by Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
CLICK HERE for Mid-Atlantic/South men's entries
Fencers from the Mid-Atlantic/South 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 Mid-Atlantic/South Regional, to be held on Saturday, March 9, at Lafayette College (starting 8 a.m. ET, in Kamine Gymnasium).
Here are the particulars:
• The Mid-Atlantic/South Regional includes fencers from 13 schools that sponsor varsity fencing teams, most notably top-10 nationally ranked teams from Princeton, Penn State, the University of Pennsylvania, Duke and Temple (women's team only) … along with Drew, Fairleigh Dickinson (women's team), Haverford, Johns Hopkins, Lafayette, N.J.I.T., North Carolina, and Stevens Tech.
• Women's participants in the M-A/S Regional are listed below (link to men's entries included above), 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 M-A/S Region has seven allocated automatic spots in each weapon 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 M-A/S Regional will have an initial "play-in" phase for each weapon to produce 24 fencers in each field, followed by four pools-of-six (top-18 advance) and then three pools-of-six to then produce a final pool-of-12.
• In some cases, coaches may have more than two fencers fall within the top-7 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).
Mid-Atlantic/South Regional 2013 Women's Foil Entries
(sorted by seed, based on season strength factor)
M-A/S Region receives 7 automatic w-foil allotments to NCAA Championship
1 – Clarisse Luminet (Penn State) | #7 "national seed"
2 – Epiphany Georges (Temple) | 11
3 –Alina Antokhina (Penn State) | 12
4 – Eve Levin (Princeton) | 13
5 – Ambika Singh (Princeton) | 15 ** defending M-A/S Regional champion **
6 – Fatima Largaespada (Temple) | 21
7 – Luona Wang (U. Penn) | 23
8 – Kylei McGill ( Penn State) | 29
9 – Mikayla Varadi (Temple) | 30
10 – Sharon Gao (Princeton)
11 – Sarah Parmacek (U. Penn)
12 – Yuwen Zhao (U. Penn)
13 – Samantha Lee (Duke)
14 – Olivia Sheprd (Duke)
15 – Alix Lerch-Aillaud (Fairleigh Dickinson)
16 – Anisha Mukherjee (Duke)
17 – Demi Antipas (Temple)
18 – Katie Elbert (Haverford)
19 – Kane Gladnick (Penn State)
20 – Jackie Heath (Johns Hopkins)
21 – Rachel Chin (U. Penn)
22 – Rachel Viqueira (Johns Hopkins)
23 – Wynton Wong (North Carolina)
24 – Caroleen Chen (Stevens Technology)
25 – Jenna-Carrie Rodrigues (North Carolina)
26 – Leila Braun (Haverford)
27 – Ashley Lau (Johns Hopkins)
28 – Taia Harrison (Stevens Tech)
29 – Heather Van Wallendael (North Carolina)
30 – Jessica Poling (Haverford)31 – Colleen Way (Lafayette)
32 – Hannah Huan (N.J.I.T.)
33 – Trinity Sheppard (Stevens Tech)
34 – Lisa DeJoseph (Lafayette)
35 – Michelle Potestio (N.J.I.T.)
