Buckeyes win NCAA Title

{mosimage}The Ohio State Buckeyes claimed their first-ever NCAA Fencing National Championships in the final day of the competition March 28. Ohio State outscored second-place Penn State by 34 points en route to a 194-160 victory, at the Gosman Athletic Center on the campus of Brandeis University.

Ohio State posted the second-highest team total in the five years that the NCAA has contested events in six weapons. The Buckeyes won 97 bouts in both the men’s and women’s competition to reach their total of 194 points. Penn State surpassed Notre Dame on the final day of competition to keep its streak of finishing in the top two of every NCAA National Collegiate Fencing Championship that has been held since 1990.

Notre Dame finished in third place with 153 points, while St. John’s (N.Y.) moved into the top four with 149 points. Columbia placed fifth with 146 points. St. John’s was the top scorer in the men’s competition, totaling 109 bout victories.

Individually, Ohio State sophomore Adam Crompton successfully defended his 2003 sabre crown. Crompton narrowly defeated Columbia fencer Sergey Isayenko, 15-14, in the title bout, avenging one of his two losses in the round robin. Rutgers freshman Benjamin Igoe defeated Penn State’s Marten Zagunis, 15-6, to claim third place in the sabre.

Buckeye freshman Boaz Ellis went 24-1 on the day to claim his first NCAA title in the foil. Ellis defeated Yale sophomore Cory Werk, 15-8, in the title bout. Werk, seeded fourth in the semis, reached the final match by handing top-seeded St. John’s sophomore Nitai Kfir one of his two losses for the tournament, 15-12. Kfir defeated Columbia’s Jeremy Sinkin, 15-12, for third place.

The finals of the men’s epee was an all-St. John’s affair as junior Arpad Horvath defeated rookie teammate Benjamin Bratton, 15-7, in the finals. It was the second crown for Horvath, who won the 2002 title. Both Red Storm fencers survived narrow semifinal matches. Bratton defeated Notre Dame junior Michal Sobieraj, 15-13, while Horvath downed Ohio State junior Denis Tolkachev, 11-10, in overtime. Sobieraj claimed third place with a 15-8 victory.

Results Tables:

Final Team Standings and Point Totals by Weapon:
Place		School	Total	MS	MF	ME	WS	WF	WE
1.		Ohio State University	194	35	34	28	33	37	27
2.		Pennsylvania State University	160	35	22	19	32	29	23
3.		Notre Dame	153	23	16	18	26	40	30
4.		St. John’s University	149	36	37	36	20	20
5.		Columbia/Barnard	146	29	30	27	29	18	13
6.		Pennsylvania, University of	104	9	27		32	15	21
7.		Princeton University	79		16	15	11	26	11
8.		Harvard University	73	12	16	10	4	19	12
9.		Wayne State University	62	6		27			29
10.		Stanford University	60	21	10	12		17
11.		Northwestern University	50				16	27	7
12.		Duke University	48		10	10	13		15
13.	T	Rutgers University	44	18	13	13
13.	T	Yale University	44		16	6		9	13
15.		Cal State, Fullerton	35		18		10	7
16.		U.S. Air Force Academy	34	3		22	3		6
17.		Brandeis University	28		4	14			10
18.		Temple University	25				9	7	9
19.		Cornell University	23				8		15
20.		New York University	19	14	5
21.		Brown University	17		2				15
22.		Haverford College	14	9			5
23.	T	Drew University	12			12
23.	T	M.I.T.	12					4	8
25.	T	Tufts University	11				11
25.	T	UNC, Chapel Hill	11	5					6
27.		Vassar College	8	8
28.		Johns Hopkins University	7			7
29.	T	Cal Tech	6						6
29.	T	NJ Institute of Technology	6	6
29.	T	U.C. San Diego	6	6
32.	T	Hunter College	1	1
32.	T	Sacred Heart University	1					1

V = Victories
PCT = Percent of Bouts Won
TS = Touches Scored
TR = Touches Received
Ind = Indicators (TS minus TR)

Individual Results on the following pages.

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MEN’S SABER – Final Standings
Place	Name	School	V	Pct.	TS	TR	Ind.
1.	Adam Crompton	Ohio State	21	0.913	111	48	+63
2.	Sergey Isayenko	St. John’s	20	0.870	111	62	+49
3.	Benjamin Igoe	Rutgers	18	0.783	101	63	+38
4.	Marten Zagunis	Penn State	18	0.783	98	66	+32
5.	Ian Farr	Penn State	17	0.739	96	70	+26
6.	Alexander Krul	Columbia	16	0.696	103	69	+34
7.	Darrin Whitmer	St. John’s	16	0.696	90	77	+13
8.	Andrew Magee	N.Y.U.	14	0.609	93	77	+16
9.	Jason Paul	Ohio State	14	0.609	86	78	+8
10.	Patrick Ghattas	Notre Dame	13	0.565	95	74	+21
11.	Paul Reyfman	Columbia	13	0.565	99	86	+13
12.	David Jakus	Harvard	12	0.522	84	78	+6
13.	Curtis Andrus	Stanford	12	0.522	86	81	+5
14.	Matthew Stearns	Notre Dame	10	0.435	78	89	-11
15.	Christian Flanders	Haverford	9	0.391	80	89	-9
16.	Robert Owens	Stanford	9	0.391	74	88	-14
17.	Mark Kindrachuk	Pennsylvania	9	0.391	72	98	-26
18.	Justin Bernstein	Vassar College	8	0.348	70	94	-24
19.	Bret Martin	U.C. San Diego	6	0.261	74	99	-25
20.	Phil Dolata	N.J.I.T.	6	0.261	67	101	-34
21.	Bobby Smith	Wayne State	6	0.261	63	100	-37
22.	Wesley Newkirk	North Carolina	5	0.217	64	102	-38
23.	Sam Bartron	Air Force	3	0.130	66	111	-45
24.	Randy Bresil	Hunter College	1	0.043	53	114	-61

