by Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
• CLICK HERE for Midwest Regional men's entries
Fencers from the Midwest 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 Midwest Regional, to be held on Saturday & Sunday, March 9-10, at Notre Dame (starting 9 a.m. ET, in the Joyce Center's Castellan Family Fencing Center). The women's competition will be held on March 9 and the men on Sunday the 10th.
Here are the particulars:
• The Midwest Regional includes fencers from seven schools that sponsor varsity fencing teams, most notably top-10 nationally ranked teams from Notre Dame, Ohio State and Northwestern (women's team only) … along with Wayne State, Cleveland State, Detroit and Lawrence.
• Women's participants in the Midwest Regional are listed below (men's entries linked above). 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 Midwest Region has four allocated automatic spots in each weapon except women's epee (5) 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 Midwest Regional format for each weapon is quite simple: one full round-robin pool (final placement based on total wins; tie for first place decided in a fence-off/extra bout; all other ties determined by indicator point differential)
• 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).
Midwest Regional 2013 Women's Foil Entries
(sorted by seed, based on season strength factor)
Midwest Region receives 4 automatic w-foil allotments to NCAA Championship
1 – Lee Kiefer (Notre Dame) | #2 "national seed"
2 – Mona Shaito (Ohio State) | 8 ** defending Midwest Regional champion **
3 – Madi Zeiss (Notre Dame) | 9
4 – Dayana Sarkisova (Northwestern) | 10
5 – Olivia Dobbs (Wayne State) | 14
6 – Grace Hartman (Notre Dame) | 16
7 – Kylah Coryat (Ohio State) | 17
8 – Nicole McKee (Notre Dame) | 18
9 – Jen Yamin (Northwestern) | 20
10 – Adriana Camacho (Notre Dame) | 24
11 – Mai Shaito (Ohio State) | 26
12 – Marie Deschuytter (Wayne State) | 27
13 – Madeline Sands (Northwestern)
14 – Nina Stackhouse (Ohio State)
15 – Tiaja Sabrie (Northwestern)
16 – Mary Spohn (Northwestern)
17 – Mikela Goldstein (Northwestern)
18 – Katherine Ling (Lawrence)
19 – Kali Thibault (Lawrence)
20 – Meghan Flynn (Wayne State)
notes – current Notre Dame fencer Rachel Beck won the 2011 Midwest Regional women's foil title … former Ohio State fencer Oksana Dmytruk was the 2009 and '10 champion
Midwest Regional 2013 Women's Epee Entries
(sorted by seed, based on season strength factor)
Midwest Region receives 5 automatic w-epee allotments to NCAA Championship
1 – Ewa Nelip (Notre Dame) | 1 "national seed"
2 – Courtney Hurley (Notre Dame) | 3 ** Midwest Regional champion in 2009 and '10 **
3 – Katarzyna Dabrowa (Ohio State) | 4 ** Midwest Regional champion in 2011 **
4 – Ashley Severson (Notre Dame) | 6
5 – Caoline Piasecka (Ohio State) | 9
6 – Courtney Dumas (Northwestern) | 17 ** defending Midwest Regional champion **
7 – Dina Bazarbayeva (Northwestern) | 30
8 – Kate Cavanaugh (Northwestern)
9 – Tasha Domashovetz (Ohio State)
10 – Becca Rutan (Ohio State)
11 – Rachel Davis (Wayne State)
12 – Amanda Brown (Cleveland State)
13 – Kendrick Mooney (Northwestern)
14 – Alyssa Rosenbaum (lawrence)
15 – Brianne Hefner (Wayne State)
16 – Mariah Wilkerson (Lawrence)
17 – Kayla Berndt (Detroit)
Midwest Regional 2013 Women's Sabre Entries
(sorted by seed, based on season strength factor)
Midwest Region receives 4 automatic w-sabre allotments to NCAA Championship
1 – Celina Merza (Ohio State) | #3 "national seed"
2 – Allison Miller (Ohio State) | 5
3 – Chelsea Martinez (Ohio State) | 9
4 – Abi Nichols (Notre Dame) | 15
5 – Lian Osier (Notre Dame) | 16
6 – Johanna Thill (Notre Dame) | 17
7 – Chloe Grainger (Northwestern) | 18
8 – Alicia Gurrieri (Northwestern) | 20
9 – Kaja Klodowska (Wayne State) | 22
10 – Kathryn Palazzoto (Notre Dame)
11 – Care Franke (Northwestern)
12 – Eva Berndt (Detroit)
13 – Katie Lang (Detroit)
14 – Shannon Canavan (Detroit)
15 – Shelby Guinn (Lwrence)
16 – Christina Bocci (Cleveland State)
notes – the 2012 Midwest Regional women's saber champion was former Ohio State fencer Margarita Tschomakova … Notre Dame 2012 seniors Eileen Hassett (2010 & '11 champion) and Sarah Borrmann (2009) are other recent champions.