RELEASE: March 13, 2012 Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
Five teams – Harvard, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Princeton and St John's – have received the maximum 12 indvidual qualifers for the upcoming NCAA Combined Men's and Women's Fencing Champinship, to be held March 22-25 at Ohio State's French Fieldhouse and Saint John's Arena. Penn State (11) and the University of Pennsylvania (10) round out the seven schools that produced double-digit qualifiers, followed by Stanford (9), Columbia (8) and 16 other teams that complete 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.
(Note – this page is very text-heavy ... we will be adding some headshots and action photos ... plenty more pre-NCAA coverage coming from CF360).
2012 NCAA Fencing Championship Entrants (sorted by school)
12 – Harvard, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Princeton and St. John's
11 – Penn State
10 – Penn
9 – Stanford
8 – Columbia
6 – Brown and Duke
5 – Northwestern
4 – Temple and Yale
3 – Air Force, Sacred Heart and Wayne State
2 – Boston College, Cornell, North Carolina and UC San Diego
1 – Brandeis, MIT, NYU and Vassar
On paper, host Ohio State joins Princeton and St. John's as the favorites to bring home the 2012 team title – but Harvard, Notre Dame (and even Penn State) certainly are capable of making a push to the championship. All fencers will compete in a round-robin format of 23 five-touch bouts, spread out over two days (women on Thur.-Fri., March 22-23; followed by the men 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 (women on Friday afternoon, men Sunday), with 15-touch semifinals and title bouts – again to be held in the great setting of St. John's Arena.
Host OHIO STATE – which won the NCAA title at home in 2008, four years after claiming the program's first championship (in 2004, at Brandeis; runner-up in '05) – made a couple significant upgrades to its lineup, following a disappointing 5th-place finish in 2011. Top newcomers have included a pair of freshman foilists, namely Mona Shaito (Garland, Texas), who has proven herself as one of the top new faces in college fencing this season. On the men's side, rookie Chris Colley (Portland, Ore.) has proven to be a strong complement alongside Mona's older brother, sophomore All-American Zain Shaito.
The Buckeyes also received a big boost in men's sabre with the return of Canadian standout Max Stearns, who did not fence for the Buckeyes in 2011 while recovering from concussion symptoms (he has a fifth year of eligibility available, for the 2012-13 season). The Winnipeg native has fashioned a strong senior season while combining with fellow All-American Rhys Douglas, a sophomore from Scottsdale, Ariz. OSU's seven other 2012 NCAA qualifiers include sophomore men's epeeist Kristian Boyhadzhiev (Sofia, Bulgaria) and six who have NCAA Tournament experience: junior men's epeeist Marco Canevari (2011 NCAA semifinailist; Milano, Italy) ... senior women's foilist Allison Henvick (San Francisco, Calif.) ... the women's epee sophomoe duo of Katarzyna Dabrowa (2011 NCAA semifinalist; Wroclaw, Poland) and Carolina Piasecka (Oslo, Norway) ... and a veteran women's sabre pair, senior Margarita Tschomakova (Bonn, Germany) and junior Allison Miller (Chicago, Ill.). Five of those six fencers, all except Piasecka, have earned All-America honors at past NCAAs.
Ohio State's depth at men's epee can be seen by the fact three-time All-American Igor Tolkachev (St. Petersburg, Russia) failed to earn a spot in the 2012 NCAAs, finishing behind his teammates Canevari and Boyhadzhiev. The Buckeyes will enter the 2012 NCAAs with three fencers – Canevari, Tschomakova and Dabrowa – who have advanced to the medal round in past NCAA Championships.
