• Saturday's men's epee final at the MFCs – between Notre Dame senior Karol Kostka and Ohio State freshman Igor Tolkachev (St. Petersburg, Russia) – brought back memories of another recent ND-OSU men's epee rivalry, involving Tolkachev's brother Denis and ND's Michal Sobieraj ... Sobieraj (who fenced for ND from 2002-05) and Kostka both are natives of Krakow, Poland, with each attending the same high school (First Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace Bartlomieja Nowodworskiego) and training at the same club (AZS-AWF Krakow) ... the "reincarnation" of the Sobieraj-Tolkachev rivalry produced a thrilling MFC title bout, with Kostka capturing the narrow 15-14 win.
• Kostka entered the day as the #3 seed and moved up to #1 for the 80-fencer, direct-elimination phase, after going 7-0 (+28) in his pool bouts ... Tolkachev was the #4 initial seed, but he dropped to #14 for the DE (he was 6-1/+17 in the pools) – with his loss coming to #77 seed Rich Molina of ND (3-5).
• Tolkachev recovered from the lower DE seeding by defeating Cleveland State's John Marshall in a round-of-16 defensive battle (9-8), followed by a 15-8 quarterfinal win over OSU teammate Eric Gurnowski and a 15-12 semifinal against ND's Jacob Osborne ... Kostka beat #8 Chris Pinkowski (ND) in a 15-10 quarterfinal before knocking off two-time NCAA champion Slava Zingerman (Wayne State) in a 15-12 semifinal (Zingerman was the pre-tournament top seed and #4 for the DE; 7-0/+23 in pools).
• Osborne was the #8 initial seed and #10 for the DE, after going 6-1/+19 in the pools (his loss came to Chicago's Alex Chi, 4-5) ... he went on to defeat ND teammate Conor Gettings in the round-of-16 (15-9), followed by a huge win over co-#1 Jason Pryor of OSU (15-12 semifinal) and the semifinal loss against Tolkachev ... Zingerman had a 15-12 win over #4 Greg Schoolcraft (ND) in the quarterfinals, before losing to Kostka.
• Two of the final-8 men's epeeists reached that round following major fluctuations in their seedings ... OSU's Gurnowski was the initial #6 seed, but he plummeted to #43 for the DE, after going 3-4 (+4) in the pools ... Gurnowski battled back into the mix with a key round-of-16 win over #6 Mykhaylo Mazur (15-10), a former OSU All-American who now is fencing for Wayne State (Tolkachev then beat Gurnowski in the quarters) ... ND's Pinkowski entered the day with a low seed (#32) but surged to #8 (6-1 in pools/+20), with an eventual round-of-16 win over co-#8 Andy Snell of Cleveland State (15-14) before the loss to Kostka.
* The final top-16 included five different fencers who entered the day seeded outside the top-16: OSU's Dylan Walrond (#70), Michigan's Bill Kolodzey (#38), ND's Gettings (#27) and Pinkowski (#32), and CSU's Snell (#19) ... Waldron made the huge jump to a #12 DE seed, after going 6-1 (+18) in the pools (he ultimately was eliminated by Zingerman in the round-of-16, in a 15-13 bout) ... Kolodzey's jump (#38 to #20; 5-2/+15 in polls) was followed later in the day with a final loss to #4 Schoolcraft of ND (15-9, round-of-16) ... Gettings moved up from a #27 seed to #7 (6-1 in pools/+21, featuring a 5-1 win over OSU's Gurnowski).
• Conversely, there were five initial top-16 seeds who failed to finish among the final-16: ND's Andy Seroff (#10 initial seed, finished 19th), OSU's Sean Harder (#12/33rd), Avi Somir (#13/17th) and Bishar Korkor (#14/30th) and Northwestern's Phil Szalwinski (#16/24th).
• OSU veteran Pryor advanced past ND's Brent Kelly in the round-of-16 (15-1) before getting tripped up by another ND fencer, Osborne.
