An assortment of (at least) 15 collegiate fencers are in the process of competing at the 2009 Junior World Championships, a six-day event being held in Ireland at the Jordanstown campus (seven miles outside of Belfast). CF360 has been able to confirm 15 fencers from U.S. college varsity programs who are competing in this elite event, with those 15 including 11 on the United States team, plus one each from Brazil, Canada, Poland and Sweden.
Through the first two days of individual competition (women's foil, men's epee, and men's and women's sabre), four U.S. college fencers have placed in the top-16 - led by a bronze-medal finish for St. John's freshman men's sabreist Daryl Homer (pictured). Other top-16 finishers include Columbia sophomore women's foilist Nicole Ross (9th), Harvard freshman women's sabreist Caroline Vloka (10th) and Notre Dame sophomore men's sabreist Avery Zuck (16th). A couple weeks ago, Homer and Vloka both finished as NCAA runner-up in their respective weapons (Zuck placed fifth in the round-robin standings, narrowly missing a spot in the medal round).
Wednesday's two-weapon action (men's sabre/women's foil) featured at least six college fencers doing battle on the world stage. Notre Dame's Barron Nydam joined his classmate Zuck and SJU's Homer in comprising the three U.S. entrants, with Nydam placing 33rd. Two other college men's sabreists were among the 99-fencer field, as competitors for other countries: Ohio State's Max Stearns (Canada; placed 24th) and ND freshman Marcel Frenkel (Brazil; 58th). Stearns earned All-America honors at the 2009 NCAAs (8th-place), as did Nydam after placing 10th.
Ross (pictured), like Nydam, is a two-time All-American, after placing third at the 2008 NCAAs and fifth in '09.
Earlier today, Vloka was joined in the 80-fencer women's sabre field by Penn State freshman Monica Aksamit (who placed 29th), while Stanford freshman Kevin Mo finished 26th in the huge 142-fencer men's epee event. Aksamit nearly fenced in the NCAA medal round, still earning All-America status thanks to her 5th-place finish (Mo, the 2008 Junior World Cup circuit champion, placed 17th in the NCAA men's epee competition).
Friday's final day of the individual competition will feature at least four college fencers in the women's epee event - the ND duo of freshman Courtney Hurley and sophomore Ewa Nelip (Poland), Princeton freshman Susannah Scanlan, and PSU freshman Nina Westman (PSU) – plus ND freshman Gerek Meinhardt and PSU freshman Miles Chamley-Watson in the men's foil competition. The tournament then will close with three days of team competition: m-sabre/w-foil on Sat., m-epee/w-sabre on Sun., and m-foil/w-epee on Mon.
HOMER (Bronx, N.Y.) – who now is ranked fifth in the world among junior-level/under-20 men's sabreists – won all five of his opening bouts in pool-`` (+17 on indicators), His most noteworthy pool win came against Ukraine's Dmytro Pundyk (5-2), who now holds a #17 world ranking after placing 13th in Belfast. Homer also posted opening-round wins vs. Kazakhstan's Alexander Prikholdko (5-0), Belgium's Servaas Breyne (5-3), Indonesia's Hendre Eko Bzediantyo (5-2) and Israel's Serhiy Maslakov (5-1). Prikhodko ultimately placed 27th while the other three finished outside the top-55.
In the direct-elimination phase, Homer rolled to a 15-3 win over Bulgaria's Lyuboslav Burney before battling a pair of fencers currently ranked in the world's top-20: #18 Ivan Ainkin of Russia (15-13) and #19 Aliaksei Likhachen of Belgium (15-10). He moved on to a quaterfinal/round-of-8 showdown with current world #8 Csaba Gall of Hungary, yielding a tense bout that saw Homer emerge with the 15-14 win. Hungary's Aron Szilagyi (now #3 in the world U-20 rankings) awaited in the semifinals and Homer held an 8-5 lead at the break, but Szilagyi rattled off 10 of the next 11 touches for the 15-9 win. Germany's Max Hartung (now #4) ended up claiming the gold, while Russia's Boris Savich (the world's #1-ranked u-20 men's sabreist) was the other semifinalist.
ZUCK (Portland, Ore.) – now ranked 12th among the world's U-20 msn's sabreists – went 4-2/+9 in pool-6, with one of his losses coming against eventual 7th-place finisher (and world #6-ranked) Stefano Sbragia of Italy (2-5). Zuck also dropped a 5-2 bout to Aliaksandr Abramivich (Belarus), while adding wins over France's Paul Jobin (5-2), the Czech Republic's Radek Brodil, Hong Kong's Chak Man Chow and Argentin's Guido Eduardo Mulero (all 5-1). Zuck went on to post DE wins over Austria's Matthias Willan (15-9) and South Korea's Dong Ho Choi (15-11) before losing in the round-of-16 to the world's top-ranked u-20 men's sabreist, Savich of Russia (10-15).
STEARNS – who holds Canadian citizenship but currently resides in Minneapolis, Minn. – turned in a 4-2 record (+8) in pool-7, with a 0-5 loss to Hungary's Szilagyi (world #3 and eventual runner-up) while also losing 2-5 to South Korea's Choi (17th-place finisher). Stearns posted a win over eventual 29th-place fiinisher Alexei Romanovitch of Belarus (5-1), also winning by the same score vs. Azerbaijan's Yusif Budagov while shutting out Costa rica's Jose Pablo Vargas Fernandez and topping Robert Goosens (Netherlands) in a 5-2 bout.
NYDAM (Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.) – now #9 in the world u-20 rankings – breezed through pool-8 (5-0/+19) while facing a group of fencers who umltimaltey finished between 38th and 81st in the standings. He shut out the Czech Republic's Petr Wachsberger and posted 5-1 wins over two fencers (Kuwait's Ammar Dashti and Iceland's Saever Baldur Ludviksson), also adding a 5-3 win over France's Romain Miramon and outlasing Brazil's Tywilliam Guzenski (5-4). Nydam was quickly derailed in the DE, losing a 12-15 bout against Ukranian upstart Andrey Trinkal (who went on to place 8th).
FRENKEL (Sao Paulo, Brazil) went 2-3/-4 in pool-10, losing to a pair of top opponents in Germany's Benedikt Wagner (1-5; placed 5th, now #7 in the world) and 20th-place finisher Baptista Gans of France (2-5). Fremkel also lost a one-touch bout to China's Jie Wu, with pool wins over Austria's Gilbert Schwartz (5-4) and Israel's Dani Flomen (5-2). He added a DE win over Czech entry Radek Brodil (15-8) before being knocked ou by South Korea's Bon-Gil Gu (3-15).
ROSS (New York, N.Y.) – now listed 23rd in the FIE world u-20 women's foil rankings – won all six of her bouts in pool-14 (+24), with her top win in the opening phase coming against Poland's Marta Lycbinsky (placed 21st; now ranked #7 in the world). Ross also posted early wins over China's Fang Mo (5-1; placed 27th), Romania's Ioana Adrianna Dumitra (5-0; placed 30th), Great Britain's Phillip Mullins (5-1), Croatia's Ana Mestrovic (5-3) and Turkmenistan's Janet Achilova (5-0).
CF360 will have more coverage from the Junior World Championships – including quotes and photos, if they become available. (If you are aware of other college fencers competing for foreign countries, please drop CF360 a quick email: editor@colllegefencing360.com).