Fencing wins first national title since 1994
By MATT LOZAR
Associate Sports Editor
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.
Maybe Notre Dame coach Janusz Bednarski should think about taking up a job as a statistics professor.
"Before the competition we thought we needed 180 points and it turned out that way," Bednarski said.
Notre Dame won the 2003 NCAA Championships with 182 points. Penn State was second with 179.
That's scary.
Bednarski did something in one year that former Irish coach Yves Auriol couldn't do in seven years at the helm — win a national title.
"It feels great and I'm a little bit tired," Bednarski said. "I lost my voice from giving so many comments. It was not easy and we had a lot of great opponents. To win in such great competition, it's a pleasure."
As the competition progressed, everybody knew it would come down to the last round of bouts. Bednarski prepared his team for that situation the entire year and they came through when it counted the most.
"I think it was very decisive in the end because we had done a lot of hard work throughout the whole year," Bednarski said. "Our fencers were stronger. If you want to win the gold medal, you have to be strong at the end of the game, not only at the beginning when everyone is fresh."
That decisiveness and fighting ability exemplified by the Irish can be attributed to simply being a team.
"The team dynamic has just been outstanding this year. We have all been there for each other," junior sabre captain Destanie Milo said. "We have all been in it together from the beginning, supporting each other, holding each other up, and there is no way you can win a championship like this individually."
Since Notre Dame was one of only two schools to qualify 12 fencers, it had a basic numbers advantage over Penn State with 11 and St. John's who had 10. While some fencers had many wins and were at the top of the leader board, others came through when all the chips were down.
"The whole roster made contributions," Bednarski said. "We didn't have a weak link and that's why we won."
In the storied history of the fencing program, the Irish had previously won five national titles from 1977-1994. From 1995-2002, the Irish finished either second or third and could never find the magic to put it all together.
They did this year, and the result was different.
"It really made a big difference in the end having everyone working together to take the pressure off the individuals," senior epee captain Jan Viviani said.
It also helps to have a coach who could double as a psychic statistician.
All News Stories for Monday, March 24, 2003
