COLUMBIA, NOTRE DAME RECEIVE MAXIMUM 12 SPOTS INTO 2015 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP FIELD
Past two champions, Penn State & Princeton, join St. John’s with 11 qualifiers; Harvard & host Ohio State 10.
RELEASE: March 10, 2015
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
Only two teams – Columbia and Notre Dame – have received the maximum 12 indvidual qualifers for the upcoming NCAA Combined Men's and Women's Fencing Championship, to be held March 19-22 at French Fieldhouse in Columbus, Ohio. A year ago (in 2014, also at OSU), it was three teams – the defending champion at the time Princeton, perennial power and eventual 2014 champion Penn State, and the tournament host Buckeyes – who had received the full 12 entrants. And one year earlier, the soon-to-be 2013 champions Princeton and eventual runner-up Notre Dame were the only teams that qualified the maximum 12 fencers.
2015 NCAA Fencing Headshot/Info. Galleries (courtesy CF360):
Men’s Foil | Men’s Epee | Men’s Sabre | Women’s Foil | Women’s Epee | Women’s Sabre
ALL DATA ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CollegeFencing360.com – please credit accordingly
It is not unprecedented, but it is rare, for a team with 11 entrants to win the title over a team with the full 12 … and it’s certainly more conveivable when there’s only two teams with 12 (as opposed to four or five with the max. entrants, as there have been in recent years).
Most notably, such an “underdog title" happened in 2005 when Notre Dame's 11-fencer contingent rallied to beat another 11-fencer team, Ohio State, in a 173-171 thriller that played out in Houston (St. John's had been the only team to qualify 12 but faded and finished third, at 162). That 2005 NCAA format closed with two days of the women's bouts, as Notre Dame surged past OSU – with the ND six-fencer contingent comprised entirely of fencers who competed in at least one NCAA individual final during their respective careers (foil–Alicja Kryczalo and Andrea Ament; epee–Kerry Walton and Amy Orlando; sabre–Mariel Zagunis and Valerie Providenza).
Now, 10 years later in 2015, three teams – the past two champions, Penn State and Princeton, along with St. John's – will try to replicate ND’s 2005 feat, by winning with only 11 entrants. Penn State was well on track for qualifying 12, but sophomore women’s epeeist Jessica O’Neill-Lyublinsky (a 2014 All-American) reportedly suffered a sprained ankle in the opening pool at the Mid-Atlantic/South Regional and was unable to fully recover, ultimately finishing 16th and failing to reach the final pool-of-12 (which consequently left PSU with only one women’s epee entrant for the 2015 NCAAs).
Princeton’s troubles, at the same regional, came in men’s foil, despite freshman Thomas Dudey’s first-place finish (as the Tigers were unable to produce another qualifer in that weapon). St. John’s came up short in women’s sabre, with only one entrant but still 11 overall … although another big twist for SJU is the fact that their ace men’s epeeist Yevgeniy Karyuchenko failed to even reach the final-21 at the Northeast Regional. Karyuchenko will not be able to defend his title, although the Red Storm still managed to qualify two men’s epeeists … but most would agree that having their elite epeeist in the lineup would make the 11-fencer title a lot more feasible.
Over the past 10 seasons (2006-15), there have been an average of 3.3 teams with the maximum 12 entrants at the NCAA Championships – including five in 2010 and '12 (four in '08; three in '06, '07, '09, '11 and '14; and a low of two in 2013 and now in 2015).
Host Ohio State and Harvard, with only 10 entrants each, are considerable longshots, not solely because of being short two fencers but also because they must surpass five other teams that will be fielding 11 or 12 competitors.
The University of Pennsylvania (8) and Duke (7) are the only other schools that qualified more than six fencers for the 2015 NCAAs, among the 144-fencer field (24 each in men's foil, men's epee, men's sabre, women's foil, women's epee and women's sabre). Northwestern, which sponsors varsity fencing only on the women's side, qualified the maximum six fencers for the 2015 NCAAs – joining Columbia, Notre Dame and Princeton as the only schools with the full six women’s entrants.
DRIVE FOR FIVE? – If Columbia (or St. John’s, or Harvard) wins the 2015 NCAA Fencing Championship, that will yield five different team champions over the past five years (2014: Penn State … 2013: Princeton … 2012: Ohio State … 2011: Notre Dame … the 2010 champ was PSU).
(college fencing fans – wanted to get this up as quickly as possible, but it is very text- and data-heavy, will try to add some nice photos later to break it up and will integrate some more visual elements in other postings over the next few days … also trying to “unpack" even more research I’ve done over the past 15 years, to develop more notebook/historical stuff … hopefully some of you out there enjoy it, always feel free to contact me with specific questions, etc. – PL.)
ALL DATA ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CollegeFencing360.com – please credit accordingly
2015 NCAA Fencing Headshot/Info. Galleries (courtesy CF360):
Men’s Foil | Men’s Epee | Men’s Sabre | Women’s Foil | Women’s Epee | Women’s Sabre
• A QUICK OVERVIEW OF THE TWO 12-FENCER TEAMS ...
COLUMBIA has been steadily buidling its program and certainly has its roster stacked for the foreseeable future. The biggest strides have come in women’s epee and sabre. A year ago, Columbia (which often includes women’s fencers from sister school Barnard College, and thus commonly is referenced as Columbia-Barnard) qualfiied only one fencer in women’s epee and one for women’s sabre – and those fencers contributed a total of only 10 wins/points to the team total of 107 (the other four weapons each totaled between 19–30 points). Now, a year later, the Lions are sending two women’s epeeists and two women’s sabre standouts to the NCAAs.
Early in the season, Columbia coach Michael Aufrichtig sensed a great combination of talent and compeitiveness from his freshman women’s sabre trio – and they sure delivered recently as well at the Northeast Regional, as Lena Johnson (2nd), Anestasia Ivanoff (4th) and Danya Hu (6th) each finished in the top-6. On most other teams, or in many other years at Columbia, Hu would be heading to the NCAAs (instead, she will be providing valuable support to her classmates). The other fencers that finished in the Northeast Regional top-6? Pretty solid, most notably the Harvard duo of Adrienne Jarocki (regional champ) and Aliya Itkowitz (3rd) – who a year ago placed 1–2 at the 2014 NCAAs.
Columbia’s women’s epee surge also has included a freshman, as Katie Angen earned an NCAA spot on the strength of her No. 5 pre-Regional seed (good enough to make the NCAAs, despite finishing 13th at the Regional to narrowly miss the final pool-of-12).
