FENCING: Notre Dame comes out on top with 12 NCAA qualifiers
By MIKE CONNOLLY
Sports Writer
The Notre Dame fencing team qualified the maximum 12 fencers thanks to a strong showing at the Midwest Regional Fencing Championships on March 10.
"I was a little bit nervous before the tournament because I knew the competition would be tough but everything worked pretty good," head coach Yves Auriol said. "I was a little bit surprised but I am very happy we have 12."
Although two of its top fencers did not compete, Notre Dame still became one of only two schools to earn 12 spots in the NCAA Championships beginning this Thursday. St. John's also qualified 12 fencers.
"If we didn't qualify 12 we wouldn't have a shot at the national title so it was pretty important," sabre captain Cari McCullough said. "We knew we had a chance but we knew it was going to be tough to qualify 12 fencers."
All-Americans Gabor Szelle and Natalia Mazur both missed the qualifier Ñ making Notre Dame's chances for 12 fencers even tougher. Szelle has been sidelined for nearly a month with a thumb injury while Mazur has left school due to illness. Szelle won the 2000 sabre National Championship in his sophomore year while Mazur was named a 2000 All-American as a freshman.
"They were contenders," Auriol said. "They probably would be at the championship if they were fencing but we are still strong in sabre in men's and women's. But without those two, the Regionals were a bit more of a challenge."
Junior Andre Crompton qualified in Szelle's spot while freshman Destanie Milo took Mazur's slot. Although Crompton has never qualified for the Championships before, he is an experienced fencer.
"Andre Crompton wants to be in the championship," Auriol said. "He has been fencing for two years and never got there. The key is for him not to get too nervous and get the job done. He is a strong competitor and a great fighter. I think he is ready."
Milo is one of two freshman qualifiers on the women's side. Foilist Maggie Jordan qualified in her first collegiate season as well.
In a meet as pressure packed as the NCAAs, experience is important, according to assistant coach Janusz Bednarski.
"We have a very young team in some wings like Destanie and some other fencers. We will see how they stand the pressure," he said. "It is big pressure to go for a national title. The one thing with young fencers is that they can jump above sometimes, we hope. It's true that if you don't have NCAA experience you can go both ways Ñ up or down. It's hard to predict how the nervous system will stand the pressure but we hope they will fight like Fighting Irish."
McCullough said it is nearly impossible for first time fencers to understand the pressure of the NCAA Championship. As a first time qualifier in 2000, McCullough said she didn't quite understand the importance of every bout.
"I didn't expect that every single bout means so much," she said. "Every time you go out there, you have to keep in mind that you have to do everything you can to win that bout. You can't lose the close ones. But cause if you lose a 5-4 bout, you have lost a lot for the team. Basically you have to go out there and beat everyone you can and tally it up at the end."
Luckily for the Irish, nine of the 12 fencers they send to the Championships fenced last year. The men's side returns a pair of first team All-Americans in Jan Viviani and Ozren Debic. Debic finished second in foil at the 2000 Championships while Viviani took third in epee.
The most experienced fencers on the men's side are Brian Casas and Andrzej Bednarski. Both fencers enter their third championships with Bednarski winning All-American honors at his two previous Championships.
Casas is fencing at the top of his game right now. After struggling at last year's Championships and most of this year, Casas won first place at the 2001 Midwest Conference and Regional Championships. He looks to have recaptured the form that earned him second team All-American honors as a freshman in 1999.
The women's epee team returns a pair of sophomore All-Americans in Meagan Call and Anna Carnick. Sophomore All-American Liza Boutsikaris rounds out the women's team as the second foil qualifier.
Notre Dame takes to the strips Thursday in Kenosha, Wisc. looking for its first national title since 1994.
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, March 20, 2001
