by Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
Fencers from the West 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 West Regional, to be held on Saturday, March 9-at UC San Diego.
Here are the particulars:
• The West Regional in 2013 will include fencers from nationally-ranked Stanford, plus UC San Diego and Air Force (Cal Tech is ineligible for 2013 NCAA competition.
• Participants in the West Regional are listed below.. 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). For example, Penn State is very deep at men's foil and is bringing five competitors in that weapon … but could have brought even more, as senior Daniel Gomez is not among the PSU competitors (he would have been the #5 overall men's foil seed at the M-A/S Regional, with three of his teammates among the top-4).
• The West Region has two allocated automatic spots in each weapon except men's epee (3) 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 West Regional format for each weapon is one full round-robin pool in each weapon, with the top-4 in each weapon then fencing off to determine 1st-2nd-3rd-4th.
• 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).
West Regional 2013 Men's Foil Entries
(sorted by seed, based on season strength factor)
West Region receives 2 automatic m-foil allotments to NCAA Championship
1 – Alexander Massialas (Stanford) | #5 "national seed"
2 – Turner Caldwell (Stanford) | 14
3 – Keric Moore (UC San Diego) | 29
4 – Joseph Schenkel (UC San Diego)
5 – Alexander Chiang (Air Force)
6 – Jonathan Lee (Stanford)
7 – Alex Lavin (UC San Diego)
8 – Justin Lee (Stanford)
9 – Emerson Woerner (Air Force)
10 – Jeffrey Chan (UC San Diego)
11 – Daniel Johnson (Air Force)
West Regional 2013 Men's Epee Entries
(sorted by seed, based on season strength factor)
West Region receives 3 automatic m-epee allotments to NCAA Championship
1 – Luc Ginester (UC San Diego) | #14 "national seed"
2 – Paul Riviere (Stanford) | 21
3 – Eduard Zilinskiy (UC San Diego)
4 – James Salem (Air Force)
5 – Jake Harbour (Stanford)
6 – Kiam Ameli (Stanford)
7 –Adam Campbell-Kruger (UC San Diego)
8 – Nathan Sorenson (Air Force)
9 – Dalton Boatright (Air Force)
10 – Cole Connelly (Stanford)
11 – Alex Mann (UC San Diego)
West Regional 2013 Men's Sabre Entries
(sorted by seed, based on season strength factor)
West Region receives 2 automatic m-sabre allotments to NCAA Championship
1 – Cameron Lindsay (Stanford) | #22 "national seed"
2 – Daniel Wolfson (Stanford)
3 – Travis Tibbits (UC San Diego)
4 – Jeremy Klepner (Stanford)
5 – Ryan Redhead (Air Force)
6 – Emiliano Kaptain (Air Force)
7 – Bryson Abilay (UC San Diego)
8 – Peter Meckling (UC San Diego)
9 – Drew Dickinson (UC San Diego)
10 – Daniel McHugh (Stanford)
11 – David Beam (Stanford)
West Regional 2013 Women's Foil Entries
(sorted by seed, based on season strength factor)
West Region receives 2 automatic w-foil allotments to NCAA Championship
1 – Mary McElwee (Air Force) | #25 "national seed"
2 – Madeleine Giradot (Air Force)
3 – Lily McElwee (Stanford)
4 – Nicole Chiang (UC San Diego)
5 – Alina Marshall (UC San Diego)
6 – Victoria Parra (UC San Diego)
7 – Carly Cohen (Stanford)
8 – Amanda Zerba (Stanford)
9 – Amrit Khalsa (UC San Diego)
10 – Ashley Chung (Air Force)
West Regional 2013 Women's Epee Entries
(sorted by seed, based on season strength factor)
West Region receives 2 automatic w-epee allotments to NCAA Championship
1 – Vivian Kong (Stanford) | #12 "national seed"
2 – Francesca Bassa (Stanford) | 15
3 – Olviia Prossedaa (Air Force)
4 – Andrea Gory (UC San Diego)
5 – Jessic Steuber (Air Force)
6 – Laura Hawkins (UC San Diego)
7 – Natalie Chan (UC San Diego)
West Regional 2013 Women's Sabre Entries
(sorted by seed, based on season strength factor)
West Region receives 2 automatic w-sabre allotments to NCAA Championship
1 – Munira Gesner (UC San Diego)
2 – Avery Youngblood (Stanford)
3 – Julia Klepner (Stanford)
4 – Atira Richards (Stanford)
5 – Carinne Caisse (UC San Diego)
6 – Megan Gessner (UC San Diego)
7 – Alexandrea Stanley (UC San Diego)
8 – Isabel Gueble (Stanford)
9 – Desirae Ionata (Air Force)
10 – Ashley Chung (Air Force)