RELEASE: March 12, 2013
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
Only two teams – Notre Dame and Princeton – have received the maximum 12 indvidual qualifers for the upcoming NCAA Combined Men's and Women's Fencing Championship, to be held March 21-24 at Freeman Coliseum (near the AT&T Center) in San Antonio. A year ago, five teams received the maximum 12 entries but there still will be a high number of teams (8) that could be in the mix for the 2013 team title, as six have qualified 11 fencers for the 2013 championship: Columbia, Harvard, defending champion Ohio State, Penn State, St. John's and Stanford.
It is not unprecedented (but it is rare) for a team with 11 entrants to win the title over a team with the full 12. Most notably, it happened in 2005 when Notre Dame's 11-fencer contingent rallied to beat another 11-fencer team, Ohio State, in a 173-171 thriller that played out in Houston (St. John's had been the only team to qualify 12 but finished third, at 162).
The 2013 NCAA allotment marks the fewest teams with the full 12 entrants (2) since St. John's was the only 12-fencer team back in 2005. From 2006-12, there was an average of 3.7 teams per year with the full 12-fencer contingent at the NCAAs (five in 2010 and '12; four in '08; three in '06, '07, '09 and '11).
The University of Pennsylvania (9) is the only other school that qualified more than four fencers for the 2013 NCAAs, among the 144-fencer field (24 each in men's foil, men's epee, men's sabre, women's foil, women's epee and women's sabre).
Scroll to bottom of page for full qualifier lists, sorted by weapon
(some team & individual notes are included below, with plenty more coming to CF360 over the next few days)
2013 NCAA Fencing Championship Entrants (sorted by school)
12 – Notre Dame and Princeton
11 – Columbia, Harvard, Ohio State, Penn State, Stanford and St. John's
9 – Univ. of Pennsylvania
4 – Duke, North Carolina, Northwestern, Temple, Wayne State and Yale
3 – Brandeis, MIT and NYU
2 – Air Force, Brown, Cornell, Sacred Heart and UC San Diego
1 – Boston College and Drew
Harvard and Stanford both qualified only one women's foilist, while Penn State's only women's epee qualifier is 2010 NCAA champion Marg Guzzi. Columbia came up one bid short in men's foil, St. John's in men's epee, and Ohio State has only one men's sabre entrant.
All fencers will compete in a round-robin format of 23 five-touch bouts, spread out over two days (men on Thur.-Fri., March 21-23; followed by the women on the weekend). The team scoring is simple – with each individual victory counting as one point to the team total. The top-four finishers in each weapon will contend for individual titles (men on Friday afternoon, women Sunday), with 15-touch semifinals and title bouts. Those closing individual bouts do not factor into the team point totals.
Princeton – runner-up to Ohio State a year ago (by a 182-161 margin) – is in search of the program's first NCAA team title, since the men's and women's championships merged in 1990, while Notre Dame is taking aim at its fifth title under the current men's/women's combined format. Spanning the past 10 seasons, Notre Dame (2003, '05 and '11) has matched Penn State and Ohio State with three NCAA team titles (plus one by Harvard). The Irish also won in 1994, the fifth year of the combined men's and women's championship, and have been the NCAA runner-up seven times over the past 23 seasons (1996, '97, '98, '99, 2000, '08 and '09).
The 144-fencer field was rounded out by two at-large entries for each weapon, with the others advancing from the four regions (Northeast, Mid-Atlantic/South, Midwest and West) based on pre-determined allotments. Notre Dame and Stanford are the only teams with 11-plus entries that benefitted from the at-large additions, as ND freshman Johanna Thill was added to the women's sabre field (as was Stanford men's epee newcomer Paul Riviere … a shoo-in for the NCAA all-name team, by the way).
Several teams had some options in terms of which two fencers from certain weapons to send to the 2013 NCAAs, but in nearly every case those teams went strictly by the numbers (as determined by the NCAA qualification formula that is 40% season strength factor leading into the Regional weekend and then 60% based on Regional finish).
