Go Duke Fencing! - NCAA tournament

[Abraxas]

This thread is about another sport currently at a NCAA tournament.

I made some comments under the headline of Go Duke Wrestling! but overtime, it should deserve its own thread. The NCAA tournament for Fencing is ongoing at the campus of Penn State. Fencers from the 33 Men's and 46 Women's varsity fencing participated in the qualifying regionals. 22 fencers were selected from the 4 regions for each of the weapon/gender combinations (W/M Foil, Epee and Saber). Two additional spots are selected at-large. The maximum number of fencers per varsity team is 2 per weapon/gender. Duke is represented by 4 Male fencers (MF- Dan and Dorian Cohen; ME - Jonathan Parker; MS- Peter Truszkowski) and 1 awesome Woman Fencer (WS-Becca Ward). The format is a round-robin with 23 bouts of 5 touches. Teams are ranked based on the number of victories. Fencers based on victories, if ties, indicators is used, if ties, number of touches given is used. The top 4 fencers after all 23 bouts are then seeded in a direct elimination table with bouts to 15 touches to select medals. Those DE bouts do not count for the team standings.

After the end of the first day (first 14 bouts for Men's Fencing), Duke is standing at # 10 in the NCAA tournament. Dorian Cohen, unfortunately, had a medical withdrawal after 10 bouts posting a total of 4 victories. Hopefully, this is not a serious injury.

[Abraxas]

After Round 4, Peter Truszkowski has 5 victories and 9 defeats with 49 touches made and 53 received. His indicator is a very good -3 given the number of victories. He is # 16 in the standings. Peter is facing the following fencers tomorrow (current standing is noted):
1. Mike Momtselidze - OSU
3. Max Stearns – OSU
7. Jeff Spear - Columbia
12. Bobby Ziechmann – UNC
14. Valentin Staller - Harvard
19. Adam Austin - Brandeis
20. Sam Roukas - NYU
21. Kevin Ziechmann – UNC
22. Andrew Fischl - Vassar
He should come out of the rounds # 5-7 with about 4-6 victories. It will be difficult to get the OSU fencers, but you never know. It would be an uphill battle to get into the final top 12 standings, but it is not out of the question.

[Abraxas]

The bad news from the day was the injury and withdrawal of Dorian Cohen, who last year place #6 in the NCAA tournament and was named an All-American.

The good news is that Dan Cohen is sitting at # 4 out 24 fencers after round 4. He has 11 victories with 65 touches and 46 received for a +19 indicator. He still has some formidable opposition ahead including last-year champion Andras Horanyi, freshman and Olympian Gerek Meinhardt and his Notre Dame teammate Enzo Castellani. These are the fencers that he will face tomorrow:
1. Gerek Meinhardt - Notre Dame
6. Collin Sutter - Ohio State
9. Andras Horanyi - Ohio State
11. Enzo Castellani - Notre Dame
14. Shiv Kachru - Yale
17. Will Friedman – Brandeis
21. John Gurrieri - Yale
22. Alexander Kao - NYU
24. Jonathan Yu - Brown

Dan is likely to come out on the top 8 of the competition. Hopefully, he will be able to keep or improve his current standing.

[DukieInKansas]

Any updates?

[Abraxas]

Sorry, I was in clinic all day.

The best finish for a Duke fencer was Dan Cohen who finished #6 earning an All-American status. Dorian Cohen was an All-American last year (#6) but withdrew and ended #21. Peter Truszkowski, men's saber, ended as # 16 while Jonathan Parker, men's epee, ended as # 20.

Overall, Duke ended the Men's Fencing side tied with Yale University as #11 with a total of 35 victories, while UNC is tied at #15 with only 16 victories (they have no more fencers, so they are likely to end around #20). The withdrawal of Dorian Cohen due to injury decrease the ceiling of the maximum number of victories. Four more victories of 13 would have placed the team as #9. Although, we only have one woman fencer, she is very good and I wouldn't be surprised that she contributes with at least 18-20 victories. The NCAA final standing is based on the total number of victories of both, men's and women's, teams. We still might finish between #10 and #13. Most of the top 8 teams have several women fencers participating.


