Men defend title at Midwests
By MIKE CONNOLLY
Sports Writer
Jan Viviani was in trouble in the deciding bout of the 2000 Midwest Conference team epee championship.
With the score tied 2-2 in his bout with Ohio State's Geoff Kane, the freshman epeeist began to lose his balance and fall off the edge of the strip. He quickly recovered and stabbed the Buckeye to score a touch and take a 3-2 lead. Viviani went on to score the next three touches and win the championship for the Irish.
"I think it was when I almost fell off the strip and still got a touch — that was the deciding factor in the bout," Viviani said with a smile.
The men's fencing team was all smiles Saturday as the Irish won each weapon en route to the overall title.
In the finals, the foil squad cruised to a 5-1 victory over Cleveland State while the sabre squad blanked Wayne State for the title. Only the men's epee team had a challenge in the finals.
The Buckeyes surprised the Irish as they opened up a 2-0 lead with wins over Viviani and Brian Casas.
"The first two bouts that we lost kind of surprised me," Gaither said. "Our guys are definitely good enough to come back."
The Irish quickly recovered to win the next four bouts to take a 4-2 lead. The Buckeyes, however, would no go down easily — winning two bouts over Casas and Gaither.
With the title on the line, Viviani, who finished second in epee wins for the Irish this season, wrapped up the bout despite his near slip.
In foil, the Irish rolled to victory — winning 15 bouts while only dropping two. Ozren Debic, Forest Walton and Steve Mautone led the Irish in the finals.
Mautone clinched the title with a 5-4 win over Tamir Strowder.
On the sabre side, the Irish cruised through the quarterfinals and semifinals relying mostly on reserve fencers. In the finals, however, the Notre Dame starters returned and dealt Wayne State a 5-0 loss.
Irish No. 4 sabreman Matt Fabricant fenced the deciding bout for the Irish against Mark Mathias. Mathias, who finished in the top 8 in Sunday's individual championships, jumped out to a 3-0 lead on the freshman.
Fabricant never panicked, however, and won the next five touches to clinch the championship for Notre Dame.
"I think it is a testimony to the fact that he is a really good fencer," sabre captain Clay Morton said about Fabricant's victory. "He got a few bad calls against him so he just refocused. He forgot about the bad touches and did what he needed to do to win. That's what makes him a good fencer."
On the women's side, the Irish failed to defend their 1999 Midwest Championship as Northwestern won the epee and sabre titles along with a second place finish in foil to win the championship.
Although Irish managed to top the Wildcats in foil, the sabre team lost in the finals while the epee team lost to Cleveland State in the semifinals.
Notre Dame jumped out to a 4-3 lead but could not win the deciding bout as both Kim DeMaio and Anna Carnick lost consecutive 5-4 bouts.
"We had some equipment problems early but it was no excuse," DeMaio said. "There was zero leadership on my part as a captain and it came down to the last bout which it never should have come down to. All excuses aside, we just didn't fence the way we should have."
Although DeMaio went 0-3 and Carnick went 1-2 against Cleveland State, freshman Meagan Call led the Irish with a 3-0 record.
"Megan Call was great," DeMaio said. "It's just too bad that Anna and I couldn't come up with the other two wins."
In foil, the Irish fell behind 2-0 to the Wildcats before Magda Krol defeated Maggie Kebrdle 5-0 to kick off a run where the Irish won 5 of 6 bouts to take the match.
Northwestern, however, got the best of Notre Dame in the other head-to-head match as the Wildcats won the women's sabre title 5-2.
Freshman Natalia Mazur won both bouts as the other starters, Carianne McCullough and Katie Flanagan, struggled against the No. 1 sabre squad in the country.
"It was just too many fundamental errors," sabre captain McCullough said. "We kept falling short and our defense was weak."
All Sports Stories for Monday, March 6, 2000
