Five former NCAA champions – in every weapon except for men's sabre – are on the various teams that will compete at this weekend's Northwestern Duals. Those elite fencers include a pair of two-time champions: Ohio State men's foilist Andras Horanyi ('07 and '08; also was '06 runner-up behind former teammate Boaz Ellis) and Wayne State men's epeeist Slava Zingerman ('07, '08).
The other former NCAA champions who are slated to be in action at the NU Duals include Penn State women's foilist Doris Willette ('07) along with a pair of Notre Dame fencers, women's sabreist Sarah Borrmann ('08) and women's epeeist Kelley Hurley ('08; also was '07 runner-up).
The 12-team field also includes three other fencers who have been an NCAA runner-up (along with Horanyi and Hurley): Ohio State men's sabreist Mike Momtselidze ('08; also 4th in '07), Penn State women's sabreist Caity Thompson ('07; also 4th in '06) and Ohio State women's foilist Oksana Dmytruk ('08).
Five other fencers from teams at the NU Duals have reached the semifinal round at previous NCAAs: Penn State men's sabreist Daniel Bak (3rd in '08), Notre Dane women's foilist Adi Nott (3rd in '07, 4th in '08; also 6th in '06) and epeeist Ewa Nelip (3rd in '08), and the Penn State duo of men's foilist Nick Chinman (4th in '08; also 5th in '07) and women's epeeist Anastasia Ferdman (4th in '07; also 6th in '08).
The 12 Northwestern Duals teams include a total of 35 fencers who have earned All-America honors at previous NCAA Championships:
• Six Men's Sabreists – OSU's Momtselidze and Sergey Smirnov (11th in '07; also 14th in '08), PSU's Bak, ND's Barron Nydam (6th in '08) and Bill Thanhouser (6th in '07; also 13th in '08), and Wayne State's Jakub Gibczynski (10th in '08) ... note that there's a chance Bak may not be fencing at this event, while Smirnov did not compete last weekend at the St. John's Invitational and NYU Duals.
• Seven Men's Foilists – OSU's Horanyi and Ben Parkins (9th in '08), PSU's Chinman and Samuel Perkins (12th in '08), and the ND trio of Steve Kubik (8th in '08), Zach Schirtz (11th in '08) and Mark Kubik (7th in '07; also 21st in '06) ... note that Chinman did not fence last weekend at the Princeton Multi-Meet.
• Four Men's Epeeists – WSU's Zingerman and Mykhaylo Mazur (9th in '07, while fencing for OSU), ND's Karol Kostka (11th in '07; also 13th in '08 and 18th in '06) and OSU's Jason Pryor (10th in '08; also 17th in '06 and 20th in '07).
• Three Women's Sabreists: ND's Borrmann and Eileen Hassett (5th in '08), and PSU's Thompson.
• Eight Women's Foilists: PSU's Willette and Allison Glasser (5th in '08), OSU's Dmytruk and Lindsay Knauer (6th in '08), ND's Nott and Hayley Reese (11th in '08), Temple's Melissa Parker (7th in '08) and Northwestern's Samantha Nemecek (7th in '07, 8th in '06 and '08).
• Seven Women's Epeeists: ND's Hurley and Nelip, PSU's Ferdman and Keri Byerts (5th in '08), Temple's Kristin Howell (9th in '08), and the Northwestern duo of Christa French (6th in '07, 10th in '08) and Joanna Niklinska (12th in '08).
The NU Duals teams include 19 other fencers who have competed in past NCAAs but not been top-12/All-Americans: PSU men's epeeist James Moody (17th in '08, 19th in '06), women's sabreist Jessica-Kim Danh (18th in '08) and women's foilist Anne Jackson (14th in '08) ... ND women's foilist Emilie Prot (14th in '07), women's sabreist Ashley Serrette (16th in '07) and men's epeeist Brent Kelly (21st in '08, while fencing for Columbia) ... OSU men's epeeist Sean Harder (19th in '08) ... Northwestern women's epeeist Kaylee French (14th in '07) ... Temple women's epeeist Grace Wu (19th in '08) and sabreists Kristine Jones (18th in '07) and Christine Griffith (21st in '07, 23rd in '08) ...
North Carolina men's sabreists Bobby Ziechmann (16th in '07, 18th in '08, 21st in '06), Will Randolph (22nd in '06) and Kevin Ziechmann (24th in '08), women's sabreist Jennifer Sawicki (15th in '07, 16th in '08) and women's foilist May-Lynne Chen-Contino (22nd in '07) ... and the Johns Hopkins duo of men's foilist David Ferguson (13th in '07) and men's epeeist Daniel Zielinski (22nd in '06).
Ohio State's Julia Tikhonova finished fifth in the 2007 NCAA women's foil competition but now is fencing epee for the Buckeyes.