PRINCETON is a program long known for its strength in men's epee – and that continues to be the case in 2012, with juniors Jonathan Yergler (Winter Park, Fla.) and Edward Kelley (San Antonio, Texas). Yergler, the 2011 NCAA runner-up (9th in '10), had a big stumble at the 2012 NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regional, failing to make the final pool-of-12 – but he umtimately earned a return to the NCAAs by earning one of the two men's epee at-large spots in the 2012 field. The Tigers have a strong veteran leader in men's foil, as senior Alexander Mills (Millburn, N.J.) is a rare four-time fist team all-Ivy League performer. Mills will be making his fourth appearance at the NCAAs and could be a key to Princeton's title hopes, as his three All-America efforts have yet to represent any finishes higher than 8th at the NCAAs.
The Tigers steadily have improved their men's sabre team over the past few years and will be looking for some crucial wins from the sophomore tandem of Phillip Dershwitz (13th at '11 NCAAs; Sherborn, Mass.) and Robert Stone (Chicago, Ill.).
Princeton has asembled what may prove to be one of the top teams in the three-weapon era of women's college fencing (dating back to the turn of the century). The women's team leaders include two-time women's sabre All-American and 2011 NCAA runner-up, junior Eliza Stone (Robert's sister), along with a great 1-2 punch at women's foil: sophomore Eve Levin (another '11 NCAA runner-up; New York, N.Y.) and talented newcomer Ambika Singh (Skillman, N.J.), a top contender for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team before suffering an injury last fall and deciding to shift her focus to college fencing this semester. Women's sabre sophomore Diamond Wheeler (Portland, Ore.) earned All-America honors in 2011 and is part of the recent sabre pipeline eminating from the Oregon Fencing Alliance.
The Tigers have yet a third elite pair, in women's epee, as junior Hannah Safford (San Franicsco, Calif.) won the M-A/S Regional title while freshman Kat Holmes claimed the Ivy League chamionship. Beyond the six qualifiers referenced above, the Princeton women's program amazingly includes eight other current fencers who have competed in the NCAAs during past seasons (one of, epee All-American Susannah Scanlan, is taking the year off from college fencing in her bid to qualify for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team).
Princeton may be a year away from making its strongest push for the NCAA team title, but the Tigers are well-positioned to make a run next week at Ohio State (it would be the program's first NCAA team title, since the men's and women's championships merged in 1990.
ST. JOHN'S – along with a couple other top teams (namely Notre Dame and Princeton) – faced the challenge this season of competing without top fencers, as two-time NCAA sabre champ Daryl Homer ('10, '11; '09 runner-up) is taking a year off from college fencing to pursue a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. Fortunately for the Red Storm, its men's sabre team includes two others with past NCAA Tournament experience (both All-Americans): senior Alejandro Rojas (Madid, Spain) and junior Sean Buckley (Seacaucus, N.J.). St. John's also boasts tremendous depth in men's epee, with an All-America trio led by yet another two-time NCAA champ, senior Marat Israelian (Ashkelon, Israel), along with senior Nich Vomero (Centerport, N.Y.) and junior Adam Watson (Enosburg, Vt.). Due to the NCAA qualifying format, only two of these epeeists could reach the 2012 NCAAs, with Watson coming up short.
One key to the Red Storm's quest for the NCAA team title could be the performance of its young men's foil team, as sophomore Max Blitzer (Staten Island, N.Y.) will be making his first appearance at the NCAAs while classamte Eli Schenkel (Los Angeles, Calif.) narrowly missed All-America honors at the 2011 NCAAs (13th).
All six of the St. John's women's qualifiers have competed in past NCAA Championships, led by two-time NCAA semifinalist Evjeniya Kirpicheva in women's foil (Ufa, Russia). Her fellow junior and counrtywomen Irina Koroleva (Khimki, Russa) also competed in the 2010 and '11 NCAAs, as did the current sophomore epee duo of Zsofia Fath (Budapst, Hungary) and Alina Ferdman (Ma'alot, Israel), sister of former Penn State epee standout Anastasia Ferdman. Both of the StJ women's sabre entrants – sophomore Anna Limbacch (Cologne, Germany) and Martyna Wieczorek (Sayreville, N.J.) – have earned All-America honors in previous NCAA competitions, with Limbach coming off a first-place finish at the Northeast Regional (as is Kirpicheva).