PRINCETON head coach Zoltan Dudas – who was the assistant coach on Notre Dame's 2005 NCAA Championship team – steadily has built the Tigers into a national-championship contender. In particular, Princeton has developed a talented and ridiculously deep women's team and its six 2013 entrants ultimately could rival Notre Dame's six women's entrants from that 2005 championship team. All six of the women's competitors on that 2005 ND team fenced in at least one NCAA individual final during their respective careers – most notably, two-time Olympic sabre gold medalist Mariel Zagunis ('06 NCAA champ; '05 runner-up) and 3-time NCAA foil champion Alicja Kryczalo (also Valerie Providenza/sabre and Kerry Walton/epee, both NCAA champs in their own right, plus NCAA finalists Andrea Ament/foil and Amy Orlando/epee).
The current Princeton women's contingent includes: the foil pairing of junior Eve Levin (2011 NCAA runner-up; 12th in '12) and sophomore Ambika Singh (10th at '12 NCAAs) … veteran epeeist Susannah Scanlan (2012 U.S. Olympian; 5th at '09 NCAAs, 7th in '10) alongside sophomore Kat. Holmes (2012 NCAA semifinalist) … and the sabre sisters, Chicago natives senior Eliza Stone (2011 NCAA runner-up; '12 semifinalist; 8th in '10) and freshman Gracie Stone.
The Princeton men's team had to replace four-year foil standout Alex Mills, but freshman Michael Dudey has stepped in to fashion an impressive 2013 season. Dudey is joined in the NCAA field by fellow freshman foilist Rodney Chen. Senior epeeists Jonathan Yergler (2012 NCAA champion; runner-up in '11; 9th in '10) and San Antonio native Edward Kelley (8th at '12 NCAAs) look to lead the Princeton men's team in their final trip to the NCAAs. Consistency from the Princeton men's sabre duo could be a key factor at the 2013 NCAAs. Current junior Philip Dershitz was 18th at the 2011 NCAAs before reaching the 2012 sabre semifinals, while classmate Robert Stone (brother to Eliza and Gracie) placed 22nd among the 24-fencer field at the 2012 NCAAs.
NOTRE DAME will be looking to win its second NCAA title over the past three years, with a mixture of high-level veteran talent and four fencers who will be competing in the unique format of the pressure-packed NCAA Championships (Princeton has three first--time entrants). The marquee names for the Irish include three members of the 2012 U.S. Olympic team: fifth-year seniors Gerek Meinhardt (2010 NCAA men's foil champion; runner-up in '09) and San Antonio native Kelley Hurley (2011 NCAA women's epee champion; '09 and '10semifinalist), along with freshman women's foilist Lee Kiefer (who placed 5th at the 2012 Olympics). Junior Ariel DeSmet, the 2011 NCAA men's foil champion, also is back with the Irish, after taking off the 2012 season to pursue a potential spot on the Olympic team.
Another three-time women's epee All-American, Ewa Nelip, also has returned for Notre Dame. Nelip was an NCAA semifinalist in 2008 and '09 before placing 9th as a member of the 2011 NCAA championship team (she did not fence at ND in '10 or '12, while training with Poland's national-team program). Notre Dame's 2013 NCAA contingent includes three other past All-America performers: senior Lian Osier (9th in 2011 NCAA women's sabre; 8th in '12) … sophomore women's foilist Madi Zeiss (8th at '12 NCAAs) … and junior Kevin Hassett (7th in 2012 NCAA men's sabre). Current junior men's epeeist and 2013 NCAA entrant Michael Rossi qualified for the 2012 NCAAs but finished 23rd.
In addition to Kiefer, Notre Dame's three other NCAA Championship newcomers include (all freshmen): men's foilist Garrett McGrath, men's sabre entry John Hailstone, and Johanna Thill in women's sabre.
