The St. John's website offered video streaming for some of the early bouts from today's Invitational. It sometimes was difficult to follow who was fencing, but kudos to St. John's for making the effort and providing this unique content.
We have received confirmed team scores from Notre Dame's first two matches, and the closest battle was the ND men edging the SJU men (14-13). Earlier in the day, Notre Dame swept Columbia (18-9 women, 17-10 men) and the ND women then won by the same score over SJU.
(We will pass on more team scores and details, as they become available).
During the early men's sabre bouts, St. John's newcomer Daryl Homer impressively posted a 5-2 win over Ohio State veteran Mike Momtselidze (the 2008 NCAA runner-up). SJU women's sabreist Dagmara Wozniak – who did not fence collegiately last year, while qualifying for the U.S. Olympic team – also was in action and could (like Homer) be in the mix for the NCAA title this season (along with a talented group of top returners, from all over the country).
St. John's sent plenty of newcomers to the strips, as they look to replace many top fencers from 2007-08 (among them men's sabreists Luther Clement and Charles Worsham, men's foilist Henry Kennard, the women's foil duo of Monika Golebiewski and Katia Larchanka, and women's epeeist Reka Szele – representing more than half of SJU's 11 NCAA entrants from a year ago).