It's 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 five times in that 22-year stretch ('95, 2000, '02, '07 and '10).
The NOTRE DAME lineup is distinctly different from the 12-fencer group that claimed the 2011 NCAA team title – due to the dual factors of graduation losses and others who are taking the year off from college fencing in order to pursue spots on the U.S. Olympic team. Most notably, three past NCAA champions – men's foilists Gerek Meinhardt (2010 champ, '09 runner-up) and Ariel DeSmet ('11 champ), along with women's epeeist Courtney Hurley ('11 champ; semifinalist in '09 and '10) – have left a big void on the Irish roster, while pursing their Olympic dream (Meinhardt was a member of the 2008 U.S. Olympic team). Notre Dame even has a signee – men's foilist Race Imboden – who delayed the start of his college career and is considered a strong contender for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team.
The Irish return only three fencers who competed in the 2011 NCAA title-winning effort, but senior men's foilist Enzo Castellani reached the NCAA semifinals in both 2009 and '10. Castellani was edged by DeSmet and current senior All-American Reggie Bentley (Little Rock, Ark.) in qualifying for the 2011 NCAAs. Each of the three returners from the 2011 championship team – Bentley, junior men's epeeist James Kaull (Washington, D.C.) and junior women's sabreist Lian Osier (Battle Ground, Wash.) – collected All-America honors with their top-12 finishes a year ago.
Notre Dame needed a pair of at-large qualifiers – freshman women's epeeist Nicole Ameli (Las Vegas, Nev.) and women's sabre junior Abigail Nichols (Concord, Mass.) – to earn the full 12 entants this year, but the Irish have one of college fencing's top young women's foilists in freshman Madson Zeiss (Los Angeles, Calif.). Other ND women's qualifiers include junior foilist Grace Hartman (St. Paul, Minn.) and freshman epeeist Ashley Severson (Franklin Lakes, N.J.). The Irish men's squad includes three first-time NCAA qualifiers – sophomore epeeist Michael Rossi (White Plains, N.Y.), along with two sabre competitos: junior Jason Choy (Basking Ridge, N.J.) and sophomore Kevin Hassett (Beaverton, Ore.).
Spanning the previous nine seasons, Notre Dame (2003, '05 and '11) matched Penn State with three NCAA team titles (plus two from Ohio State and 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 22 seasons (1996, '97, '98, '99. 2008 and '09).
HARVARD – which was somewhat of a surprise winner of the 2006 NCAA team title (held in Houston) – has a collection of top-level college fencers, led by 2010 NCAA women's sabre champion Caroline Vloka ('09 NCAA runenr-up, '11 semifinalist; Upder Saddle River, N.J.) and the 2011 NCAA women's foil champ, sophomore Alexandra Kiefer (Lexington, K.Y.), along with three youngsters who impressively won Northeast Regional titles a couple days ago: freshman epeeists Peregrine Badger (Providence, R.I.) and Emma Vaggo (Kullavik, Sweden), along with sabre sophomore Eric Arzoian (Beverly Hills, Calif.). Three-time NCAA women's epee NCAA runner-up Noam Mills is taking the year off in her attempt to earn a spot on Israel's Olympic team.
The other Crimson qualifiers include three on the men's side with past NCAA Tournament experience – three-time NCAA entrant and two-time sabre All-American Valentin Staller (Old Field. N.Y.), senior two-time NCAA epee entrant James Hawrot (Barrington, R.I.) and sophomore men's epee All-American Micahel Raynis (Chatsworth, Calif.) – along with junior women's foilist Katherine Chou (Holmdel, N.J.). Harvard's NCAA contingent is rounded out by three who will be making their debut at the NCAA Championship: freshman men's foilist Brian Kaneshige (Maple Wood, N.J.), junior women's epeeist Nadia Eldeib (Burke, Va.) and women's sabre freshman Kara Lee (Islip, N.Y.).