Columbia won the NCAA title in 1992 and '93 (the third and fourth years under the combined format), but the Lions have not returned to the top spot (or runner-up position) in nearly two decades. Harvard was somewhat of a surprise winner of the 2006 NCAA team title, held in Houston.
Ohio State's three NCAA fencing team titles have included two won at home (2008 and '12), plus the initial title captured at Brandeis in 2004. It has been more than a decade since St. John's won the NCAA team fencing title ('01), but the Red Storm have been close five other times during the combined format – finishing as runner-up during that 23-year stretch in 1995, 2000, '02, '07 and '10.
During the 23-year history of previous men's and women's combined NCAA championships, Penn State has either won the title (12 – 1990, '91, '95, '96, '97, '98, '99, 2000, '02, '07, '09 and '10) or finished as runner-up (8 – 1992, '93, '94, 2001, '03, '04, '06 and '11) every year except 2005 (ND won, OSU 2nd), 2008 (OSU won, ND 2nd) and 2012 (OSU won, Princeton 2nd).
Stanford, like Princeton, is seeking its first NCAA combined team championship.
In addition to five fencers mentioned above (PSU's Guzzi and Princeton's Yergler, along with ND's Meinhardt, Hurley and DeSmet), there are five other former NCAA champions among the 2013 NCAA entrants:
• St. John's 5th-year senior Daryl Homer (2010 and '11 NCAA men's sabre champion; runner-up in '09)
• St. John's senior Evgeniya Kirpicheva (2012 NCAA women's foil champion; semifinalist in '10 & '11)
• Ohio State junior Zain Shaito (2012 NCAA men's foil champion; 10th in '11)
• Ohio State junior Katarzyna Dabrowa (2012 NCAA women's epee champion; semifinalist in 2011)
• and Harvard junior Alex Kiefer (2011 NCAA women's foil champion; 11th in 2011)
One other recent NCAA champion will be on hand in an official capacity, as 2009 women's epee champ Nastia Ferdman (Penn State) is a first-year assistant coach with Temple. For the first time since 2008, there will be an NCAA women's sabre final without Becca Ward – as the former Duke standout was the NCAA champion in 2009, '11 and '12 (runner-up in '10).
Three of the fencers listed above – Homer, Meinhardt and Hurley – were members of the 2012 U.S. Olympic team, as were four others in the 2013 NCAA field: Penn State fifth-year senior men's foilist Miles Chamley-Watson (3-time NCAA finalist; runner-up in 2011) … Stanford freshman men's foilist Alex Massialas (longtime friend and club teammate of Meinhardt, in their native San Francisco) … Notre Dame freshman women's foilist Lee Kiefer (Alex Kiefer's younger sister) … and Princeton fifth-year senior Susannah Scanlan (2-time All-American). Hurley and Scanlan returned from London having won bronze medals as members of the U.S. women's epee team – alongside two former college fencing greats (Courtney's sister Kelley, and Princeton alum Maya Lawrence) from their respective fencing programs.
Another familiar face is back on the scene, as Penn State fifth-year senior men's foilist David Willette is returning to the NCAAs. Willette – the 2010 NCAA runner-up and a semifinalist in 2011 – was pursuing a possible spot on the 2012 Olympic team and did not fence for PSU in 2012. He is the brother of former Penn State women's foil standout Doris Willette (the 2007 and '09 NCAA champion, also reaching the semifinals in 2010).
Ohio State foil siblings Zain and Mona Shaito competed in the 2012 Olympics as members of the Lebanon contingent (the Texas natives hold joint citizenship). Unlike the elaborate, months-long qualification process for the U.S. Olympic team, Lebanon determined its 2012 Olympic event at a one-day event (allowing the Shaito siblings to fence for OSU throughout the 2011-12 season).
