CONTACT: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
Here's a rundown of preview news-and-notes for the 2011 Ivy League Fencing Round-Robin Championships, to be held Feb. 12-3 at Princeton (all content courtesy of CollegeFencing360.com) ... also CLICK HERE for a look at Ivy League Championship history (or see previous blog post)
IVY LEAGUE ROUND-ROBIN
FENCING CHAMPIONSHIPS
Feb. 12-13, 2011 ... Jadwin Gymnasium (Princeton, NJ)
DAY-1 (Saturday, Feb. 12)
Round 1 (10:30) ... Harvard vs. Penn ... Princeton vs. Cornell (women) ... Columbia vs. Yale
Round 2 (11:45) ... Harvard vs. Cornell (women) ... Princeton vs. Brown ... Columbia vs. Penn
Round 3 (10:30) ... Harvard vs. Princeton ... Columbia vs. Cornell (women) ... Yale vs. Brown
DAY-2 (Sunday, Feb. 12)
Round 4 (10:00) ... Harvard vs. Brown ... Princeton vs. Columbia ... Penn vs. Yale
Round 5 (11:15) ... Harvard vs. Columbia ... Penn vs. Brown ... Yale vs. Cornell (women)
Round 6 (1:15) ... Princeton vs. Yale ... Columbia vs. Brown ... Penn vs. Cornell (women)
Round 7 (1:15) ... Harvard vs. Yale ... Princeton vs. Penn ... Brown vs. Cornell (women)
Harvard junior sabreist Carolina Vloka (2010 NCAA champ)
MUST-SEE FENCING – Saturday's closing round could go a long way in determining the 2001 Ivy League champions, as the Harvard teams (#2 men; #3 women) will take on the host team Princeton #6 men; #4 women) ... the tournament actually begins with another key matchup, between Harvard and Penn (#7 men; #8 women) ... Harvard swept Penn a week ago at the Eric Sollee Invitational (Crimson men won 16-11, women 17-10; held at MIT) ... looking ahead to Sunday, things may not be settled until the final round – when Princeton and Penn will face off.
Penn senior epeeeist Jacob Wischnia
THREE-TIMERS – The 55-year history of the Ivy League round-robins has seen 14 men's fencers earn all-Ivy League honors four times – most recently Columbia men's sabreist Jeff Spear (2007-10) – while 33 others have been three-time honorees ... only four women's fencers have earned all-Ivy honors four times – with Harvard foilist Chloe Stinetorf (2003-06) being the most recent and the only one to do so since 2000 ... other four-timers from the women's weapons have included: Penn foilist Gail Rossman ('85-'88), along with Columbia foilists Caitlin Bilodeaux ('84-'87) and Susan Jennings ('97-'00) ... the 23 women's fencers to earn all-Ivy League honors three times include (most recently) recent Columbia sabre teammates Daria Schneider ('06, '07, '10) and Jackie Jacobson ('08-'10) ... there won't be a four-time honoree this weekend, but there are plenty who are taking aim at their third career all-Ivy finish:
Fencers who could earn all-Ivy League honors for the third time
• Men's Foil – Alex Mills (Princeton) and Alex Simmons (Penn)
• Men's Epee – Jacob Wischnia (Penn)
• Women's Foil – Laura Paragano (Penn) and Lucille Jarry (Princeton)
• Women's Epee – Noam Mills (Harvard) and Neely-Brandfield Harvey (Columbia)
• Women's Sabre – Danielle Kamis (Penn), Dominika Franciskowicz (Penn) and Sammy Roberts (Columbia)
Yale senior foilist Nathaniel Botwinick
Harvard junior sabreist Valentin Staller• MEN'S SABRE ... Several newcomers could be in the mix for top honors at this weapon, as two Harvard fencers – junior Valentin Staller (1st team in 2010) and sophomore Thomas Kolasa (2nd team, '10) – are part of only four returning fencers with past all-Ivy League honors ... Penn's Evan Prochniak (2010 first-teamer) and fellow sophomore Colin Mills of Yale (2nd team, '10) round out the short list of past honorees ... Staller finished atop the standings in 2010 (13-2), followed by Prochniak's 12-3 (Kolasa went 10-5, Mills 9-6).
