Fencers eye championships
By MIKE CONNOLLY
Associate Sports Editor
If there was any question about whether the Notre Dame fencing team would be a contender for the 2000 national title, it was answered Sunday when the women's and men's teams turned in a strong season-opening performances.
Facing top competition like St. John's, Columbia, Stanford and NYU, the women's team went undefeated while the men's team finished 2-2, with a close loss to Stanford.
"I was happy with all the fencers," women's foil captain Magda Krol said. "Especially with the new format of only fencing three fencers, it meant that it was going to be harder because we didn't have as deep a team anymore. But the women pulled through and fenced well."
The women's team defeated Columbia, 19-8, NYU, 22-5, Stanford, 15-12 and St. John's, 14-13.
The men's team struggled a bit against top competition, defeating Columbia, 18-9, and NYU, 20-7, but losing to Stanford, 14-13, and St. John's, 16-11. Despite dropping two matches, the team is not too concerned with the slow start.
"I think it was just a slow start getting into the groove of competition," men's sabre captain Clay Morton said. "We had a few mental lapses during the day. We would fence well then have a mental lapse and then get back to fencing well again."
A big reason for the Irish success was the play of freshman who led four of the six squads in weekend wins. Jan Viviani led the men's epee squad with an 8-3 record while Forest Walton and Ozren Debic posted 8-3 and 7-3 records, respectively, for the men's foil squad.
On the women's side, freshman Meagan Call paced the epee team with a 9-3 record while Anna Carnick was right on her heels with an 8-4 record. Natalia Mazur finished the day with the most wins by a freshman as she posted a 10-2 record for the sabrewomen.
"On each of the squads there are one and usually two freshmen that are contributing to the squad and the overall team," Morton said. "They are being early leaders with a quiet confidence."
Veteran Irish fencers also had strong a weekend. Sophomores Gabor Szelle and Andre Crompton led the sabre team with 7-2 and 8-2 records, respectively. Like the rest of the men's sabre team, however, both had their worst showings against St. John's with Szelle going 2-1 and Crompton finishing 1-2 against the Red Storm.
Overall, Morton said mental lapses and controversy hurt the sabre squad against St. John's.
"Two or three of the losses [to St. John's] were due to mental lapses," he said. "Crompton lost on a controversial call that the judges had to talk about for five or 10 minutes. [The Red Storm] is really good and well looked a little nervous because they were by far the best team we fenced."
The star of the weekend for the Irish was Krol, who posted a 10-2 record. Krol, who switched to foil after earning a national championship and three All-American letters at epee, proved she to be just as tough in her new category.
Krol's best wins came against 1999 foil champion Monique de Bruin from Stanford (5-2) and Columbia's first team All-American Susan Jennings (5-0).
"I went in just wanting to do my best," Krol said of her first collegiate foil match since her sophomore year. "I changed my focus to foil and prepared mentally, but I didn't expect to beat either of those two. I couldn't believe it. I think I was in a state of shock."
The strong weekend proved the Irish will once again be a factor in the national title picture.
"This builds confidence and gives us a better way to look at the upcoming season," Krol said. "It's still not going to be easy because this tournament doesn't mean that we have already won the championship. It is definitely a huge step forward and is intimidating to other teams and going to make them rethink their positions in the NCAAs."
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, January 25, 2000