In addition to an assortment of elite fencers reference above, several others in the 2013 NCAA field have posted top-4 NCAA finishes in recent years: Stanford junior men's foilist Turner Caldwell (2012 NCAA runner-up; 7th at '11 NCAAs) … Princeton junior women's foilist Eve Levin (2011 NCAA runner-up; 12th in '12) … Ohio State senior men's epeeist Marco Canevari (2011 & '12 NCAA semifinalist; 19th in '10) … OSU fifth-year men's sabre veteran Max Stearns (2012 NCAA semifinalist; 8th in '09, 13th in '10) … St. John's junior Anna Limbach (2012 NCAA women's sabre semifinalist; 8th in '11) … Penn senior Evan Prochniak (2011 NCAA men's sabre semifinalist; 11th in '10, 8th in '12) … Northwestern senior women's foilist Dayana Sarkisova (2011 NCAA semifinalist; 10th at '11 NCAAs; 6th in '12) … and Yale junior men's epeeist Peter Cohen (2011 NCAA semifinalist; 17th in '12).
There also are several surprising absences from the 2013 NCAA field, most notably Columbia sophomore men's epeeist Alex Hadzic (the 2012 runner-up). Hadzic received a "black-card" early in the 2013 Northeast Regional and thus was eliminated from consideration for the 2013 NCAA Championship.
Two others who were 2012 NCAA semifinalist (both from the Midwest Region) likewise will not be returning to the NCAAs in 2013: Ohio State men's epeeist Kristian Boyadzhiev and Northwestern women's epeeist Kate Cavanaugh, who would have been a 2013 NCAA at-large entry but had to withdraw from consideration due to injury. Others of note who failed to reach the 2013 NCAA Championship include (NCAA top-12 finish equates to All-America status): St. John's senior women's foilist Irina Koroleva (3-time All-American) … Notre Dame senior men's epeeist James Kaull (2-time All-American; 3-time NCAA entrant) … Columbia senior women's epeeist Lydia Kopecky (2-time All-American; 3-time NCAA entrant; 2013 Northeast Regional top seed) … and Duke senior Anthony Lin (3-time NCAA sabre entrant).
Notre Dame has taken the full 12-fencer allotment to the NCAAs seven times over the past eight years (all but 2007), while this is Princeton's fourth straight year with the dozen NCAA entrants. Harvard had 12 NCAA qualifiers recently in 2010 and again in '12, with Columbia's most-recent 12-fencer contingents coming in 2007 and '08. Penn State surprisingly has sent the max. 12 fencers to the NCAAs only four times during the past nine years: 2006, '07, '09 and '10 (all were title-winning years for PSU, except '06).
Starting in 2005, St. John's has produced 12-fencer NCAA contingents four more times (also '07, '08, '10 and '11). Ohio State had a 12-fencer group at the 2008 NCAAs (OSU won that year), followed by a dozen entries in 2009, '11 and '12.
Here's the full list of the 144 qualifiers for the 2013 NCAAs (plenty of NCAA field analysis, historical perspective, etc., coming later on CF360:
2013 NCAA MEN'S FOIL ENTRANTS
Notre Dame – Ariel DeSmet and Gerek Meinhardt
Princeton – Rodney Chen and Michael Dudey
Columbia – Adam Mathieu
Harvard – Brian Kaneshige and Michael Woo
Ohio State – Chris Colley and Zain Shaito
Penn State – Miles Chamley-Watson and David Willette
St. John's – Michele Caporizzi and Eli Schenkel
Stanford – Turner Caldwell and Alex Massilas
Penn – LeLand Berstein and Adam El Kassas (at-large selection)
North Carolina – Joseph Alter
Wayne State – Quentin Schneider (at-large selection)
Brandeis – Julian Cardillo
NYU – Philip Jamesson
Sacred Heart – Andrew Holmes and Stuart Holmes
Drew – James Weiss
