Several weapon units flexed their muscles during Saturday's action at the St. John's Invitational. Keeping in mind that each of the five teams did not fence each other (SJU fenced all four opponents; ND did not fence OSU or Harvard; and Columbia did not fence Harvard), here's a look at the top weapon units from the SJU Invite:
• Three weapons from ND all went 15-3: men's foil, women's foil and women's epee ... men's foil newcomer Enzo Castellani went 5-1 while sophomore Hayley Reese (4-0) paced the women's foil squad and the ND women's epeeists displayed the potent trio of Kelley Hurley (4-1), Ewa Nelip (5-1) and Courtney Hurley (6-0)
• The St. John's men were led by their epee (24-12) and sabre (23-13) squads ... epee All-Americans Stan Vaksman and Misha Mokretsov both were 8-4, while sabre newcomer Daryl Homer had an impressive 11-1 day.
• The only Columbia weapon that was more than three bouts above .500 was women's sabre, at 19-8, led by the duo of Daria Schneider (8-1) and Jackie Jacobson (6-2)
• Ohio State had a big day in men's foil (21-6), along with solid efforts in men's sabre (17-10) and women's foil (16-11) ... two-time NCAA foil champ Andras Horanyi (who was 2nd to teammate Boaz Ellis in the '06 NCAAs) went 9-0 at SJU but sabreist Mike Momtselidze ('08 NCAA runner-up) was not as sharp as usual, going 6-3, while fellow sabre All-American Sergey Smirnov did not fence at SJU (we will check on his status and see if he fences at NYU) ... as expected, women's foilist Oksana Dmytruk ('08 NCAA runner-up) had a strong day, going 7-2.
• Harvard went 14-4 in women's foil, led by five wins from Emily Cross, and 12-6 in women's epee.
Here's a complete breakdown of how each team's weapon groups did at the SJU Invitational:
• Notre Dame, vs. COL and SJU (MF 15-3, ME 7-11, MS 9-9, WF 15-3, WE 15-3, WS 6-12)
• Ohio State, vs. all but Harvard (MF 21-6, ME 14-13, MS 17-10, WF 16-11, WE 9-18, WS 11-16)
• Columbia, vs. all but Harvard (MF 10-17, ME 10-17, MS 8-19, WF 15-12, WE 12-15, WS 19-18)
• Harvard, vs. OSU and SJU (MF 9-9, ME 8-10, MS 6-12, WF 14-4, WE 12-6, WS 7-11)
• St. John's, vs. all four (MF 8-28, ME 24-12, MS 23-13, WF 3-33, WE 15-21, WS 20-16)