by Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
• CLICK HERE for Midwest Regional women's entries
Fencers from the Midwest Region will compete in the final stage of qualification for the 2013 NCAA Fencing Championships (March 21-24, in San Antonio) during the 2013 NCAA Midwest Regional, to be held on Saturday & Sunday, March 9-10, at Notre Dame (starting 9 a.m. ET, in the Joyce Center's Castellan Family Fencing Center). The women's competition will be held on March 9 and the men on Sunday the 10th.
Here are the particulars:
• The Midwest Regional includes fencers from seven schools that sponsor varsity fencing teams, most notably top-10 nationally ranked teams from Notre Dame, Ohio State and Northwestern (women's team only) … along with Wayne State, Cleveland State, Detroit and Lawrence.
• Men's participants in the Midwest Regional are listed below (men's entries linked above). The entry lists below are grouped by weapon and sorted in "seeding order" (which is based on individual results during team dual-meet competition). Fencers among the top-30 "national seeds" also are noted in the listing below.
• Each team can have a maximum of 12 men's competitors and 12 women at each Regional (distributed in any combination among the three weapon groups).
• The Midwest Region has four allocated automatic spots in each weapon except women's epee (5) for the NCAA Championships. Each team may send a maximum of two qualifying fencers per weapon to San Antonio for the NCAAs.
• Final qualification to the NCAAs is based on two primary factors: 40% is based on each fencers mathematical season "strength factor" (prior to the Regional) while 60% is based on Regional finish. The actual strength factor numbers are based on a mathematical formula and are different from the seeding. Strength factor numbers are not made available to the public. Based on the formula, the strenght-fator gap between seeds can vary substantially (as opposed to the 1-2-3-4, etc., seeding, which is used for setting up the initial pools).
• The Midwest Regional format for each weapon is quite simple: one full round-robin pool (final placement based on total wins; tie for first place decided in a fence-off/extra bout; all other ties determined by indicator point differential)
• In some cases, coaches may have more than two fencers fall within the qualification standard in a particular weapon, and coaches then are able to select which two fencers will represent their team in San Antonio.
• In addition to the 22 automatic qualifiers per weapon that are produced from the four Regionals, there are two at-large bids (per weapon) that will complete the 24-fencer NCAA fields in each weapon. The top-two qualifiers in each weapon (and from each region) who were not among the automatic qualifiers will be considered for the at-large spots, as long as their team does not already have two qualifiers in that weapon. At-large selections are based solely on the pre-Regional season strength factor.
• A couple years ago, Regional winners were guaranteed a spot in the NCAA Championships but the current policy is that the NCAA committee "must consider" such winners for qualification (not an automatic qualification).
Midwest Regional 2013 Men's Foil Entries
(sorted by seed, based on season strength factor)
Midwest Region receives 4 automatic m-foil allotments to NCAA Championship
1 – Ariel DeSmet (Norte Dame) | 1 ** 2011 Midwest Regional champion ('11 NCAA champ) **
2 – Gerek Meinhardt (Norte Dame) | 2 ** 2010 Midwest Regional champion ('10 NCAA champ) **
3 – Zain Shaito (Ohio State) | 8 ** Defending Midwest Regional champion ('12 NCAA champ) **
4 – Chris Colley (Ohio State) | 24
5 – Quentin Schneider (Wayne State) | 25
6 – Nick Kubik (Norte Dame) | 27
7 – Sam Hardwicke-Brown (Ohio State)
8 – Grant Hodges (Norte Dame)
9 – Hans Kaiser (Wayne State)
10 – Phelan Spence (Cleveland State)
11 – Alex Biehl (Lawrence)
12 – John Cuturic (Cleveland State)
13 – Zack Wetzig (Cleveland State)
14 – Cole Golke (Detroit)
note – Former Ohio State fencer Andras Horanyi was the 2009 Midwest Regional men's foil champion
Midwest Regional 2013 Men's Epee Entries
(sorted by seed, based on season strength factor)
Midwest Region receives 4 automatic m-epee allotments to NCAA Championship
1 – Garrett McGrath (Notre Dame) | #4 "national seed"
2 – Marco Canevari (Ohio State) | 5 ** 2011 Midwest Regional champion **
3 – Daniel Tafoya (Ohio State) | 6
4 – James Kaull (Notre Dame)
5 – Kristian Boyadzhiev (Ohio State) ** Defending Midwest Regional champion **
6 – Michael Rossi (Notre Dame)
7 – Jack Piasio (Notre Dame)
8 – Narayan Pathi (Ohio State)
9 – Moses Zarkin-Scott (Lawrence)
10 – Moses Zarkin-Scott (Lawrence)
11 – Paul Duchow (Cleveland State)
12 – Darrin Winston (Wayne State)
13 – David Cordie (Lawrence)
14 – Steve Kudia (Wayne State)
15 – Levi Young (Cleveland State)
16 – Slih Yasun (Cleveland State)
17 – Merlin Chappius (Wayne State)
18 – Matthew Hilton (Wayne State)
19 – Michael Friend (Lawrence)
20 – Clint Mikek (Detroit)
21 – Michael Haas (Wayne State)
notes – Former Ohio State fencer Igor Tolkachev won the 2010 Midwest Regional men's epee title … three-time NCAA champion Slava Zingemrmann (Wayne State) won the 2009 Midwest Regiona
Midwest Regional 2013 Men's Sabre Entries
(sorted by seed, based on season strength factor)
Midwest Region receives 4 automatic m-sabre allotments to NCAA Championship
1 – Max Stearns (Ohio State) | #5 "national seed" ** Defending Midwest Regional champion **
2 – Kevin Hassett (Notre Dame) | 15
3 – John Hallsten (Notre Dame) | 16
4 – Jason Choy (Notre Dame) | 23
5 – Nick Silantyev (Wayne State) | 25
6 – William McGough (Notre Dame)
7 – Bill Meyer (Ohio State)
8 – Graham Jones (Lawrence)
9 – Tom Bienvenu (Cleveland State)
10 – Ian Pelton (Lawrence)
11 – Adam Accica (Wayne State)
12 – Drew Doares (Lawrence)
13 – Andrew Gibbons (Detroit)
14 – Paul Lenahan (Cleveland State)
notes – Other recent Midwest Regional men's sabre champions: 2011 – Avery Zuck (Notre Dame) … 2010 – Bryan Cheney (Ohio State) … 2009 – Mike Momtzelide (Ohio State).