NOTRE DAME – one year after stunningly qualifying only 10 fencers (its lowest number of NCAA entrants in the 15-year history of the six-weapon format, since 2000) – is back to its customary standard of the max. qualification group of 12. The Irish had qualified 12 every year from 2008-13, the longest such streak in college fencing at the time. Prior to 2014, Notre Dame had qualified 165 out of a possible 168 fencers (98.2%) in the six-weapon era from 2000-13 – missing only in 2004 (men's epee), 2005 (men's foil, when ND won the title with 11) and 2007 (women's epee) before sending only one men’s epeeist and one in women’s sabre a year ago.
Beyond owning the coveted 12-qualifier status, Columbia and Notre Dame have one other (potentially pivotal) common distinction: several entrants who will be making their NCAA Championships debut. These young talents have been battle-tested all over the world during their youth fencing careers – but everything changes at the NCAAs, a 23-bout/2-day gauntlet, with the major psychological component piled on, as each fencer from a contending team is dreading a “bad loss” that could prove costly to their school’s title chances.
Will the Columbia and Notre Dame newcomers to the NCAAs rise to the occasion with great consistency and focus? Or will they – like so many standouts before them – have some unexpected bumps in the road? More importantly, like a pitcher closing the game in baseball, how quickly will they be able to shake off a bad touch/result and mentally move on? One of these teams could run away with the title, and this topic then could be somewhat of a moot point. But if any of the 11-fencer teams start hot – and stay hot – the pressure will be palpable for the two “lead teams.”
In addition to Ivanoff, Johnson and Angen, the Columbia-Barnard women’s side actually has a fourth fencer who has never competed in the NCAAs – none other than junior Margaret Lu, she of the full U.S. National Team (schedule conflicts with 2013 and ’14 international events precluded Lu from previous NCAA tournament competition). Again, Lu already has fenced in World Championship settings and the like. But, to borrow a bad sports cliche, “That’s why they fence the bouts” … and don’t just win them on paper.
As for the other “pre-tournament favorite”/12-fencer squad, Notre Dame’s newcomers to the NCAA tournament experience include the freshman sabre quartet of Jonathan Fitzgerald, Jonah Shainberg, Francesca Russo and Claudia Kulmacz – hearkening back to ND’s 2008 freshman sabre group of Sarah Borrmann, Eileen Hassett, Barron Nydam and Avery Zuck, who ultimately helped the Irish fashion an NCAA title season as seniors in 2011. For the current squad, half of Notre Dame’s 12 entrants have never fenced in the NCAAs prior to next week, with the other NCAA newbies including foilist Virgile Collineau and epeeist Nicholas Hanahan (both freshmen).
On the plus side, two of the Notre Dame veterans are former NCAA champions – junior Lee Kiefer (’13 and ’14 women’s foil) and 5th-year senior Ariel DeSmet (’11 men’s foil) – while two others fenced in 2014 NCAA title bouts: senior foilist Madi Zeiss (lost to her teammate Kiefer) and junior epeeist Garrett McGrath. Columbia boasts one fencer with NCAA medal-round experience: junior Jackie Dubrovich, who lost to Kiefer in the 2013 NCAA women’s foil final and then lost an ultra defensive, 6–4 semifinal vs. Zeiss in 2014.
Essentially, just about all of the Columbia and Notre Dame women’s fencers fall into two categories: new to the NCAAs (6 combined) or owning NCAA medal-round experience (3 combined). The only fencers outside of those two groups are epeeists: Speta and the ND senior tandem of Nicole Ameli and Ashley Severson. Both of the Irish seniors are making their third career NCAA appearances and they each finished as All-Americans (top-12) in both 2012 and ’14 (Ameli’s top finish is 8th and Severson’s 5th, when she narrowly missed the 2012 medal round).
Ameli and Severson – who spent several years training side-by-side with two of college fencing’s top women’s epeeists in recent years (current U.S. National Teamer Courtney Hurley and Ewa Nelip, a product of Poland’s standout fencing heritage and now an ND volunteer assistant) – could end up being final-day “wild cards” in the impending NCAA race to the title.
Although the Columbia men’s team has no fencers with NCAA medal-round experience, senior Will Spear is a rare four-time NCAA qualifier and nearly reached the NCAA men’s sabre semifinals in 2012 (5th, also 5th in ’13 but 12th in ’14). If the team title comes down to Columbia and Notre Dame, it may hinge on the men’s competition – even through the men fence on the first two days. As a group, the Columbia men should be eager to prove themselves on this big stage. The lefthander Spear barely made All-America status a year ago; surely, he wants to make a run at the individal title (while helping the Lions acrrue points to the team total) – much as his brother Jeff did several years ago, during his own standout career at Columbia. Jeff Spear won the 2008 NCAA men’s sabre title and four yeas later was a member of the U.S. Olympic Team in London.
Beyond Will Spear, the most NCAA-experienced fencers for the Columbia men are a pair of juniors: epeeist Brian Ro, a two-time All-American after placing sixth at the 2013 NCAAs and 12th in ’14, and foilist Adam Mathieu, a late swap by the Lions rather than sophomore Drew Johnson, who would have been making his NCAA Championships debut. Mathieu, who fell within the qualification standards but behind Johnston, placed 16th at the 2013 NCAAs and 13th in ’14. Ro's classmate and epee teammate Jake Hoyle also was a 2014 NCAA entrant but placed 15th. Two other members of that junior class are among the 2015 NCAA entrants: foilist Harry Bergman (21st at ’14 NCAAs) and sabre veteran Geoffrey Loss, a 2014 All-American after placing seventh in the bouting at OSU a year ago.
ALL DATA ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CollegeFencing360.com – please credit accordingly
Scroll to bottom of page for full qualifier lists, sorted by weapon
(some additional team & individual notes are included below, and with each entrant list … with plenty more coming to CF360 over the next few days)
2015 NCAA Fencing Championship Entrants (sorted by school)
12 – Columbia and Notre Dame
11 – Penn State (1 w-epee), Princeton (1 m-foil) and St. John’s (1 w-sabre)
10 – Harvard (1 m-epee; 1 w-epee) and Ohio State (1 w-epee; 1 w-sabre)
8 – U-Penn (1 w-foil; 1 w-epee; 0 w-sabre)
7 – Duke
6 – Air Force, Northwestern (women) and Stanford
5 – Brown
4 – NJIT, Sacred Heart and Wayne State
3 – Cornell (women) and Yale
2 – Boston College, MIT, NYU and Temple (women)
1 – UC San Diego, North Carolina and Stevens Tech
note: Northwestern joined Columbia, Notre Dame and Princeton as the only women’s teams that qualified the maximum six fencers.
