by Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
CLICK HERE for Mid-Atlantic/South women'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.
• Men's participants in the M-A/S Regional are listed below (women's entries linked 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 Men's Foil Entries
(sorted by seed, based on season strength factor)
M-A/S Region receives 7 automatic m-foil allotments to NCAA Championship
1 – Miles Chamley-Watson (Penn State) | #3 "national seed" ** 2009 & 2011 M-A/S Regional champion **
2 – David Willette (Penn State) | 4 ** 2010 M-A/S Regional champion **
3 – Michael Dudey (Princeton) | 6
4 – Nobuo Bravo (Penn State) | 7
5 – Jeremy Goldstein (Penn State) | 11
6 – David Gomez (Penn State) | 18
7 – Adam El Kassas (U. Penn) | 22
8 – Jorge Rojas (Stevens Tech) | 23
9 – Ira Schlossberg (U. Penn) | 28
10 – James Weiss (Drew)
11 – Rodney Chen (Princeton)
12 – Joseph Alter (North Carolina)
13 – Leland Berstein (U. Penn)
14 – Robert Daniluk (Princeton)
15 – John Petrie (Johns Hopkins)
16 – Rod Shayesteh (Duke)
17 – Anthony Worthington (Stevens Tech)
18 – Jason Chang (U.-Penn)
19 – Max Findley (Haverford)
20 – Glenn Balbus (Johns Hopkins)
21 – Robert Malcolm (Princeton)
22 – Steve Wenguer (Duke)
23 – Robert Goldhirsch (Johns Hopkins)
24 – Evan Stafford (Johns Hopkins)
25 – Baptiste Teyssier (Haverford)
26 – Max McDermott (N.J.I.T.)
27 – Lukas Siclaire (Drew)
28 – John-Luke Bucavalas (Drew)
29 – Sam Levinson (Haverford)
30 – Daniel Tracey (Stevens Tech)
31 – Adam Campos (Drew)
32 – Harry Adams (North Carolina)
33 – Alex Burte (North Carolina)
34 – Phillip Manna (Lafayette)
35 – Timothy Gaziano (Lafayette)
36 – Ian Pershad (N.J.I.T.)
37 – Jeremy Martin-Mills (Lafayette)
note – current Penn State senior Daniel Gomez was the 2012 Mid-Atlantic/South Regional men's foil champ but is not among PSU's entrants at the 2013 Regional.
Mid-Atlantic/South Regional 2013 Men's Epee Entries
(sorted by seed, based on season strength factor)
M-A/S Region receives 7 automatic m-epee allotments to NCAA Championship
1 – Benjamin Russell (Penn State) | #3 "national seed"
2 – Vernon O’Garra (Penn State) | 8
3 – Edward Kelley (Princeton) | 10 ** defending M-A/S Regional champion ** (also won in 2011)
4 – Luke Politi (Princeton) | 13
5 – Jonathan Yergler (Princeton) | 15 ** 2012 NCAA champion **
6 – Jeffrey Miller (Penn State) | 17
7 – Alessio Santoro (Duke) | 22
8 – Dylan Nollner (Duke) | 23
9 – Ayyub Ibahim (U. Penn) | 26
10 – Daniel Burke (Stevens Tech) | 30
11 – Yasser Mahmoud (Penn State)
12 – Clifford Fishler (U. Penn)
13 –Josiah Brown (Duke)
14 – Rene Gannon-O’Gara (U. Penn)
15 – Daniel Giles (North Carolina)
16 – Mark Zimmerman (Johns Hopkins)
17 – James Nieuwland (Haverford College)
18 – Collins Allison (North Carolina)
19 – Hayden Haberle (North Carolina)
20 – Edward Chen (Duke)
21 – William Dannhauser (Stevens Tech)
22 – Joseph Isaac (U. Penn)
23 – Guillaume Lanteri (N.J.I.T.)
24 – Max Tice-Lewis (North Carolina)
25 – Jay DeYoung (Johns Hopkins)
26 – Andy Huang (Johns Hopkins)
27 – Brent Schottenfeld (Johns Hopkins)
28 – Jamie O’Donnell (Princeton)
29 – Sean McAuliffe (Drew)
30 – Ryan Megaro (Stevens Tech)
31 – Sean Diperi (Drew)
32 – Steven Dazo (Stevens Tech)
33 – David Jennings (Lafayette)
34 – David Ecklemann (Lafayette)
35 – Daniel Robitzski (Lafayette)
note – In addition to Kelley, other recent Mid-Atlantic/South Regional men's champions epee have included: former Princeton standout Graham Wicas (2010) and Penn State alum James Moody (2009)
Mid-Atlantic/South Regional 2013 Men's Sabre Entries
(sorted by seed, baed on season strength factor)
M-A/S Region receives 7 automatic m-sabre allotments to NCAA Championship
1 – Shaul Gordon (Penn State) | #3 "national seed"
2 – Adrian Bak (Penn State) | 4
3 – Kaito Streets (Penn State) | 8
4 – Michael Mills (U. Penn) | 10
5 – Anthony Lin (Duke) | 11
6 – Robert Stone (Princeton) | 12
7 – Evan Prochniak (U. Pennsylvania) | 14 ** defending M-A/S Regional champion **
8 – Philip Dershwitz (Princeton) | 17
9 – Sam Ausin (North Carolina) | 18
10 – Charles Copti (Duke) | 29
11 – Eugene Chung (Duke)
12 – Jackson Comstrock-Byant (North Carolina)
13 – Jon Blake (North Carolina)
14 – Nate Wiecha (North Carolina)
15 – Sean Turner (U. Penn)
16 – Colin Colter (Duke)
17 – Gordon Long (North Carolina)
18 – Stephen Moch (Princeton)
19 – Aaron Ruby (Haverford)
20 – Aravind Menon (Johns Hopkins)
21 – Dylan Carr (N.J.I.T.)
22 – Elliot Tusk (U. Penn)
23 – Bryan Ransinangue (N.J.I.T.)
24 – Paul Vitale (Johns Hopkins University)
25 – Mark Lessner (Drew)
26 – Josh Nadel (Haverford)
27 – Nicholas Carothers (Duke)
28 – Linus Marco (Haverford)
29 – Darrell Washington (Lafayette)
30 – Ashish Shah (Drew)
31 – Daniel Cleary (Stevens Tech)
32 – David Smith (Stevens Tech)
33 – Marco Egizi (Stevens Tech)
34 – Paul Dobrowsky (Lafayette)
note – In addition to Prochniak, other recent Mid-Atlantic/South Regional men's saber champions have included: former Penn State standouts Aleks Ochoki ('11), now an asst. coach at Stevens Tech, and Daniel Bak ('10), brother to current PSU saber fencer Adrian Bak, while the 2009 winner was former Penn fencer Jon Berkowsky. Ochocki was the NCAA champion in 2009 and '12.