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2013 NCAA MEN'S EPEE ENTRANTS
Notre Dame – Garrett McGrath and Michael Rossi
Princeton – Edward Kelley and Jonathan Yergler
Columbia – Brian Ro and Justin Wan
Harvard – Peregrine Badger and Mike Raynis
Ohio State – Marco Canevari and Daniel Tafoya
Penn State – Vernon O'Garra and Benjamin Russell
St. John's – Adam Watson
Stanford – Jake Harbour and Paul Riviere (at-large selection)
Penn – Clifford Fishler and Ayyub Ibrahim
Duke – Dylan Nollner
Yale – Peter Cohen
MIT – Joseph Rafidi
Air Force – James Salem
Brown – Kelly McGuire
UC San Diego – Adam Campbell-Kruger and Luc Ginestet (at-large selection)
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2013 NCAA MEN'S SABRE ENTRANTS
Notre Dame – John Hallsten Kevin Hassett (team option/replacement)
Princeton – Philip Dershwitz and Robert Stone
Columbia – Michael Josephs and Will Spear
Harvard – Eric Arzoian and Alexander Ryjik
Ohio State – Max Stearns
St. John's – Sean Buckley and Daryl Homer
Penn State – Adrian Bak and Shaul Gordon
Stanford – Cameron Lindsay and Daniel Wolfson
Penn – Michael Mills and Evan Prochniak
North Carolina – Sam Austin and Jackson Bryant-Comstock (at-large selection)
Wayne State – Nikita Silantyev
Yale – Hugh O'Cinneide
Brandeis – Adam Mandel
NYU – Andrew Kelly (at-large selection)
Brown – Teddy Weller
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2013 NCAA WOMEN'S FOIL ENTRANTS
Notre Dame – Lee Kiefer and Madison Zeiss
Princeton – Eve Levin and Ambika Singh
Columbia – Jackie Dubrovich and D'Meca Homer
Harvard – Alexandra Kiefer
Ohio State – Mona Shaito and Mai Shaito (at-large selection)
Penn State – Alina Antokhina and Clarisse Luminet
St. John's – Marta Hausman and Evgeniya Kirpicheva
Stanford – Lily McElwee
Penn – Luona Wang
Northwestern – Dayana Sarkisova (at-large selection)
Temple – Epiphany Georges nd Fatima Largaespada
Wayne State – Olivia Dobbs
Yale – Lauren Miller
Brandeis – Carolina Mattos
Air Force – Mary McElwee
Cornell – Angelica Gangemi and April Whitney
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2013 NCAA WOMEN'S EPEE ENTRANTS
Notre Dame – Courtney Hurley and Ewa Nelip
Princeton – Kat Holmes and Susannah Scanlan
Columbia – Natalie Gegan and Diana Tsinis
Harvard – Nina Van Loon and Emma Vaggo
Ohio State – Katarzyna Dabrowa and Caroline Piasecka
Penn State – Marg Guzzi
St. John's – Zsofia Fath and Alina Ferdman
Stanford – Francesca Bassa and Vivian Kong
Penn – Amrit Bhinder and Gabriella Foor
Duke – Sarah Collins and Emily D'Agostino
*Northwestern – Courtney Dumas and Dina Bazabayeva (at-large selection)
Temple – Kim Howell (at-large selection)
MIT – Mounica Paturu
Boston College – Olivia Adragna
* – Note: Due to the injury status of 2012 NCAA semifinalist Kate Cavanaugh, Northwestern opted to nominate Bazabayeva as an at-large candidate
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2013 NCAA WOMEN'S SABRE ENTRANTS
Notre Dame – Lian Osier and Johann Thill (at-large selection)
Princeton – Gracie Stone and Eliza Stone (team option/replacement)
Columbia – Essane Diedro and Loweye Diedro
Harvard – Aliya Itzkowitz and Kara Lee
Ohio State – Celine Merza and Alison Miller
Penn State – Nicole Glon and Jessic Russo
St. John's – Anna Limbach and Margaret McDonald
Stanford – Atira Richards and Averey Youngblood
Duke – Sean Cadley
North Carolina – Gillian Litynski
Northwestern – Chloe Grainger
Temple – Tiki Kastor
Wayne State – Kaya Klodawska (at-large selection)
Yale – Madeline Oliver
MIT – Robin Shin
NYU – Jackie Leval