loss to OSU's Sutter (6-15).
MFC Men's Foil Round-of-16
(1) Zach Schirtz (ND) def. (16) Colin Sutter (OSU) ... 15-4
(2) Steve Kubik (ND) def. (15) Ryan Petty (WIS) ... 15-4
(3) Andras Horanyi (OSU) def. (14) Ben Parkins (OSU) ... 15-7
(3) Phillip Chan (ILL) def. (13) Michael Purdy-Sachs (DET) ... 15-8
(5) Enzo Castellani (ND) def. (12) Pavel Prusakov (PUR) ... 15-3
(6) Reggie Bentley (ND) def. (7) Liran Gross (CLEV) ... 15-10
(10) Nick Crebs (ND) def. (6) Joe Streb (OSU) ... 15-10
(8) Mark Kubik (ND) def. (9) Joe Doherty (OSU) ... 15-11
Quarterfinals
(1) Zach Schirtz (ND) def. (8) Mark Kubik (ND) ... 15-11
(2) Steve Kubik (ND) def. (10) Nick Crebs (ND) ... 15-8
(3) Andras Horanyi (OSU) def. (6) Reggie Bentley (ND) ... 15-7
(5) Enzo Castellani (ND) def. (3) Phillip Chan (ILL) ... 15-2
Semifinals
(5) Enzo Castellani (ND) def. (1) Zach Schirtz (ND) ... 15-8
(3) Andras Horanyi (OSU) def. (2) Steve Kubik (ND) ... 15-8
Finals
(3) Andras Horanyi (OSU) def. (5) Enzo Catellani (ND) ... 15-5
2009 MFC Men's Foil Final Top-16 Data (field of 66)
1. Andras Horanyi (Ohio State) ... #1 initial seed/#3 pre-DE ... 6-0 in pools (+25)
2. Enzo Castellani (Notre Dame) ... #3/#5 ... 6-0 in pools (+22)
3. Zach Schirtz (ND) ... #6/#1 ... 6-0 in pools (+28)
3. Steve Kubik (ND) ... #4/#2 ... 6-0 in pools (+27)
5. Phillip Chan (Illinois) ... #60/#3 ... 6-0 in pools (+25)
6. Reggie Bentlry (ND) ... #5/#6 ... 6-0 in pools (+25)
7. Mark Kubik (ND) ... #4/#8 ... 6-0 in pools (+20)
8. Nick Crebs (ND) ... #13/#10 ... 5-0 in pools (+18)
9. Joe Streb (OSU) ... #11/#6 ... 5-0 in pools (+22)
10. Joe Doherty (OSU) ... #9 DE seed ... 5-0 in pools (+19)
11. Liran Gross (Cleveland State) ... #10/#11 ... 5-0 in pools (+20)
12. Pavel Prusakov (Purdue) ... #15/#12 ... 5-1 in pools (+16)
13. Michael Purdy-Sachs (Detroit) ... #58/#13 ... 5-1 in pools (+16)
14. Ben Parkins (OSU) ... #2/#14 ... 5-1 in pools (+14)
15. Ryan Petty (Wisconsin) ... #37/#15 ... 5-1 in pools (+7)
16. Colin Sutter (OSU) ... #8/#16 ... 4-1 (+17)