Harvard junior epeeist Noam Mills
• WOMEN'S EPEE ... This weapon also has numerous top veterans from a number of the league's teams – most notably Harvard junior Noam Mills (an Ivy League 1st-teamer in '09 and '10, matched by a pair of NCAA runner-up finishes) ... Columbia junior Neely Brandfield-Harvey (1st team in '10; 2nd team, '09) also will be aiming for her third all-Ivy performance (Princeton junior Susannah Scanlan was a 1st teamer in '09 and '10 but is taking the year off from college fencing to focus on training for her Olympic bid) ... even without Scanlan, there should be plenty of other top fencers in the mix: Columbia sophomore Lydia Kopecky (1st team in '10) and senior Martyna Urbanowicz (1st team, '08); Princeton's Phoebe Caldwell and Penn's Amrit Bhinder (who each earned 2nd-team honors as freshmen in 2010) ... Brandfield-Harvey and Mills had matching 15-3 records at the 2010 Ivy League Championshops, followed by Kopecky (14-4), Scanlan (14-4), Bhinder and Caldwell (both 12-6) ... Mills nearly ran the table at the 2009 event (17-1), while Brandfield-Harvey was 13-5 ... Urbanowicz had a similarly impressive 16-2 record in 2008.
Columbia junior sabreist Sammy Roberts• WOMEN'S SABRE ... Penn senior Danielle Kamis has a third all-Ivy performance in her sights (1st teamer in '08; 2nd team, '09), as do three others: defending NCAA champion Caroline Vloka (1st team, '10; 2nd team as a freshman in '09), Penn junior Dominika Franciskowicz (2nd-teamer in '09 and '10) and Columbia junior Sammy Roberts (two-time first teamer) ... current Columbia junior Stephanie Aiuto joined her teammate Roberts among the three 1st-teamers in 2009, while Princeton's Eliza Stone was a 2nd-team Ivy League finisher in 2010 ... Vloka (16-2) tied for the top win pct. at this event in 2010, followed by Roberts (14-2) and Franciskowicz (14-4), while Stone went 12-5 ... Vloka and Aiuto tied atop the 2009 women's sabre standings (16-2), followed by Roberts at 15-4 (Franciskoicz was 13-4, Kamis 13-5) ... Kamis also was 13-5 in 2008.
TOP FENCERS TO WATCH
Harvard sophomore foilist Tomasso DiRobilant
#2 HARVARD MEN ... The Crimson area a fairly young team, returning five competitors from the 2010 NCAAs (four of them juniors or sophomore) ... junior men's sabreist Valentin Staller (6th at '20 NCAAs; 15th in '09) could contend for the 2011 NCAA title, while the team's other top veterans will be looking to boost their NCAA finishes from a year ago: senior foilist Hao Meng (16th), junior epeeist James Hawrot (14th) and the promising sophomore duo of foil All-American Tomasso DiRobilant (12th in '10) and sabreist Michael Tom (21st) ... top newcomers include epeeist Michael Raynis (has held U.S. #1 ranking in Under-19s) and sabreist Eric Arzoian (3rd-place at 2010 Junior World Championships) – although Raynis likely won't be fencing Sunday at MIT (he was compting Saturday in Sweden, at a Jr. World Cup).
Harvard junior foilist Shelby MacLeod
#3 HARVARD WOMEN ... The Crimson women boast the defending NCAA sabre champ, junior Caroline Vloka ('09 runner-up) and a junior epeeist, Noam Mills, who finished as NCAA runner-up in each of the past two seasons ... junior foilist Shelby MacLeod is a two-time NCAA entrant (17th in '09; 11th in '10) ... two other current Harvard fencers competed in the 2010 NCAAs: sophomore sabreist Elena Helgiu (21st) and sophomore epeeist Felicia Sun (22nd) ... freshman foilist Alex Kiefer impressively won the Penn State Garret Open (fall of '10) and went 15-0 vs. several top fencers at the recent St. John's Super Cup ... junior sabreist Hayley Levitt also could emerge as a key postseason contributor for the Crimson.
Princeton senior epeeist Mike Elfassy
#6 PRINCETON MEN ... The Tigers have three All-Americans active on the current squad: sr. epeeist Mike Elfassy (3rd at '09 NCAAs), soph. epeeist Jon Yergler (9th in '10) and junior foilist Alex Mills (12th in '09; 11th in '10), but the squad suffered a big setback due to a season-ending injury for All-America epeeist Graham Wicas ('09 NCAA runner-up; 3rd in '08; 20th in '10) ... sr. sabreist John Stogin (20th in '08 and '10; 19th in '09) and jr. foilist David Mandle (13th in '10) also have fenced in the NCAAs, while soph. epeeist Ed Kelly could prove to be one of college fencing's top young epeeists (Kelly, like ND's Kaull, will not be fencing at Northwestern due to the World Cup event in Sweden) ... the Tigers will be looking for a boost in sabre from top newcomers Phillip Dershwitz and Robert Stone (brother of Princeton women's sabre All-American Eliza Stone).