PENN STATE certainly could make a run at the 2012 NCAA title, but to do so the Nittany Lions likely will need big win totals from a pair of past NCAA champions: senior men's sabreist Alex Ochocki (2009 NCAA champ; three-time semifinalist; Clark. N.J.) and junior women's epeeist Marg Guzzi (2010 NCAA champ; '11 semifinalist; Milan, Italy). PSU's qualifiers also include a pair of sabre All-Americans – women's senior Monica Aksamit (Matawan, N.J.) and men's junior Adrian Bak (Franklin Lakes, N.J.) – along with two other 2011 NCAA entrants: sophomore men's epeeist Anthony Green (Stamford, Conn.) and women's sabre sophomore Nicole Glon (State Collage, Pa.).
The other five Penn State entrants are first-time NCAA qualifiers – but past history is full of fencers who have excelled on their first NCAA appearance. Similar to Notre Dame, PSU's men's fencing roster took a big hit due to the one-year absence of Olympic hopefuls Miles Chamley-Watson and David Willette. Chamley-Watson was the 2011 NCAA runner-up (after reaching the semifinals in '09 and '10) while Willette was the 2010 NCAA runner-up and reached the semifinals in '11. A brother tandem from Mexico City – Daniel and David Gomez-Tanamacho – will be looking to fill the void at men's foil, with the elder Daniel turning in an impressive junior season that has included winning the recent Mid-Atlantic/South Regional.
During the 22-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) and 2008 (OSU won, ND 2nd).
... Other top qualifiers include Duke senior Becca Ward (Portland, Ore.), the 2008 Olympic bronze medalist whose domination of college fencing has inluded two NCAA titles ('09 and '11; runner-up in '10), four titles at the M-A/S Regional, and only seven regular-season losses in four years of dual meets (she also lost only seven total bouts spanning the 2009-11 NCAAs).
In addition to various fencers mentioned above, there's three other 2012 NCAA entrants who have reached the semifinal/medal round in past NCAAs: Penn sabre junior Evan Prochniak ('11; Hudson, N.H.), Yale sophomore men's epeeist Peter Cohen ('11; Irvington, N.Y.) and Northwestern junior women's foilist Dayana Sarkisova ('10; Grand Rapids, Mich.).
Here's the full list of the 144 qualifiers for the 2012 NCAAs:
MEN'S FOIL
Harvard – Brian Kaneshige
Harvard – Lucas Lin
Notre Dame – Reggie Bentley
Notre Dame – Enzo Castellani
Ohio State – Chris Colley
Ohio State – Zain Shaito
Princeton – Marcus Howard
Princeton – Alexander Mills
St. John's – Max Blitzer
St. John's – Eli Schenkel
Penn State – Daniel Gomez
Penn State – David Gomez
Air Force – Alex Chiang (at-large selection)
Air Force – Phillip Choy
Penn – Zane Grodman
Penn – Vidur Kapur
Brandeis – Julian Cardillo (at-large selection)
Brown – Barrett Weiss
North Carolina – Kevin Nadeau
NYU – Philip Jamesson
Sacred Heart – Stuart Holmes
Stanford – Turner Caldwell
Wayne State – Quentin Schneider
Yale – Shiv Kachru
_____________________________
MEN'S EPEE
Harvard – Peregrine Badger
Harvard – James Hawrot
Notre Dame – James Kaull
Notre Dame – Michael Rossi
Ohio State – Kristian Boyadzhiev
Ohio State – Marco Canevari
Princeton – Edward Kelley
Princeton – Jonathan Yergler (at-large selection)
St. John's – Marat Israelian
St. John's – Nicholas Vomero
