Saturday's women's competition at the NCAA Midwest Regional produced no real surprises, and it appears pretty clear how the region's allocations to the NCAA Championships likely will shake out (selection based 40% on regular season and 60% on Regional finish):
• Notre Dame and Ohio State should receive the maximum six total women's spots in the NCAAs, with the other three spots going to fencers from Northwestern. Here is how CF360 (and most informed observers) see the Midwest bids shaking out (again, none of this is a stretch):
WOMEN'S FOIL (5)
Notre Dame (2) – Hayley Reese and Adi Nott
Ohio State (2) – Oksana Dmytruk (automatic) and Lindsay Knauer
Northwestern (1) – Samanta Nemecek
WF notes: All five of these fencers mirrored their Regional finish to where they were seeded entering the Regional (Dmytruk #1, Nemecek #2, Reese #3, Knauer #4 and Nott #5).
WOMEN'S EPEE (6)
Notre Dame (2) – Courtney Hurley (automatic) and Ewa Nelip/Kelley Hurley
Ohio State (2) – Julia Tikhonova and Miriam Baranov
Northwestern (2) – twins Christa and Kayley French
WE notes: Since Nelip (2nd) and Kelley Hurley (4th) both finished within the allocation threshold (six spots, with no more than two per team), ND has the option of selecting which fencer will join Courtney Hurley in competing at the NCAAs ... the Regional finish order, 1-8, was: C. Hurley (#2 initial seed), Nelip (#1), K. Hurley (#4), Tikhonova (#3), C. French (#5), K. French (#6), ND's Diane Zielinski (#11) and Baranov (#8) ... despite her 8th-place finish, Baranov likely will bump up into an NCAA spot because all of the fencers who finished above her are from ND (4) or Northwestern (2), plus one OSU teammate (each team is allowed only two NCAA entrants, leaving one allocated spot).
WOMEN'S SABRE (5)
Notre Dame (2) – Sara Borrmann (automatic) and Eileen Hassett/Beatriz Almeida
Ohio State (2) – two from the trio of Margarita Tscholakova, Falencia Miller and Emily Cheng
Northwestern (1) – Whitney White
WS notes: As in women's sabre, ND technically has the option of sending Hassett (runner-up) or Almedia (4th) to the NCAAs, alongside the Regional champ Borrmann ... due to Hassett's status as the #1 Regional seed and second-place finisher (plus the fact that she has NCAA Tournament experience, placing 5th in '08), it seems highly likely that Hassett will be bouting at the NCAAs (Almeida entered the Regional as the #7 seed) ... OSU has a similar option, except with all three fencers: Tschomakova (#4 seed; placed 3rd), Miller (#2 seed; placed 5th) and Cheng (#5 seed, placed 6th) ... none of those OSU fencers has NCAA Tournament experience (Miller is a sophomore, the other two are freshmen) ... similar to OSU epeeist Baranov, Northwestern's White looks good for an NCAA spot, thanks to her #6 seed and in spite of her 8th-place finish (only ND and OSU fencers finished ahead of her).