Standings after Men's Fencing:

1. Pennsylvania State University 98 victories
2. Ohio State University 93
3. Notre Dame 84
4. Columbia/Barnard 65
5. Pennsylvania, University of 57
6. Stanford University 54
7. St. John's University 53
8. Princeton University 48
9. Wayne State University 38
10. Harvard University 36
11. T Duke University 35
11. T Yale University 35
13. U.S. Air Force Academy 28
14. U.C. San Diego 18
15. T Brandeis University 16
15. T Brown University 16
15. T UNC, Chapel Hill 16
18. New York University 12
19. Boston College 8
20. Vassar College 5


If you want to read more this tournament:
a) http://www.prisedefer.com/NCAA.htm
b) http://www.collegefencing360.com/cf360_blog/
c) several threads on http://www.fencing.net/forums/forum25.html

[Abraxas]

Today, Becca Ward is sitting at the top of the women's saber standings after 4 rounds with 13 victories with 69 touches scored and only 24 received. She only lost a single bout out of 14. Her loss was to Penn State Monica Aksamit by score of 4-5. On Sunday, Becca has 9 bouts plus the expected DE for medals.

Her 13 victories increase the number of Duke victories to 48. Duke is likely to end up with 55-57 victories keeping 11th place for the FINAL 2009 Standings.

TEAMS STANDINGS after Day 3 (Day 1 of Women's Fencing)

Standing / Team / victories
1. Pennsylvania State University 156 victories
2. Notre Dame 140
3. Ohio State University 139
4. Columbia/Barnard 118
5. St. John's University 90
6. Harvard University 85
7. Pennsylvania, University of 84
8. Princeton University 75
9. Stanford University 66
10. Yale University 56
11. Duke University 48
12. Wayne State University 38
13. Northwestern University 36
14. U.S. Air Force Academy 30
15. Temple University 29
16. New York University 28
17. U.C. San Diego 27
18. Brandeis University 21
19. T Brown University 16
19. T UNC, Chapel Hill 16
21. Cornell University 13
22. Boston College 8
23. T Fairleigh Dickinson 5
23. T M.I.T. 5
23. T Vassar College 5

[DukeFencer]

Ward finished the round robin in first place to make it into the Final Four as the 1 seed. She won her first bout, and the Championship bout is scheduled for 2pm. Allegedly you can watch it at the link below:

http://all-access.cbssports.com/player.html?code=ncaa&media=110161

[Abraxas]

Becca had an impressive +77 winning 22/23 bouts with 114 touches scored with only 37 received.

Duke ends at #11 with 57 victories, only 7 victories behind Yale

FINAL TEAM PLACEMENTS

1. Pennsylvania State University 186 victories
2. Notre Dame 173
3. Ohio State University 159
4. Columbia/Barnard 144
5. St. John's University 109
6. Harvard University 108
7. Pennsylvania, University of 101
8. Princeton University 87
9. Stanford University 73
10. Yale University 64
11. Duke University 57
12. Northwestern University 52
13. Temple University 45
14. Wayne State University 38
15. New York University 34
16. U.S. Air Force Academy 32
17. U.C. San Diego 29
18. Brandeis University 25
19. Cornell University 19
20. T Brown University 16
20. T UNC, Chapel Hill 16
22. Boston College 8
23. Fairleigh Dickinson 7
24. T M.I.T. 5
24. T Vassar College 5

[Abraxas]

The numbers in my post above for final standings did not include the pod 7 of Women's Epee and Women's Foil. Below is the final:

Final Team Placements - NCAA

1. Pennsylvania State University 195
2. Notre Dame 182
3. Ohio State University 165
4. Columbia/Barnard 151
5. Harvard University 116
6. St. John's University 115
7. Pennsylvania, University of 103
8. Princeton University 94
9. Stanford University 73
10. Yale University 68
11. Duke University 57
12. Northwestern University 56
13. Temple University 49
14. Wayne State University 38
15. New York University 36
16. U.S. Air Force Academy 32
17. U.C. San Diego 30
18. Brandeis University 25
19. Cornell University 23
20. T Brown University 16
20. T UNC, Chapel Hill 16
22. Fairleigh Dickinson 9
23. Boston College 8
24. T M.I.T. 5
24. T Vassar College 5

[Abraxas]

Becca won the NCAA Saber Gold Medal with score of 15-4!!!!!

[Lord Ash]

Great to get these updates, thanks!

Nice to have a frikking Olympic medalist on the team at Duke, no? So this is Duke's second NCAA Champion fencer behind Kahn, right? Hey, Coach Beguinet has almost as many champions as K!:)

Ahh, I remember when Duke fencing beat Carolina for the first time in history... it was back in what... '96? 30something years of trying... and since then, I think Duke has beaten Carolina pretty consistently.

[DukeFencer]

Yep, first and only NCAA Champion since Jeremy, First woman's champion!!! Only 3rd woman's All-American, second First-Team All American (Anne Kercsmar 2004)

[DukieInKansas]

Congratulations, Becca on your championship.

A very impressive weekend for Duke Athletics all around.