• Competition Format – All fencers will compete in a round-robin format of 23 five-touch bouts, spread out over two days (men on Thur.-Fri., March 19-20; followed by the women on the weekend). The team scoring is simple – with each individual victory counting as one point to the team total. The top-four finishers in each weapon will contend for individual titles (men on Friday afternoon, women Sunday), with 15-touch semifinals and title bouts. Those closing individual bouts do not factor into the team point totals.
• Recent Team Title History – Princeton in 2013 captured the program's first NCAA combined team title, since the men's and women's championships merged in 1990. Spanning the previous 11 seasons, three different schools each had collected three NCAA titles (from 2003-13): Notre Dame (2003, '05 and '11), Ohio State ('04, '08 and '12) and Penn State ('07, '09 and ’ 0, also again in ‘14), with the other in that span won by Harvard in 2006. The Irish also won in 1994, the fifth year of the combined men's and women's championship, and have been the NCAA runner-up seven times over the past 25 seasons (1996, '97, '98, '99, 2000, '08, '09 and '13).
Columbia won the NCAA title in 1992 and '93 (the third and fourth years under the combined format), but the Lions have not returned to the top spot (or runner-up position) in more than two decades. Harvard was somewhat of a surprise winner of that 2006 NCAA team title, held in Houston.
It has been more than a decade since St. John's won the NCAA team fencing title ('01), but the Red Storm have been close five other times during the combined format – finishing as runner-up during that 25-year stretch in 1995, 2000, '02, '07 and ’10.
During the 25-year history of previous men's and women's combined NCAA championships, Penn State has either won the title (13 – 1990, '91, '95, '96, '97, '98, '99, 2000, '02, '07, ’09, ’10 and ‘14) or finished as runner-up (8 – 1992, '93, '94, 2001, '03, '04, '06 and '11) in 21 of those years, all but four: 2005 (when ND won, OSU 2nd), 2008 (OSU won, ND 2nd), 2012 (OSU won, Princeton 2nd) and 2013 (Princeton was the champs, ND the runner-up).
• Home Facility Advantage – Ohio State could win the NCAA title at its home facility for the third time, after doing so in 2008 and '12. Penn State also owns a recent NCAA title while fencing at home, in 2010.
• At-Large Entries – The 144-fencer field was rounded out by two at-large entries for each weapon, with the bulk of the competitors advancing directly from the four regions (Northeast, Mid-Atlantic/South, Midwest and West) based on pre-determined allotments. It appears that Notre Dame bumped up from 11 to 12 qualifiers via the at-large process in men’s sabre, with Jonathan Fitzgerald joining fellow ND freshman Jonah Shainberg in the 2014 NCAA field.
Most of the 12 at-large entrants appear to come from teams not in contention for the overall team title (note that the NCAA does not formally designate which fencers received the at-large spots). In addition to ND’s second men’s sabre spot, one other team is worth noting. … If Princeton’s 11-fencer contingent is able to get into the title race, the Tigers likely will have the at-large process to thank, as it apprars that men’s epeeist Alex House and sabre sophomore Peter Pak (who nearly made the 2014 NCAA medal round) both received at-large spots for their respective weapons.
• Team Options (‘Teo' is Back) – Several teams had some options in terms of which two fencers from certain weapons to send to the 2015 NCAAs, but in nearly every case those teams went strictly by the numbers (as determined by the NCAA qualification formula that is 40% season strength factor leading into the Regional weekend and then 60% based on Regional finish). One notable exception was Penn State installing sophomore Teodora Kakiani (2014 NCAA runner-up) as their second women’s sabre competitor for the NCAAs (PSU had three of the top-5 women’s sabre finishers in the Mid-Atlantic/South Regional).
There also was a late change to the Columbia lineup, as the Lions had an option at men’s foil and opted to go with junior Adam Mathieu over sophomore Drew Johnston. Mathieu is a two-time NCAA participant and nearly earned All-America honors in 2014 (13th at NCAAs, after 16th in ’13). Johnston would have been making his NCAA debut. Keep an eye on this decision and the role Mathieu plays in Columbia possibly contending for the title.
• Elite of the Elite – There are 20 fencers in the 2015 NCAA field who previously have reached the NCAA individual medal round (a total of 26 times), led by five former NCAA champions:
• Notre Dame junior Lee Kiefer (2013 & ’14 NCAA women's foil champion) … sister Alex was 2011 champ w/ Harvard
• Stanford junior Alex Massialas (2013 NCAA men's foil champion)
• Harvard sophomore Adienne Jarocki (2014 NCAA women’s sabre champion)
• Penn State junior Kaito Streets (2014 NCAA men’s sabre champion)
• Notre Dame 5th-yr.-sr. Ariel DeSmet (2011 NCAA men’s foil champion)
(One sidenote – a former NCAA champion failed to make the 2015 NCAA field, as St. John’s epeeist Yevgeniy Karyuchenko surprisingly finished outside the final-21 at the Northeast Regional … one year earlier in 2014, there were two former NCAA champions that never had the chance to defend their titles in 2014: Penn’s Michael Mills in men's sabre, plus ND’s DeSmet in men's foil).
Beyond Kiefer, Jarocki, Streets and Karyuchenko, the other 2014 NCAA individual champions were Notre Dame men’s foilist Gerek Meinhardt (currently completing his MBA at ND and serving as a volunteer coach with the Irish team) and Stanford’s Vivian Kong, who is taking time off from college fencing to pursue a spot in the 2016 Olympic Games.
One other recent NCAA champion again will be on hand at the NCAAs in an official capacity, as 2009 women's epee champ Nastia Ferdman (Penn State) is a third-year assistant coach with Temple.
