Collegiate epee competitions typically are dominated more by veteran fencers than youngsters, with foil and sabre more likely to see freshmen quickly step into elite status. But Saturday's women's epee bouts at the NCAAs featured freshmen – Notre Dame's Courtney Hurley and Harvard's Noam Mills – holding down the top two spots while fellow rookies also occupied the 5th and 7th-place spots (Princeton's Susannah Scanlan and Columbia's Neely Brandfield-Harvey, respectively).
Hurley – who was "runner-up" to her older sister Kelley in qualifying for the lone U.S. women's epee spot on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team – went 13-1 on Saturday (+30 on indicators), followed by Mills (12-2/+29), Penn State junior Anastasia Ferdman (12-2/+26) and ND junior Ewa Nelip (11-3/+26). Hurley's only loss came versus Northwestern junior Christa French, while Mills lost to Ferdman (3-5) and Temple's Kristin Howell (4-5). Mills – who fenced in the '08 Olympics for Israel – and Hurley will meet in Sunday's second round (the sixth overall round).
Mills and Harvard junior Maria Larsson represent one of only two sets of teammates (in all three women's weapons) who were split into separate bouting groups, due to the fact that 10 different sets of teammates qualified for the NCAA women's epee field. Larsson is bouting in a group with Temple's Howell and Grace Wu, while Mills is paired with the St. John's duo of Tanya Novakovsha and Joanna Guy.
Ferdman (4th in '07, 6th in '08) is in line for her third career All-America finish, as is French (currently 6th; also placed 6th in '07 and 10th in '08). Novakovska stands 14th and could make a run at her own third All-America/top-12 finish (she was 5th in '07 and 8th in '08.
Three others are on track to register a second career All-America finish: Nelip (3rd in '08), Guy (12th place; also 10th in '05 and 20th in '06) and Princeton's Jasjit Bhinder (9th place; also 21st in '07 and 11th in '08). Howell, in 13th, is on the cusp of a repeat All-America finish (she was 9th in '08).
2009 NCAA Fencing Women's Epee
(four-round/14-bout standings; nine bouts left on Sunday)
1. Courtney Hurley (Notre Dame) ... 13-1/+30 total-point indicators
2. Noam Mills (Harvard) ... 12-2/+29
3. Anastasia Ferdman (Penn State) ... 12-2/+26
4. Ewa Nelip (Notre Dame) ... 11-3/+26
5. Susannah Scanlan (Princeton) ... 11-3/+19
6. Christa French (Northwestern) ... 10-4/+11
7. Neely Brandfield-Harvey (Columbia) ... 9-5/+11
8. Stephanie Wheeler (Penn) ... 9-5/+9
9. Jasjit Bhinder (Princeton) ... 9-5/-2
10. Rebecca Moss (Yale) ... 8-6/+8
11. Nina Westman (Penn State) ... 8-6/+5
12. Joanna Guy (St. John's) ... 8-6/-3
13. Kristin Howell (Temple) ... 7-7/+8
14. Tanya Novakovska (St. John's) ... 7-7/+2
15. Julia Tikhonova (Ohio State) ... 5-9/E
16. Tess Finkel (Columbia) ... 5-9/-13
17. Kayley French (Northwestern) ... 4-10/-10
18. Miriam Baranov (Ohio State) ... 4-10/-16
19. Maria Larsson (Harvard) ... 3-11/-16
20. Grace Wu (Temple) ... 3-11/-21
21. Kersten Schnurle (Stanford) ... 3-11/-22
22. Tasha Hall (Cornell) ... 3-11/-31
23. Sallie Dietrechn (Cornell) ... 2-12/-27
24. Simone Barrette (Air Force) ... 2-12/-33