COLLEGE FENCING 360.com
contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
Fencers of the Week (week of Feb. 2-8, 2009)
(Harvard ... Women's Epee ... Fr. ... 11-1 record ... Kfar Saba, Israel)
JEFF SPEAR
(Columbia ... Men's Sabre ... Jr. ... 11-1 ... Wynantskill, New York)
HONORABLE MENTION
Jonathan Berkowsky (Penn, men's sabre, jr., 8-1; Sicklerville, New Jersey)
Dan Cohen (Duke, men's foil, fr., 9-0; Scarsdale, New York)
Lucille Jarry (Princeton, women's foil, fr., 9-0; Larchmont, New York)
Caroline Vloka (Harvard, women's sabre, fr., 12-0; Upper Saddle River, N.J.)
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Harvard freshman women's epeeist Noam Mills and Columbia junior men's saberist Jeff Spear have been named the national collegiate fencers of the week for Feb. 2-8, in the third installment of the awards (as announced by CollegeFencing360.com). It was an impressive week for freshmen from several teams, as three of the individuals who have received CF360 weekly honorable mention also are newcomers: Duke men's foilist Dan Cohen, Princeton women's foilist Lucille Jarry and Harvard women's sabreist Caroline Vloka (Penn junior men's sabreist Jonathan Berkowsky rounds out the honorable mention selection). Note that all six of these fencers are pictured in the right sidebar.
Fencers are selected based on several criteria, including: won-loss record, quality of opponents, clutch performances, and contribution to team success. Click on the Fencer of the Week archive link (at the top of this release) for information on earlier weekly award recipients.
MILLS (Kfar Saba, Israel) – who competed in the 2008 Olympic Games, as a member of the Israeli national team – won all but one of her 12 bouts during the Feb. 8 Ivy League Round-Robin Championships (as part of a 4-0 day for the Harvard women). During that stretch, Mills faced a gauntlet of top opponents that included four of the top-seven women's epee finishers from the 2008 Ivy League Championships. She allowed only 23 touches in those 12 bouts (1.9/bout), with a shutout win Princeton All-American Jhasit Binder and three other matchups against previous NCAA Tournament qualifiers.
SPEAR (Wynantskill, N.Y.) similarly had an 11-1 record in the Ivy League Round-Robin, allowing only 2.6 opponent touches per bout (nine of his wins came by a margin of two points or better). The defending NCAA champion registered a noteworthy sweep of the Penn sabreists (a trio featuring Berkowsky and fellow All-American Andrew Bielen).
Cohen swept three Notre Dame All-Americans during his 9-0 record at the Duke Duals while Jarry also had a 9-0 record (at the Ivy League meet), highlghted by a sweep of a Harvard veteran unit that is led by Olympian Emily Cross. Vloka's 12-0 performance in her Ivy League bouts paced the four team wins for the Harvard women and Berkowsky went 8-1, helping the 9th-ranked Penn men post upset wins over #4 Columbia and #5 Princeton.
More details and action photos of these six fencers will be added to this release (we also will be adding some more details to the previous two weekly award releases).
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