• More Title-Bout Experience – The 2015 NCAA field also includes six fencers who have been the NCAA individual runner-up during their respective careers:
• U-Penn junior Shaul Gordon (2013 NCAA men's saber runner-up, while fencing for Penn State)
• Notre Dame senior Madi Zeiss (2014 NCAA women’s foil runner-up)
• Harvard junior Aliya Itzkowitz (2014 NCAA women’s sabre runner-up)
• Notre Dame junior Garrett McGrath (2014 NCAA men’s epee runner-up)
• St. John’s junior Ferenc Valkai (2014 NCAA men’s sabre runner-up)
• Columbia junior women's foilist Jackie Dubrovich (2013 NCAA women’s foil runner-up)
• Medal-Round Mettle – Finally, there are 13 other fencers who have reached the NCAA medal round previously (but lost in their semifinal bouts) a total of 14 times:
• women's foil: Alina Altokhina (PSU ’12), Madi Zeiss (ND ’13), Jackie Dubrovich (COL ’14) & Alanna Goldie (OSU ’14)
• women’s epee: Jessie Radanovich (Penn State ’14)
• women's sabre: Gracie Stone (Princeton ’13 & ’14), Teodora Kakhiani (Penn St. ’14) & Gillian Litynski (UNC ‘13)
• men's foil (both 2014): Alex Massialas (Stanford) and Nobuo Bravo (Penn State)
• men's epee: Jack Hudson (Princeton ’14)
• men's sabre (both 2014): Shaul Gordon (Penn) and Roman Sydorenko (St. John’s)
In addition to the aforementioned Karyuchenko, two other former NCAA medal-round fencers who were active in the 2014-15 college season did not reach the 2015 NCAAs: Harvard men’s epeeist Peregrine Badger (2013 semifinalist) and Penn women’s foilist Luona Wang (2012 semifinalist).
• Dirty Dozen – The 2015 NCAAs will mark an end to Princeton’s streak of five straight years with the max. 12 NCAA entrants. Harvard had 12 NCAA qualifiers recently in 2010 and again in '12, with Columbia's most-recent 12-fencer contingents (prior to 2015) coming in 2007 and '08. Penn State surprisingly has sent the max. 12 fencers to the NCAAs only five times during the past 11 years: 2006, '07, '09, '10 and '14 ('07, ’09, '10 and ’14 all were title-winning years for PSU).
Starting in 2005, St. John's has produced 12-fencer NCAA contingents four more times (also '07, '08, '10 and '11). Ohio State had a 12-fencer group at the 2008 NCAAs (OSU won that year), followed by a dozen entries in 2009, '11, '12 and '14.
• Who’s Back for More? – Here’s a breakdown of each 2015 NCAA weapon field, in terms of fencers returning from the 2014 NCAA entrants (check out that women’s foil star power!):
• 16 (of 24) women’s foilists (plus one who fenced in ’12 NCAAs but not ‘13 or ‘14)
• 11 (of 24) men’s sabre fencers
• 11 (of 24) men’s foilists (also one who fenced in ’12 NCAAs but not ’13 or ’14)
• 10 (of 24) men’s epeeists
• 9 (of 24) women’s epeeists (also one who fenced in ’13 NCAAs but not in ’14)
• 9 (of 24) women’s sabre fencers (also one who fenced in ’13 NCAAs but not in ’14)
total returners from 2014 NCAAs: 66 of 144 (46%), also 4 others w/ NCAA Champ. exp. pre-2014 (70 of 144 is 49%)
… And here’s how many former All-Americans (based on previous NCAA top-12 finishes) are in the 2015 NCAA Championship field:
• 10 women’s foilists (5 w/ medal-round exp. … one a two-time former champion)
• 10 men’s sabre fencers (4 w/ medal-round exp. … one former champion)
• 7 men’s foilists (3 w/ medal-round exp. … two former champions)
• 7 men’s epeeists (2 w/ medal-round exp. … no former champions)
• 6 women’s sabre fencers (5 w/ medal-round exp. … one former champion)
• 5 women’s epeeists (1 w/ medal-round exp. … no former champions)
totals: 45 former All-Americans (20 w. medal-round experience, five of them former champions)
• 4-Time NCAA Qualifiers – Here are the 10 fencers (eight of them women) making their fourth career appearances at the NCAAs, in 2015 (four WF, two WE, two WS, one MF, one MS):
• Madi Zeiss (Notre Dame w-foil) – ’14 NCAA runner-up; ’13 semifinalist; 8th in ‘12
• Alina Antokhina (Penn State w-foil) – ’12 NCAA semifinalist; 22nd in ’13; 13th in ‘14
• Ambika Singh (Princeton w-foil) – 10th at ’12 NCAs; 9th in ’13 & ‘14
• Lauren Miller (Yale w-foil) – 7th at ’12 NCAAs; 13th in ‘13, 17th in ‘14
• Emma Vaggo (Harvard w-epee) – 9th at ’14 NCAAs; 14th in ’12 & ’13
• Sarah Collins (Duke w-epee) – 13th at ’12 NCAAs; 18th in ’13; 12th in ’14
• Gillian Litynski (North Carolina w-sabre) – 2013 semifinalist; 8th in ’14; 18th in ’12
• Christine Whalen (Brown w-sabre) – 19th at ’12 NCAAs; 10th in ’13; 14th in '14
• Brian Kaneshige (Harvard m-foil) – 12th in '12, 7th in ’13, 8th in ‘14
• Will Spear (Columbia m-sabre) – 5th at ’12 & ’13 NCAAs; 12th in ’14
(none in men’s epee)
– note that four of the above (Zeiss, Singh, Kaneshige and Spear) each are potential 4-time All-Americans (top–12)
… And here are 20 fencers who will making their third NCAA appearance in 2015 (scroll down for more details):
• women’s foil (7): Jackie Dubrovich, Lee Kiefer, Clarisse Luminet, Marta Hausman, Mary McElwee, Fatima Largaespada and Angelia Gangemi
• women’s epee (2): Nicole Ameli & Ashley Severson (both ND seniors)
• women’s sabre (1): Gracie Stone (Princeton jr.)
