Daryl Homer (St. John’s), Marat Israelian (St. John’s) and Ariel DeSmet (Notre Dame) won individual titles in the 2011 NCAA Fencing Championships today. At the end of the second day of competition, Notre Dame holds the lead in the team standings with 90 points, over Penn State University (84 points) and St. John’s (71 points.)
Daryl Homer won his 2nd straight NCAA Men’s Sabre Championship in a thrilling 15-14 bout against Avery Zuck (Notre Dame). Zuck charged out to an early 5-1 lead over Homer but then Homer adjusted and started to be the aggressor in the match until he knotted the score at 6-6. Homer and Zuck traded touches and went into the 1 minute break with the St. John’s fencer holding onto an 8-7 lead.
Daryl Homer started the second period with a parry-riposte to give him a 9-7 edge and then added another point to get to 10-7. Zuck didn’t crumble, however, and clawed back to tie the score 10-10. The match see-sawed with Homer retaking the lead and Zuck climbing back to tie the bout. Homer took over at 13-13 with a parry-riposte in the middle of the strip to get to match point at 14-13. Zuck wasn’t done and tied the bout up again 14-14.
In the final touch, both fencers started their attacks but then Zuck pulled his arm back in preparation, giving Homer the opening he was looking for. Homer’s attack was valid and he won 15-14.
Israelian Repeats in Men’s Epee
Marat Israelian had enough of close bouts in the preliminaries where he ended up tied on victories with two other competitors. He put the bout to rest early by taking advantage of Jonathan Yergler’s pressing attacks and got to an early 4-1 lead. Israelian countered every attack that Yergler threw at him and grew the lead to 4 touches, leading 8-4 at the end of the 2nd period.
In the final period of fencing, Yergler continued to try to apply pressure to Israelian, but the St. John’s fencer was able to maintain his lead and was ahead 11-8 with 1:24 remaining. As Yergler picked up the pace, Israelian went for a couple of double-touches to bring the score to 14-10 and then scored the final touch to win the NCAA Men’s Epee Championship 15-10. Israelian also won the 2010 NCAA Championship in Men’s Epee.
Ariel DeSmet uses late run to unseat Miles Chamley-Watson
Miles Chamley-Watson (Penn State) was the clear leader after the preliminary phase of the NCAA championships, having recorded a 21-2 record and a 15-5 trouncing of Daniel Cohen in the semi-finals. The Penn State fencer looked to be on the way to a similar result against DeSmet as he used a 6-1 run to be in control at 6-3. DeSmet had other plans, however, and used a well executed infighting touch followed by a strong attack to get back into striking distance at 6-5.
The fencers traded touches until it was 9-8 for Chamley-Watson, then DeSmet got the next point to tie the match 9-9.
DeSmet then used the closing seconds of the 1st period of fencing to go on a run of his own, scoring 3 points in 19 seconds and stifling Miles Chamley-Watson’s attacks to go into the minute break up 12-9.
Chamley-Watson came out of the break determined to win and was winning the period 4-1 to tie the score at 13-13. Ariel DeSmet scored on the next two touches to win the bout, 15-13.
NCAA Live Results: http://www.prisedefer.com/NCAA
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