Irish face tough, early test against St. John's
By MIKE CONNOLLY
Sports Writer
For the last six years, the Notre Dame fencing team has entered the season with one certainty — Penn State was the team to beat.
This year, however, all that has changed.
"There is an entirely different powerhouse out there this year in St. John's," women's sabre captain Carianne McCullough said. "I think St. John's has past Penn State this year."
Notre Dame travels to New York this Sunday to face the Red Storm in addition to Columbia, NYU and Vassar in its first dual meet of the year.
Last year, Notre Dame and St. John's tied for second at the NCAAs with 171 points — four points behind Penn State. St. John's, however, scored 171 points after qualifying only 11 fencers. Notre Dame and Penn State each had the maximum 12 fencers in the tournament.
St. John's returns all 11 fencers from last year's team but also adds sabreman Keeth Smart — the 1999 national champion — to its formidable roster.
The Irish, however, have plenty of weapons of their own to counter the Red Storm attack. Returning 11 of their 12 NCAA qualifiers, the Irish are ready to make a run for the national title.
"They are maybe one of the best teams on paper but a lot of things can happen," women's epee captain Kim DeMaio said. "A lot people fence inconsistently but this weekend is going to be big. It will probably be pretty tough for us. But it will be good to see where we stand before March."
Gabor Szelle, the 2000 sabre national champion, headlines the Irish team and hopes to repeat as national champion. But with Smart returning to the collegiate strips after taking 2000 off to train for the Olympics, Szelle knows his task will be formidable.
"I think its going to be so much tougher this year than it was last year because some of the guys that didn't compete last season are going to compete this year," the junior from Budapest said. "It's going to be a big challenge to win the title again."
The last time Szelle faced Smart, the then-junior whipped the Irish freshman 15-4 in the 1999 championship match.
Although Szelle has never defeated Smart, his Irish teammate Andre Crompton has.
Crompton beat Smart at the Penn State Open last fall and is well familiar with both Smart and his St. John's teammate, 2000 All-American Ivan Lee. Crompton, Smart, Lee and Irish sophomore Matt Fabricant all train at the same club in New Jersey.
"We're all from the same club and we've been training pretty hard," Crompton said. "They are definitely a challenge but I think we are prepared for it."
The men's team also returns first team All-Americans Ozren Debic and Jan Viviani — both are sophomores. Debic finished second in foil at the 2000 NCAAs as a freshman and should challenge for the title again this year.
Viviani finished third last year at the NCAA Championship. He lost to St. John's epeeist, and eventual national champion, Alex Roytblat in the semifinals but bounced back to beat St. John's Doron Levitt for third place. Viviani will face both fencers again this weekend.
The men's team also features 1999 All-American Brian Casas in epee and 2000 NCAA qualifier Forest Walton in foil.
The women's team's hope to improve over last year hinges on the performance of three freshmen: sabrewomen Destanie Milo and Jessie Filkins and foilist Maggie Jordan.
Milo and Filkins will compete with 2000 All-American Natalia Mazur and 2000 NCAA qualifier McCullough for a spot in the NCAA Championshps this year.
The women's sabre team will face tough competition from St. John's who returns two All-Americans.
McCullough, however, believes the Irish have a good chance of besting the Red Storm.
"Last year when we fenced them it was also the beginning of the season and we had one recruit and two walk-ons and we managed to pull off a 5-4 victory against essentially the same St. John's team we will face this year," she said.
Jordan will have the difficult task of replacing one of the most prolific fencers in Irish history, Magda Krol. Krol finished her career with the seventh-most wins in Irish history.
Jordan will be joined on the women's foil squad by 2000 All-American and team captain Liza Boutsikaris. The sophomore from New Jersey finished 12th at last year's NCAA Championships.
The women's epee team was expect to be bolstered by the addition of freshman Kerry Walton but the third-ranked junior women's epeeist is ineligible to compete this semester.
"That was definitely a key on our women's side," Crompton said. "That's going to take a toll on the women's side and the rest of the team is going to have to step up."
Team captains declined to elaborate on the reasons for Walton's ineligibility.
Nevertheless, with 2000 All-Americans Meagan Call and Anna Carnick returning for the Irish, DeMaio anticipates a strong showing this weekend.
"We are going to have the same lineup that we had last year so hopefully we can pull together," she said.
All Sports Stories for Friday, January 19, 2001