• men’s foil (6): Adam Mathieu, Ariel DeSmet, Michele Caporizzi, Alex Massialas, Alex Chiang & Andrew Holmes
• men’s epee (3): Brian Ro, Garrett McGrath and Simon Jones
• men’s sabre (1): Shaul Gordon (Penn jr.; ’13 at PSU)
• New Faces in Old Places – A quick breakdown of the 42 freshmen (excluding redshirts, when clearly noted) in the 2015 NCAA field (nearly 30% of the 144 NCAA entrants are freshmen; 25 men and 17 women):
• 10 women’s sabre entrants
• 9 men’s foilists
• 8 men’s epeeists
• 8 men’s sabre entrants
• 6 women’s epeeists
• and only one freshman women’s foilist in the 2015 NCA field
• Freshman Phenoms on the Rise – There were 24 individual NCAA Regional titles won across the country on March 7–8, 2015 (four regions, with six weapons – and varying depth of talent/oppositon from region to region) and an impressive number of freshmen (9) came away atop their respective competitions:
(3 MF, 1 ME, 1 MS, 1 WE, 3 WS … 3 Mid-Atlantic/South, 3 Midwest, 2 West, 1 Northeast)
• men’s foil: Andres Nemeth (St. John’s) – Northeast Regional champion
• men’s foil: Thomas Dudey (Princeton) – Mid-Atlantic/South Regional champion
• men’s foil: Mazimillien Chastanet (Ohio State) – Midwest Regional champion
• men’s epee: Lewis Weiss (Ohio State) – Midwest Regional champion
• men’s sabre: Andrew Mackiewicz (Penn State) – Mid-Atlantic/South Regional champion
• women’s epee: Rebecca Rose (Stanford) – West Regional champion
• women’s sabre: Karen Chang (Penn State) – Mid-Atlantic/South Regional champion
• women’s sabre: Julie Saint-Cricq (Wayne State) – Midwest Regional champion
• women’s sabre: Stephanie Wang (Stanford) – West Regional champion
note: Wayne State redshirt freshman Ziad Elsissy won the Midwest Regional
… And these six freshmen were 2015 Regional runner-up finishers:
• men’s foil: John Vaiani (U-Penn) – Northeast Regional runner-up
• men’s epee: Jake Raynis (Penn) – Mid-Atlantic/South Regional runner-up
• men’s sabre: Jonah Shainberg (Notre Dame) – Midwest Regional runner-up
• women’s epee: Veronika Zuikova (St. John’s) – Northeast Regional runner-up
• women’s sabre: Lena Johnson (Columbia) – Northeast Regional runner-up
• women’s sabre: Francesca Russo (Notre Dame) – Midwest Regional runner-up
… Here’s the combined breakdown of Regional weapon titles with a freshman winning and/or finishing as runner-up:
• 5 women’s sabre (Chang, Saint-Gricq, Wangm Johnson and Russo)
• 4 men’s foil (Nemeth, Dudey, Chastanet and Vaiani)
• 2 men’s epee (Weiss and Raynis)
• 2 men’s sabre (Mackiewicz and Shainberg)
• 2 women’s epee (Rose and Zuikova)
• 0 women’s foil
– (8 men, 7 women)
• 5 from Midwest Regional (Chastanet, Weiss, Saint-Cricq, Shainberg and Russo)
• 4 from Northeast Regional (Nemeth, Vaiani, Zuikova and Johnson)
• 4 from Mid-Atlantic/South Regional (Dudey, Mackiewicz, Chang and Yaynis
• 2 from West Regional (Rose and Wang)
• One for the Road – An additional note: nearly the entire 2015 NCAA men’s sabre field (22 of 24) is comprised of teammates (Brown and Wayne State have one each).
… Here's the full list (scroll own) of the 144 qualifiers for the 2015 NCAAs, with some helpful note summaries at the top of each weapon (returners, All-Americans, medal-round exp., past champions, 3-time & 4-time participants, top freshman performers at Regionals) plus each name including class year, hometown and past NCAA finishes, in addition to alternate/at-large info. where applicable … plenty of additional NCAA field analysis, historical perspective, etc., coming later on CF360:
ALL DATA ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CollegeFencing360.com – please credit accordingly
2015 NCAA Fencing Headshot/Info. Galleries (courtesy CF360):
Men’s Foil | Men’s Epee | Men’s Sabre | Women’s Foil | Women’s Epee | Women’s Sabre
____________________________________________________
2015 NCAA MEN'S FOIL ENTRANTS
– 24-fencer field includes:
• 11 who also were in the 2014 NCAAs (plus one in ’12 NCAAs but not ’14, or ‘13)
• 7 former All-Americans/top–12 (DeSmet, Bravo, Caporizzi, Kaneshige, Massilas, Chiang and Holmes)
• 3 former medal-round fencers (top–4):
> Stanford jr. Alexander Massialas (’13 NCAA champion; ’14 semifinalist)
> Notre Dame 5th-yr. sr. Ariel DeSmet (’11 NCAA champion)
> Penn State jr. Nobuo Bravo (’14 NCAA semifinalist)
• One 4-time NCAA participant (Harvard’s Brian Haneshige) and five 3-time NCAA participants (DeSmet, Caporizzi, Massialas, Chiang & Holmes)
• 9 freshmen, led by:
> Andrea Nemeth (St. John’s) – Northeast Regional champion
> Thomas Dudey (Princeton) – Mid-Atlantic/South Regional champion
> Mazimillien Chastanet (Ohio State) – Midwest Regional champion
> John Vaiani (U-Penn) – Northeast Regional runner-up
> Simon Rizell (NJIT) – Northeast Regional 3rd place
* below – indicates number of previous appearances in the NCAA Championships
COLUMBIA – jr. Harry Bergman* (Lebanon, NJ; 21st in ’14)
... and jr. Adam Mathieu (team option/replacement; Union City, NJ; 16th at '13 NCAAs, 13th in ’14)
NOTRE DAME – 5th-yr.-sr. Ariel DeSmet** (Troutdale, OR; ’11 NCAA champion; 10th in ’13)
… and fr. Virgile Collineau (Aix-en-Provenec, France)
PENN STATE – jr. Nobuo Bravo* (San Francisco, CA; ’14 semifinalist)
... and sr. David Gomez Tanamachi* (Mexico City, Mexico; 18th in ‘12)
PRINCETON – fr. Thomas Dudey (Bellaire, TX)
ST. JOHN'S– jr. Michele Caporizzi** (Milan, Italy; 9th in ’13, 5th in ’14) and fr. Andras Nemeth (fr.; Budapest, Hungary)
HARVARD – sr. Brian Kaneshige*** (Maplewood, NJ; 12th in '12, 7th in ’13, 8th in ‘14) & jr. Jerry Chang (Mt. View, CA)
OHIO STATE – fr. Maximillien Chastanet (Nice, France) and fr. Stanislov Sudilovsky (Haifa, Israel)
PENN – sr. Jason Chang* (Mountain View, CA; 16th in ’14) and fr. John Vaiani (Wall, NJ)
STANFORD – jr. Alex Massilas** (San Francisco, CA; '13 NCAA champion; ’14 semifinalist)
AIR FORCE – sr. Alex Chiang** (Atlanta, GA; 11th at ’12 NCAAs; 17th in ‘14)
NJIT (New Jersey Inst. of Tech.) – so. David Kong* (Rutherford, NJ; 18th in ’14) & fr. Simon Rizell (Gothenburg, Sweden)
SACRED HEART– sr. Andrew Holmes** (Centereach, NY; 13th at ’13 NCAAs; 11th in ‘14)
WAYNE STATE – sr. Hans Kaiser (Sterling Hts, MI)
#YALE – jr. Brian Wang (Fremont, CA)
NYU (New York University) – fr. Daniel Sconzo (Merrick, NY)
#UC SAN DIEGO – fr. David Hadler (San Francisco, CA)
# – The at-large entrants in the men’s foil field came from the Northeast and West Regions and – based on pre-Regional seeding and Regional finish – they most likely appear to have been Yale’s Brian Wang and UC San Diego’s David Hadler (not officially released by the NCAA).
