March 13, 1998
Notre Dame Qualifies Maximum 10 Fencers for NCAA Championships
NOTRE DAME, Ind. -- Notre Dame's men and women's fencing team is one of the three schools to qualify 10 fenders for the NCAA championships which will be held at the Angela Athletic Facility at Saint Mary's College March 19-22. Schools can qualify no more than two fencers in each of the five weapons contested, men's epee, women's epee, men's foil, women's foil and men's sabre. Three-time defending champion Penn State and St. John's are the other two school to qualify 10 fencers to the NCAA championships.
The championship will consist of 24 fencers in each of the five weapons for a total of 120 fencers. A school's finish in the championship will be based on points earned by each individual. A team will be awarded one point for each victory by its fencers during the competition in which each fencer has 23 bouts against the rest of the field. Thirty schools will be represented with at least one fencer in the championships.
Notre Dame sophomore Magda Krol will look to defend the 1997 NCAA women's epee title she won as a freshman. She will headline the women's epee field after posting a 41-5 record and claiming her second straight Midwest women's epee championship. Junior Nicole Mustilli will make her first appearance in the NCAA championship for the Irish after compiling a 57-11 record in '98 and placing second at the Midwest fencing championships.
Two-time NCAA women's foilist runner-up and two-time All-American Sara Walsh will lead the Irish in women's foil. The Mishawaka, Ind., native, advanced to the finals in each of the last two years and finished the season with a 45-4 record. Teammate and fellow Mishawaka, Ind., native, Myriah Brown will join Walsh in the women's foil field. Brown, also a two-time All-American with a 49-4 '98 record, finished sixth in 1996 as a freshman and fifth in 1997 as a sophomore.
On the men's side, junior two-time All-American Luke LaValle and freshman Andrej Bednarski will fence in the men's sabre competition for the Irish. LaValle, 32-3 in '98, placed fifth and fourth at the NCAA championships in each of the last two years while Bednarski, a Granger, Ind., native, with a 43-9 record, finished second to LaValle at the Midwest fencing championships.
A pair of seniors, Carl Jackson and Brian Stone, will fence in the men's epee competition. Jackson, 28-8 this year, will be making his third appearance in the NCAA championships with his best result being a sixth-place finish as a freshman in 1995. Stone placed 13th a year ago at the NCAA championships in his first appearance and enters the championship on a roll after winning the Midwest epee championship and ending the regular season with a 32-9 record.
Junior Stephane Auriol and senior John Tejada round out Notre Dame's fencing entrants as the two men's foilists. A native of Elkhart, Ind., Auriol won the Midwest foil championship and finished with a 35-12 record this season. He will be making his second appearance in the NCAA championships after placing 16th a year ago. Tejada went 35-13 this year and has qualified for his first NCAA championship appearance.
1998 NCAA Fencing Championship Participants
Women's Foil
Zoe Hawes Air Force
Susan Jennings Columbia-Barnard
Erinn Smart Columbia-Barnard
Emily DeVilla NYU
Angela Hai NYU
Myriah Brown Notre Dame
Sara Walsh Notre Dame
Yelena Kalkina Ohio State
Patricia Szelle Ohio State
Jagna Gromulska Pennsylvania
Margo Katz Pennsylvania
Carla Esteva Penn State
Claire Jackson Penn State
Orsi Szotyovy Princeton
Christina Orrico Rutgers
Karen Moroney St. John's
Karla Romanek St. John's
Monique de Bruin Stanford
Felicia Zimmermann Stanford
Marissa Barnes-Hopkins Temple
Jaime Beecher Temple
Agata Wysiadecka Wayne State
Hannah Appel Yale
Kate Zuckerman Yale
Women's Epee
Janet Wertz UC San Diego
Melinda Mellman Columbia-Barnard
Nancy Allen Cornell
Catie Webb Fairleigh Dickinson
Christy Beckert NYU
Nancy Martin NYU
Melanie Byrd North Carolina
Michelle Schaffner Northwestern
Magda Krol Notre Dame
Nicole Mustilli Notre Dame
Kari Coley Pennsylvania
Alexandra Korfanty Penn State
Charlotte Walker Penn State
Matilda Acerra Princeton
Kristina Hurme Princeton
Laura Cunningham Rutgers
Nicole Dygert St. John's
Raven Johnson St. John's
Jessica Lisagor Stanford
Nelia Mann Stanford
Gina DeTeso Temple
Marta Sciubisz Wayne State
Whitney Anderson Yale
Sharon Katz Yale
Men's Epee
Ryan Moon Air Force
Aaron Waxler Brandeis
Jesse Carlson Cal- State Fullerton
Elie Gurarie Case Western Reserve
Noah Zucker Columbia
Mike Gattnar Harvard
Andrew Prihodko Harvard
Matt Coates MIT
Abe Berman NYU
Josh Leslie NYU
Carl Jackson Notre Dame
Brian Stone Notre Dame
Geoff Kane Ohio State
Charles Hamann Pennsylvania
John Wright Pennsylvania
Brendan Baby Penn State
Tom Peng Penn State
Marco Acerra Princeton
Jason Burrell Princeton
John Gringeri Rutgers
George Hentea St. John's
Alex Roythblat St. John's
Tom Hunt Stanford
Eric Tribbett Stanford
Men's Sabre
James Steiner Air Force
Luke Mountain Boston College
Tim Morehouse Brandeis
Jon Taqqu Brown
Paolo Roselli Cleveland State
Chaun Shaahid Cleveland State
Patrick Durkin Columbia
Mark Bara Detroit
Lee Scheffler Harvard
Paul Palestis NYU
Andrzej Bednarski Notre Dame
Luke LaValle Notre Dame
Michael Golia Pennsylvania
Aaron Steuwe Penn State
Michael Takagi Penn State
Graham Brooks Princeton
Maxim Pekarev Princeton
Jeffrey Colella Rutgers
John Johnson Rutgers
Walter Procek St. John's
Keeth Smart St. John's
Sasha Zucker Stanford
Mitsu Sudo Yale
Taka Sudo Yale
Men's Foil
Colin Clinton Brandeis
Brian Sirlin Brandeis
Ted Padgitt UC San Diego
Monty Tuominen Cleveland State
Jed Dupree Columbia
Dan Kellner Columbia
Robert Manchen Duke
Brian Osserman Harvard
Jeff Peyton Lawrence
Richard Menzi NYU
Jason Wells North Carolina
Stephane Auriol Notre Dame
John Tejada Notre Dame
Cliff Bayer Pennsylvania
Yaron Roth Pennsylvania
David Lidow Penn State
Gang Lu Penn State
Peter Rosen Princeton
Joel Mangum St. John's
John Tiomkin St. John's
Tim Chang Stanford
Alex Wood Stanford
Peter Devine Yale
Ayo Griffen Yale