Princeton junior foilist Lucille Jarry
#4 PRINCETON WOMEN ... Soph. Eliza Stone (8th at '10 NCAAs) returns to lead the sabre squad, while 2010 foil All-American Brianna Martin (6th in '10) has switched to epee for her second season, helping overcome the absence of jr. Susannah Scanlan (5th in '09, 7th in '10) who is taking time off from college fencing in bid to make 2010 Olympic team ... three other juniors – foilists Rocky Rothenberg (15 at '10 NCAAs), Lucille Jarry (19th in '09) and Andrea Oliva (23rd in '09) – have NCAA Tournament experience, as do soph. epeeist Phoebe Caldwell (15th in '10), soph. sabreist Joanna Cichomski (13th in '10) and sr. sabreist Lyuba Docheva (20th in '08) ... fr. foilist Ambika Singh has joined Scanlan in bypassing the college season to chase her Olympic dream, but the Tigers have several other top newcomers, led by foilist Eve Levin (runner-up at the Penn State Open, in the fall of '10) and sabreist Diamond Wheeler (member of U.S. Junior National Team).
Penn junior sabreist Dominika Franciszkowicz
PENN ... The Quakers have fencers with NCAA Tournament experience at all six weapons, led by three-time NCAA women's sabre entrant Danielle Kamis (10th in '08; 14 in '09; 20th in '10) ... her teammate, jr. Dominika Franciszkowicz, placed 12th in the 2009 and '10 NCAA sabre standings ... sr. women's epeeist Stephanie Wheeler has made two trips to the NCAAs (9th in '09; 17th in '10), while two Penn women's foilists have competed in the NCAAs: current jr. Laura Paragano (15th in '09) and second-year fencer Aida Abdikulova (22nd in '10) ... the Quakers men's teams has a junior foil trio who all have advanced to the NCAAs during their careers: Vidur Kapur (9th in '10; 15th in '09), Alex Simmons (7th in '10) and Zane Grodman (17th, in '09) ... sr. men's epeeist Jacob Wischnia (17th at 2010 NCAAs) and soph. men's sabreist Evan Prochniak (11th in '10) round out Penn's veteran leaders ... fr. men's epeeist Clifford Fishler has posted several noteworthy wins this season, while the women's epee team also boasts a top newcomer in Gabby Foor.
Yale junior foilist Katherine Pitt
YALE ... The Bulldogs have four men's fencers with NCAA Tournament experience (along with four from the women's team) ... sr. men's foilist Nat Botwinick is coming off a solid 6th-place finish at the 2010 NCAAs (20th in '08), with jr. men's foilist Shiv Kachru also owning an All-America finish (10th in '09) ... current soph. men's sabreist Colin Mills ('10) and jr. epeeist Alex Cohen ('09) finished 24th in their NCAA appearances ... jr. women's foilist Katherine Pitt is a two-time NCAA entrant (8th in '09; 13th in '10), while sr .foilist Lidia Gocheva (23rd in '08), sophomore sabreist Madeline Oliver (23rd in '10) and soph. epeeist Madeline Buxton (24th in '10) also have competed in the NCAAs ... the Yale men have a promising group of freshman epeeists, led by Peter Cohen, Cornelius Saunders and Benjamin Mappin-Kasirer.
Columbia junior epeeist Neely Brandfield-Harvey
COLUMBIA ... The Lions current men's roster includes no fencers with NCAA Tournament experience, but the women feature four such veterans – led by junior All-America epeeist Neely Brandfield-Harvey (6th at '09 NCAAs; 20th in '10) ... jr. sabreist Sammy Roberts also has an All-America finish to her credit (9th at the 2009 NCAAs) ... epeeist Lydia Kopecky (18th) and foilist D'Meca Homer (20th) made their NCAA debuts as freshmen in 2010 ... the defending NCAA champion in women's foil, Nicole Ross, is not fencing with the Lions this semester in order to focus on Olympic training/qualification ... key additions for the Columbia men have included epeeist Magnus Ferguson and foilist Alex Pensler, while the Lions women's team features a newcomer in foil (Nzingha Prescod) whose accomplishments truly set her apart (started her college career ranked 17th in the world, among all women's foilists) ... soph. sabreist Loweye Diedro and fr. epeeist Katya English also could play key roles for Columbia down the stretch.
Cornell sophomore sabreist Beverly Yang
OTHERS OF NOTE ... Current Brown sr. Jonathan Yu place 23rd in the men's foil at the 2009 NCAAs ... Cornell sabresit Beverly Yang placed 17th at the 2010 NCAAs and epeeist Addy McDonnell was 21st, to cap their freshman season ... two current Cornell freshmen – foilists April Whitney and Christine McIntosh – finished 2-3 at the Temple Invitational in the fall.