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2015 NCAA MEN'S EPEE ENTRANTS
– 24-fencer field includes:
• 10 who also were in the 2014 NCAAs
• 7 former All-Americans/top–12 (Ro, McGrath, Shepard, Hudson, Schumacher, Jones & Jacovino)
• 2 former medal-round fencers (top–4):
> Notre Dame jr. Garrett McGrath (2014 NCAA runner-up)
> Princeton jr.Jack Hudson (2014 NCAA semifinalist)
• Three 3-time NCAA participants (Ro, McGrath and Jones) but no 4-time NCAA entrants:
• 8 freshmen, led by:
> Lewis Weiss (Ohio State) – Midwest Regional champion
> Jake Raynis (Penn) – Mid-Atlantic/South Regional runner-up
> Sean White (St. John’s) – Northeast Regional 3rd place
> Zsombor Garzo (Penn) – Mid-Atlantic/South Regional 4th place
* below – indicates number of previous appearances in the NCAA Championships
COLUMBIA – jr. Jake Hoyle* (Philadelphia, PA; 15th in ’14) and jr. Brian Ro** (Scarsdale, NY; 6th in '13; 12th in ’14)
NOTRE DAME – jr. Garrett McGrath** (Mesa, AZ; ’14 runner-up; 13th in ‘13) and fr. Nicholas Hanahan (Indianapolis, IN)
PENN STATE – so. Conor Shepard* (Colleyville, TX; 10th in ’14) and jr. Oskar Tang (Stockholm, Sweden)
#PRINCETON – jr. Jack Hudson* (Houston, TX; NCAA semifinalist in ’14)
... and so. Alex House* (Upton, MA; 13th at ’14 NCAAs)
ST. JOHN’S – fr. Sean White (Manassas, VA)
… and so. Cooper Schumacher* (team option/replacement; Pompton Lakes, NJ; 8th at ’14 NCAAs)
HARVARD – jr. Nicolas Simko (Geneva, Switzerland)
OHIO STATE – fr. Marc-Antoine Blais (Montreal, Quebec) and fr. Lewis Weiss (Houston, TX)
PENN – fr. Zsombor Garzo (Budapest, Hungary) and fr. Jake Raynis (Chatsworth, CA)
DUKE – fr. Dean Ischiropoulos (Media, PA)
AIR FORCE – jr. James Salem* (Colorado Springs, CO; 19th at ’14 NCAAs)
STANFORD – so. Ben Riviere (San Diego, CA)
BROWN – jr. Simon Jones** (Louisville, CO; 10th at ’13 NCAAs; 18th in '14)
NJIT (New Jersey Inst. of Tech.) – fr. Eduardo Ezcurra (Madrid, Spain)
#SACRED HEART – sr. Jonathan Jacovino* (Brownfield, ME; 11th in ’14) and sr. Khristopher White (East Orange, NJ)
NYU (New York University) – so. John Cramerus (Houston, TX)
STEVENS TECH – jr. Logan Koester (Colleyville, TX)
# – The at-large entrants in the men’s epee field came from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic/South Regions and – based on pre-Regional seeding and Regional finish – they most likely appear to have been Princeton’s Alex House and Sacred Heart’s Kristopher White (not officially released by the NCAA).
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ALL DATA ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CollegeFencing360.com – please credit accordingly
2015 NCAA MEN'S SABRE ENTRANTS
– 24-fencer field includes:
• 11 who also were in the 2014 NCAAs
• 10 former All-Americans/top–12 (Loss–Spear–Streets–Pak–Valkai–Sydorenko–Arfa–Gordon–Yang–Monti)
• 4 former medal-round fencers (top–4):
> Penn State jr. Kaito Streets (2014 NCAA champion)
> U-Penn jr. Shaul Gordon (2013 NCAA runner-up/with PSU; ’14 NCAA semifinalist/with U-Penn)
> St. John's jr. Ferenc Valkai (2014 NCAA runner-up)
> St. John's so. Roman Sydorenko (2014 NCAA semifinalist)
• One 3-time NCAA participant (Gordon), plus one 4-time NCAA entrant:
> Will Spear (Columbia) – 5th at ’12 & ’13 NCAAs; 12th in ’14
• 8 freshmen (not including redshirts), led by:
> Andrew Mackiewicz (Penn State) – Mid-Atlantic/South Regional champion
> Jonah Shainberg (Notre Dame) – Midwest Regional runner-up
> Fredrick Koch (Ohio State) – Midwest Regional 3rd place
> Eli Dershwitz (Harvard) – Northeast Regional initial #1 seed (placed 7th)
… additional notes: Wayne State redshirt freshman Ziad Elsissy won the Midwest Regional … nearly the entire 2015 NCAA men’s sabre field (22 of 24) is comprised of teammates (Brown and Wayne State have one each)
* below – indicates number of previous appearances in the NCAA Championships
COLUMBIA – jr. Geoffrey Loss* (Laguna Beach, CA; 7th in ’14)
… and sr. Will Spear*** (Wyantskill, NY; 5th in ’12 & '13; 12th in ’14)
#NOTRE DAME – fr. Jonah Shainberg (Rye, NY) and fr. Jonathan Fitzgerald (East Brunswick, NJ)
PENN STATE – jr. Kaito Streets* (Redwood City, CA; ’14 champ) and fr. Andrew Mackiewicz (Westwood, MA)
#PRINCETON – so. Peter Pak* (Roslyn, NY; 5th at ’14 NCAAs) and fr. Edward Chin (Livingston, NJ)
ST. JOHN'S – jr. Ferenc Valkai* (Godolio, Hungary; ’14 NCAA runner-up)
... and jr. Roman Sydorenko* (Kiev, Ukraine; ’14 NCAA semifinalist)
HARVARD – fr. Eli Dershwitz (Sherborn, MA) and jr. Duncan O’Brien (Wellesley, MA)
OHIO STATE – so. Fares Arfa* (Laval, Quebec; 9th at ’14 NCAAs ) and fr. Fredrick Koch (Dormagen, Germany)
PENN – jr. Shaul Gordon** (Richmond, British Columbia; ’13 NCAA runner-up; ’14 NCAA semifinalist)
… and sr. Steven Yang* (Princeton Junction, NJ; 11th at ’14 NCAAs)
DUKE – so. Chris Monti* (Chicago, IL; 8th at ’14 NCAAs) and fr. Pascual Di Tella (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
AIR FORCE – jr. Ryan Redhead* (Victor, NY; 22nd at ’14 NCAAs) and sr. Emiliano Kaptain (Baton Rouge, LA)
BROWN – so. Alex Palabrica (Los Angeles, CA)
WAYNE STATE – so. Ziad Elsissy (Alexandria, Egypt)
MIT – so. Benjamin Lin (Beaverton, OT) and fr. Tzer Wong (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
# – The at-large entrants in the men’s sabre field came from the Mid-Atlantic-South and Midwest Regions and – based on pre-Regional seeding and Regional finish – they most likely appear to have been Princeton’s Peter Pak and Notre Dame’s Jonathan Fitzgerald (not officially released by the NCAA).