36 – Julie Ta (Haverford)
note – Penn State alum Doris Willette (sister of current PSU men's foil standout David Willette) won the Mid-Atlantic/South women's foil title four times, in 2007 and from 2009-11 (she was NCAA champion in 2007 and '11)
Mid-Atlantic/South Regional 2013 Women's Epee Entries
(sorted by seed, based on season strength factor)
M-A/S Region receives 7 automatic w-epee allotments to NCAA Championship
1 – Marg Guzzi (Penn State) | #2 "national seed" ** 2009 NCAA champion **
2 – Katherine Holmes (Princeton) | 7
3 – Susannah Scanlan (Princeton) | 10
4 – Anna Van Brummen (Princeton) | 13
5 – Jillian Bratton (Temple) | 16
6 – Isabel Ford (Princeton) | 18
7 – Amrit Bhinder (U. Penn) | 22
8 – Emily D’agostino (Duke) | 23
9 – Hannah Safford (Princeton) | 27 ** defending M-A/S Regional champion ** (also won in 2011)
10 – Kimberly Howell (Temple) | 28
11 – Sarah Collins (Duke) | 29
12 – Isabella Barna (Duke)
13 – Lidea Shahidi (North Carolina)
14 – Kacie Albert (North Carolina)
15 – Chantal Montrose (Temple)
16 – Allie Mead (North Carolina)
17 – Srey Beaulac (U. Penn)
18 – Gabriella Foor (U. Penn)
19 – Briana Nieradka (Stevens Tech)
20 – Jessica Hall (Temple)
21 – Gianna Puzzo (Johns Hopkins)
22 – Anne Stephenson (Penn State)
23 – Rebecca Stanley (Penn State)
24 – Kelley Hamill (North Carolina)
25 – Sara Jones (U. Penn)
26 – Ana Moreira Coutinho (Penn State)
27 – Lisa Dawes (U. Penn)
28 – Sarah Sofi (Haverford)
29 – Krystal Perkins (Stevens Tech)
30 – Juliana Petersen (Haverford)
31 – Christine Forsythe (Fairleigh Dickinson)
32 – Jaila Graham (N.J.I.T.)
33 – Deanna Quakenbush (Stevens Tech)
34 – Kelly Seeger (Johns Hopkins)
35 – Julia Aronov (N.J.I.T.)
36 – Allison Reich (Lafayette)
note – former Penn State standout (and current Temple assistant coach Nastia Ferdman won the Mid-Atlantic/South women's epee title in 2009 and '10 (she also was the 2009 NCAA champion)
Mid-Atlantic/South Regional 2013 Women's Sabre Entries
(sorted by seed, based on season strength factor)
M-A/S Region receives 7 automatic w-sabre allotments to NCAA Championship
1 – Nicole Glon (Penn State) | #4 "national seed"
2 – Jessica Russo (Penn State) | 6
3 – Gracie Stone (Princeton) | 7
4 – Elizabeth Rapp (Penn State) | 10
5 – Tiki Kastor (Temple) | 12
6 – Sean Cadley (Duke) | 13
7 – Gillian Litynski (North Carolina) | 15
8 – Diamond Wheeler (Princeton) | 19
9 – Petra Khan (Temple) | 25
10 – Kodia Baye-Cigna (Duke) | 27
11 – Lauren Rangel-Fiedman (Temple) | 28
12 – Sophia Bischof (Fairleigh Dickinson)
13 – Joanna Cichomski (Princeton)
14 – Sara Leung (North Carolina)
15 – Eliza Stone (Princeton)
16 – Hanna Heldennmuth (Fairleigh Dickinson)
17 – Tasia Ford (Temple)
18 – Shannon Horn (Haverford)
19 – Rachel Kalina (Johns Hopkins)
20 – Brianne Cavaliere (Penn State)
21 – Aislinn Klos (North Carolina)
22 – Katherin Simeon (Johns Hopkins)
23 – Juliet Turalski (Stevens Tech)
24 – Isabella So (Johns Hopkins)
25 – Krystyna Golden (U. Penn)
26 – Victoria Burton (North Carolina)
27 – Maura Thornton (North Carolina)
28 – Sarah Silvstri (Drew)
29 – Xinyi To (Stevens Tech)
30 – Genele Streitz (Fairleigh Dickinson)
31 – Francesca Behling (Haverford)
32 – Leah Hayden (Lafayette)
33 – Opeyemi Alade (N.J.I.T.)
34 – Chelsea Shupe (Stevens Tech)
35 – Elisabeth Hawthrone (Haverford)
note – Duke 2012 graduate Becca Ward was a four-time Mid-Atlantic/South Regional women's sabre champion from 2009-12 (also won NCAA title in 2009, '11 and '12; runner-up in '10)