Penn State – Anthony Green
Penn State – Oliver Valdes
Duke – Tristan Jones
Duke – Dylan Nollner
Penn – Clifford Fishler (at-large selection)
Penn – Rene Gannon-O'Gara
Stanford – Kian Ameli
Stanford – Cole Connely
Air Force – Chase Houser
Brown – Kelly McGuire
Columbia – Alen Hadzic
Vassar – Nick Johnson
Wayne State – Michael Ramlow
Yale – Peter Cohen
______________________________
MEN'S SABRE
Harvard – Eric Arzoian
Harvard – Valentin Staller
Notre Dame – Jason Choy
Notre Dame – Kevin Hassett (team option/replacement)
Ohio State – Rhys Douglas
Ohio State – Max Stearns
Princeton – Philip Dershwitz
Princeton – Robert Stone
St. John's – Sean Buckley
St. John's – Alejandro Rojas
Penn State – Adrian Bak
Penn State – Aleksander Ochocki
Columbia – Michael Josephs (at-large selection)
Columbia – Will Spear
Penn – Michael Mills
Penn – Evan Prochniak
Stanford – Jeremy Klepner
Stanford – Cameron Lindsay
Boston College – Peter Souders (at-large selection)
Brown – Stryker Weller
Duke – Anthony Lin
Sacred Heart – Marty Williams
Wayne State – Nikita Silantyev
Yale – Nathaniel Benzimra
__________________________
WOMEN'S FOIL
Harvard – Kathy Chou
Harvard – Alexandra Kiefer
Notre Dame – Grace Hartman
Notre Dame – Madison Zeiss
Ohio State – Allison Henvick
Ohio State – Mona Shaito
Princeton – Eve Levin
Princeton – Ambika Singh
St. John's – Evgeniya Kirpicheva
St. John's – Irina Koroleva
Penn State – Alina Antokhina
Cornell – Christine McIntosh
Cornell – April Whitney
Northwestern – Devynn Patterson (at-large selection)
Northwestern – Dayana Sarkisova
Penn – Sarah Parmacek
Penn – Luona Wang
Temple – Alyssa Lomuscio
Temple – Mikayla Varadi (at-large selection)
Brown – Katheryn Hawrot
Columbia – D'Meca Homer
Stanford – Lily McElwee
UC San Diego – Rose Forcier
Yale – Lauren Miller
___________________________
WOMEN'S EPEE
Harvard – Nadia Eldeib
Harvard – Emma Vaggo
Notre Dame – Nicole Ameli (at-large selection)
Notre Dame – Ashley Severson
Ohio State – Katarzyna Dabrowa
Ohio State – Caroline Piasecka
Princeton – Kat Holmes
Princeton – Hannah Safford
St. John's – Zsofia Fath
St. John's – Alina Ferdman
Penn State – Marg Guzzi
Penn State – Oksana Samorodov
Columbia – Lydia Kopecky
Columbia – Diana Tsinis
Duke – Sarah Collins
Duke – Emily D'Agostino
Northwestern – Kate Cavanaugh
Northwestern – Courtney Dumas
Sacred Heart – Megan Floyd
Stanford – Rebecca Chung
Stanford – Ashley Titan
Brown – Cory Abbe
Penn – Amrit Bhinder
Temple – Jillian Bratton (at-large selection)
____________________________
WOMEN'S SABRE
Harvard – Kara Lee
Harvard – Caroline Vloka
Notre Dame – Abigail Nichols (at-large selection)
Notre Dame – Lian Osier
Ohio State – Alison Miller
Ohio State – Margarita Tschomakov
Princeton – Eliza Stone
Princeton – Diamond Wheeler
St. John's – Anna Limbach
St. John's – Martyna Wieczorek
Penn State – Monica Aksamit
Penn State – Nicole Glon
Columbia – Essane Diedro
Columbia – Samantha Roberts (team option/replacement)
Boston College – Chelsea Rosenbauer
Brown – Christine Whalen
Duke – Becca Ward
MIT – Robin Shin
North Carolina – Gillian Litynski
Northwestern – Chloe Grainger
Penn – Dominika Franciszkowicz (at-large selection)
Stanford – Julia Klepner
Temple – Kamali Thompson
UC San Diego – Elissa Gesner