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2015 NCAA WOMEN'S FOIL ENTRANTS
– 24-fencer field includes:
• 16 who also were in the 2014 NCAAs (plus one in ’12 NCAAs but not ’14, or ‘13)
• 10 All-Americans/top–12 (Dubrovich–Kiefer–Zeiss–Antokhina–Luminet–Singh–Hausman–Spezzamonte–Goldie–Miller)
• 5 former medal-round fencers (top–4):
> Notre Dame jr. Lee Kiefer – 2013 and '14 NCAA champion
> Notre Dame sr. Madi Zeiss – 2014 NCAA runner-up and ’13 semifinalist
> Columbia jr. Jackie Dubrovich – 2013 NCAA runner-up and ’14 semifinalist
> Ohio State so. Alanna Goldie – 2014 NCAA semifinalist
> Penn State sr. Alina Antokhina – 2012 NCAA semifinalist
• seven 3-time NCAA participants (Dubrovich, Kiefer, Luminet, Hausman, McElwee, Largaespada and Gangemi),
plus four 4-time NCAA entrants:
> Madi Zeiss (Notre Dame) – ’14 NCAA runner-up; ’13 semifinalist; 8th in ‘12
> Alina Antokhina (Penn State) – ’12 NCAA semifinalist; 22nd in ’13; 13th in ‘14
> Ambika Singh (Princeton) – 10th at ’12 NCAs; 9th in ’13 & ‘14
> Lauren Miller (Yale) – 7th at ’12 NCAAs; 13th in ‘13, 17th in ‘14
• Only one freshmen (Harvard’s Makenzie Lawrence)
* below – indicates number of previous appearances in the NCAA Championships
COLUMBIA – jr. Jackie Dubrovich** (Riverdale, NJ; ’13 runner-up; '14 semifnalist) and jr. Margaret Lu (Greenwich, CT)
NOTRE DAME – jr Lee Kiefer** (Versailles, KY; ’13 & ’14 NCAA champion)
… and sr. Madison Zeiss*** (Los Angeles, CA; ’14 runner-up; ’13 semifinalist; 8th in ‘12)
PENN STATE – sr. Alina Antokhina*** (Moscow, Russia; ’12 NCAA semifinalist; 22nd in ’13; 13th in ‘14)
... and jr. Clarisse Luminet** (Lyon, France; 7th at NCAAs in ’13 and ’14)
PRINCETON– sr. Ambika Singh*** (Skillman, NJ; 10th in ’12; 9th in ’13 & ‘14) and so. Ashley Tsue (Overland Park, KS)
ST. JOHN’S – sr. Marta Hausman** (Torun, Poland; 8th at ’14 NCAAs; 11th in ‘13)
… and jr. Irene Spezzamonte* (Spinea, Italy; 10th at ’14 NCAAs)
HARVARD – fr. Makenzie Lawrence (Leawood, KS) and so. Hali Nelson (Brookline, MA)
OHIO STATE – so. Alanna Goldie* (Calgary, Alberta; ’14 NCAA semifinalist) and so. Eleanor Harvey (Hamilton, Ontario)
PENN– sr. Sarah Parmacek* (Bryn Mawr, PA; 13th at ’12 NCAAs)
AIR FORCE – jr. Mary McElwee** (San Francisco, CA; 15th at ’13 NCAAs; 18th in ‘14)
… and jr. Madeline Giradot* (Atlanta, GA; 21st at ’14 NCAAs)
#NORTHWESTERN – jr. Jen Yamin* (Allendale, NJ; 23rd at ’14 NCAAs) and so. Stephanie Chan (Cupertino, CA)
TEMPLE – jr. Fatima Largaespada** (Puebla, Mexico; 20th at ’13 NCAAs; 18th in ‘14)
CORNELL – jr. Angelica Gangemi** (16th at ’13 NCAAs; 14th in ’14) and jr. Ediona Sera (Williston Park, NY)
WAYNE STATE – jr. Zuzanna Sobczak* (Gdansk, Poland; 14th at ’14 NCAAs)
YALE– sr. Lauren Miller* (Greenwich, CT; 7th at ’12 NCAAs; 13th in ‘13, 17th in ‘14)
# – Both of the at-large entrants in the women’s foil field came from the Midwest Region and – based on pre-Regional seeding and Regional finish – they most likely appear to have been Northwestern’s duo of Jen Yamin and Stephanie Chan (not officially released by the NCAA).