• Results for the final-16 men's epee fencers are included below (upsets, based on DE seeding, are in italics). A final list for the top-16 (including their initial seeds and adjusted/pre-DE seeding) also is included below, as are names of the #17-#25 finishers:
MFC Men's Epee Round-of-16
(1) Karol Kostka (ND) def. (16) Davidson Barr (NW) ... 15-9
(1) Jason Pryor (OSU) def. (15) Brent Kelly (ND) ... 15-10
(14) Igor Tolkachev (ND) def. (3) John Marshall (CSU) ... 9-8
(4) Greg Schoolcraft (ND) def. (20) Bill Kolodzey (MICH) ... 15-9
(5) Slava Zingerman (WSU) def. (12) Dylan Walrond (OSU) ... 15-13
(43) Eric Gurnowski (OSU) def. (6) Mykhaylo Mazur (WSU) ... 15-10
(10) Jacob Osborne (ND) def. (7) Conor Gettings (ND) ... 15-9
(8) Chris Pinkowski (ND) def. (8) Andy Snell (CSU) ... 15-14
Quarterfinals
(1) Karol Kostka (ND) def. (8) Chris Pinkowski (ND) ... 15-10
(10) Jacob Osborne (ND) def. (1) Jason Pryor (OSU) ... 15-12
(14) Igor Tolkachev (ND) def. (43) Eric Gurnowski (OSU) ... 15-8
(5) Slava Zingerman (WSU) def. (4) Greg Schoolcraft (ND) ... 15-12
Semifinals
(1) Karol Kostka (ND) def. (5) Slava Zingerman (WSU) ... 15-12
(14) Igor Tolkachev (ND) def. (10) Jacob Osborne (ND) ... 15-12
Final
(1) Karol Kostka (ND) def. (14) Igor Tolkachev (ND) ... 15-14
2009 MFC Men's Epee Final Top-25 Data (field of 80)
1. Karol Kostka (Notre Dame) ... #3 initial seed/#1 pre-DE ... 7-0 in pools (+28)
2. Igor Tolkachev (Ohio State) ... #4/#14 ... 6-1 in pools (+17)
3. Slava Zingerman (Wayne State) ... #1/#4 ... 7-0 in pools (+23)
3. Jacob Osborne (ND) ... #8/#10 ... 6-1 in pools (+19)
5. Jason Pryor (OSU) ... #2/#1 ... 6-0 in pools (+26)
6. Greg Schoolcraft (ND) ... #9/#4 ... 7-0 in pools (+23)
7. Chris Pinkowski (ND) ... #32/#8 ... 6-1 in pools (+20)
8. Eric Gurnowski (OSU) ... #6/#43 ... 3-4 in pools (+4)
9. John Marshall (Cleveland St.) ... #11/#3 ... 7-0 in pools (+24)
10. Mykhaylo Mazur (WSU) ... #7/#6 ... 7-0 in pools (+21)
11. Conor Gettings (ND) ... #27/#7 ... 6-1 in pools (+21)
12. Andy Snell (CSU) ... #19/#8 ... 6-1 in pools (+20)
13. Dylan Walrond (OSU) ... #70/#12 ... 6-1 in pools (+18)
14. Brent Kelly (ND) ... #5/#15 ... 6-1 in pools (+15)
15. Davidson Barr (Northwestern) ... #15/#16 ... 6-1 in pools (+15)
16. Bill Kolodzey (Michigan) ... #38/#20 ... 5-2 (+15)
17. Avi Somir (OSU)
18. Adam Bernstein (Oberlin)
19. Andrew Seroff (ND)
20. Jesse Fish (Case Western)
21. Eli Bader (NW)
22. Ruck Gunyon (Indiana)
23. Dan Reed (NW)
24. Phil Szalwinski (NW)
25. Marvin Lowentha (MICH)