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ALL DATA ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CollegeFencing360.com – please credit accordingly
2015 NCAA WOMEN'S EPEE ENTRANTS
– 24-fencer field includes:
• 9 who also were in the 2014 NCAAs (plus one in ’13 NCAAs but not ’14)
• 5 former All-Americans/top–12 (Ameli, Severson, Radanovich, Vaggo and Collins)
• 1 former medal-round fencer (top–4):
> Penn State so. Jessie Radanovich (2014 semifinalist)
• Two 3-time NCAA participants (Ameli & Severson), plus two 4-time NCAA entrants:
> Harvard’s Emma Vaggo (9th at ’14 NCAAs; 14th in ’12 & ’13)
> Duke’s Sarah Collins (13th at ’12 NCAAs; 18th in ’13; 12th in ‘14)
• 6 freshmen, led by:
> Veronika Zuikova (St. John’s) – Northeast Regional runner-up
> Julia Garcia (NJIT) – Mid-Atlantic/South Regional 3rd place
> Rebecca Rose (Stanford) – West Regional champion
* below – indicates number of previous appearances in the NCAA Championships
COLUMBIA– so. Mason Speta* (Chicago, IL; 21st in ‘14) and fr. Katie Angen (New York, NY)
NOTRE DAME – sr. Nicole Ameli** (Las Vegas, NV; 11th in ’12; 8th in ‘14)
... and sr. Ashley Severson** (Franklin Lakes, NJ; 5th in ’12; 10th in '14)
PENN STATE – so. Jessie Radanovich* (Fresno, CA; ’14 NCAA semifinalist)
PRINCETON – jr. Isabel Ford (Portland, OR) and jr. Anna Van Brummen (Houston, TX)
ST. JOHN'S – sr. Isis Washington* (Parsippany, NJ; 17th in ’14) and fr. Veronika Zuikova (Tallinn, Estonia)
HARVARD – sr. Emma Vaggo*** (Kullavik, Sweden; 9th at ’14 NCAAs; 14th in ’12 & ’13)
OHIO STATE – so. Eugenia Falqui* (Rome, Italy; 22nd at ’14 NCAAs)
#PENN – so. Alejandra Trumble (Cambridge, MA)
DUKE – sr. Sarah Collins*** (Palm Harbor, FL; 13th at ’12 NCAAs; 18th in ’13; 12th in ‘14)
... and jr. Isabella Barna (Bend, OR)
STANFORD – so. May Peterson (Santa Monica, CA) and fr. Rebecca Rose (Chicago, IL)
NORTHWESTERN – jr. Juliana Barrett (New York, NY) and jr. Helen Foster (Swarthmore, PA)
#BROWN – fr. Signe Ferguson (Wilmington, DE)
NJIT (New Jersey Inst. of Tech.) – fr. Julia Garcia (Madrid, Spain)
TEMPLE – fr. Safa Ibrahim (Bronx, NY)
CORNELL – so. Victoria Wines* (Somers, NY; 14th at ’14 NCAAs)
BOSTON COLLEGE – jr. Olivia Adragna* (Malverne, NY; 13th at ’13 NCAAs) and so. Renee Bichette (Orlando, FL)
# – The at-large entrants in the women’s epee field came from the Northeast and Mid-Atlatnic-South Regions (one each) and – based on pre-Regional seeding and Regional finish – they most likely appear to have been Penn’s Alejandra Trumble and Brown’s Signe Ferguson (not officially released by the NCAA).
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2015 NCAA WOMEN'S SABRE ENTRANTS
– 24-fencer field includes:
• 9 who also were in the 2014 NCAAs (plus one in ’13 NCAAs but not ’14)
• 6 former All-Americans/top–12 (Kakhiani, Stone, Jarocki, Itzkowitz, Whalen & Litynski)
• 5 former medal-round fencers (top–4):
> Harvard so. Adienne Jarocki (2014 champion)
> Harvard jr. Aliya Itzkowitz (2014 runner-up)
> Princeton jr. Gracie Stone (2013 & ’14 semifinalist)
> Penn State so. Teodora Kakhiani (2014 semifinalist)
> North Carolina sr. Gillian Litynski (2013 semifinalist)
• One 3-time NCAA participant (Stone), plus two 4-time NCAA entrants:
> North Carolina’s Gillian Litynski (2013 semifinalist; 8th in ’14; 18th in ’12)
> Brown’s Christine Whalen (19th at ’12 NCAAs; 10th in ’13; 14th in '14
• 10 freshmen, led by:
> Karen Chang (Penn State) – Mid-Atlantic/South Regional champion
> Julie Saint-Cricq (Wayne State) – Midwest Regional champion
> Lena Johnson (Columbia) – Northeast Regional runner-up
> Francesca Russo (Notre Dame) – Midwest Regional runner-up
> Anestasia Ivanoff (Columbia) – Northeast Regional 4th-place
> Jennifer Ling (Duke) – Mid-Atlantic/South Regional 4th-place
> Stephanie Wang (Stanford) – West Regional champion
* below – indicates number of previous appearances in the NCAA Championships
COLUMBIA – fr. Anestasia Ivanoff (Los Angeles,CA) and fr. Lena Johnson (Peachtree City, GA)
NOTRE DAME – fr. Claudia Kulmacz (Upper Saddle River, NJ) and fr. Francesca Russo (Wayne, NJ
PENN STATE – fr. Karen Chang (Hong Kong)
… and so. Teodora Kakhiani* (team option/replacement; Tbilisi, Rep. of Georgia; ’14 NCAA semifinalist)
PRINCETON – jr. Gracie Stone** (Chicago, IL; ’13 & ’14 NCAA semifinalist) and fr. Allison Lee (Upper Saddle River, NJ)
ST. JOHN'S – jr. Margaret McDonald* (Atlanta, GA; 13th at ’13 NCAAs)
HARVARD – so. Adienne Jarocki* (’14 NCAA champion) & jr. Aliya Itzkowitz* (London, England; ’14 NCAA runner-up)
OHIO STATE – so. Kimberly Young (Gilbert, AZ)
DUKE – fr. Haley Fisher (Kennesaw, GA) and fr. Jennifer Ling (Cranbury, NJ)
STANFORD – so. Alexa Rohan* (Stony Brook, NY; 16th at ’14 NCAAs) and so. Stephanie Wan (Cupertino, CA)
#NORTHWESTERN – so. Alisha Gomez-Shah* (Wayne, NJ; 18th at ’14 NCAAs) and so. Cindy Oh (Allendale, NJ)
BROWN – so. Clara Tondata Da Ruos (Milan, Italy)
… and sr. Christine Whalen* (San Juan Capistrano, CA; 19th at ’12 NCAAs; 10th in ’13; 14th in ’14)
SACRED HEART– so. Julia Greene* (Califon, NJ; 21st at ’14 NCAAs)
WAYNE STATE – fr. Julie Saint-Cricq (Pau, France)
NORTH CAROLINA – sr. Gillian Litynski*** (Niskayuna, NY; ’13 NCAA semifinalist; 8th in ’14; 18th in ’12)
YALE – fr. Ilana Kamber (Short Hills, NJ)
# – Both of the at-large entrants in the women’s sabre field came from the Midwest Region and – based on pre-Regional seeding and Regional finish – they most likely appear to have been Northwestern’s duo of Alisha Gomez and Cindy Oh (not officially released by the NCAA).
ALL DATA ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CollegeFencing360.com – please credit accordingly
2015 NCAA Fencing Headshot/Info. Galleries (courtesy CF360):
Men’s Foil | Men’s Epee | Men’s Sabre | Women’s Foil | Women’s Epee | Women’s Sabre