Men’s Saber Medal Bouts

Semifinals
(1) Adam Crompton def. (4) Marten Zagunis, 15-10
(2) Sergey Isayenko def. (3) Benjamin Igoe, 15-12

Bronze Medal Bout
(3) Benjamin Igoe def. (4) Marten Zagunis, 15-6

Gold Medal Bout
(1) Adam Crompton def. (2) Sergey Isayenko, 15-14

MEN’S FOIL – Final Standings
Place	Name	School	V	Pct.	TS	TR	Ind.
1.	Boaz Ellis	Ohio State	22	0.957	113	34	+79
2.	Cory Werk	Yale	16	0.696	98	72	+26
3.	Nitai Kfir	St. John’s	22	0.957	114	32	+82
4.	Jeremy Sinkin	Columbia	18	0.783	99	69	+30
5.	Enoch Woodhouse	Harvard	16	0.696	94	71	+23
6.	Henry Kennard	St. John’s	15	0.652	96	73	+23
7.	Ian Schlaepfer	Penn State	14	0.609	95	80	+15
8.	Andy Radu	Pennsylvania	14	0.609	89	78	+11
9.	Michael Galligan	Pennsylvania	13	0.565	88	74	+14
10.	Jesse Schibilia	Rutgers	13	0.565	92	80	+12
11.	Nathan Weir	Ohio State	12	0.522	85	86	-1
12.	Calvin Chen	Columbia	12	0.522	83	90	-7
13.	Eric Stodola	Princeton	10	0.435	87	86	+1
14.	Florian Reichling	Stanford	10	0.435	84	87	-3
15.	Benjamin Hendricks	Duke	10	0.435	85	93	-8
16.	Roland Breden	Cal St. Fullerton	10	0.435	77	90	-13
17.	Forest Walton	Notre Dame	9	0.391	83	95	-12
18.	Jake Clark	Penn State	8	0.348	70	95	-25
19.	Brian Fraser	Cal St. Fullerton	8	0.348	61	93	-32
20.	Frank Bontempo	Notre Dame	7	0.304	70	97	-27
21.	Alejandro Bras	Princeton	6	0.261	75	99	-24
22.	Willy Chang	N.Y.U.	5	0.217	54	109	-55
23.	Benji Rostoker	Brandeis	4	0.174	54	103	-49
24.	Jeremy Zeitlin	Brown	2	0.087	50	110	-60

Men’s Foil Medal Bouts

Semifinals
(4) Cory Werk def. (1) Nitai Kfir, 15-12
(2) Boaz Ellis def. (3) Jeremy Sinkin, 15-11

Bronze Medal Bout
(1) Nitai Kfir def. (3) Jeremy Sinkin, 15-12

Gold Medal Bout
(2) Boaz Ellis def. (4) Cory Werk, 15-8

MEN’S EPEE – Final Standings
Place	Name	School	V	Pct.	TS	TR	Ind.
1.	Árpád Horváth	St. John’s	18	0.783	103	60	+43
2.	Benjamin Bratton	St. John’s	18	0.783	105	72	+33
3.	Michal Sobieraj	Notre Dame	18	0.783	98	67	+31
4.	Denis Tolkachev	Ohio State	16	0.696	99	61	+38
5.	Adam Wiercioch	Penn State	16	0.696	90	60	+30
6.	William Verigan	Columbia	16	0.696	97	75	+22
7.	Marek Petraszek	Wayne State	15	0.652	86	79	+7
8.	Jason Henderson	Rutgers	13	0.565	98	84	+14
9.	Dana Sanford	Drew	12	0.522	92	83	+9
10.	William Jones	Ohio State	12	0.522	88	79	+9
11.	Jason Stockdale	Air Force	12	0.522	92	87	+5
12.	Wojciech Dudek	Wayne State	12	0.522	83	80	+3
13.	Martin Lee	Stanford	12	0.522	85	83	+2
14.	Michael Yablon	Columbia	11	0.478	82	91	-9
15.	Kai Keller	Brandeis	10	0.435	87	86	+1
16.	Timothy French	Air Force	10	0.435	82	88	-6
17.	Julian Rose	Harvard	10	0.435	82	95	-13
18.	Nathan Bragg	Duke	10	0.435	75	90	-15
19.	Ben Solomon	Princeton	9	0.391	87	94	-7
20.	Matthew Bouloubasis	Johns Hopkins	7	0.304	77	99	-22
21.	Fenil Ghodadra	Princeton	6	0.261	60	97	-37
22.	James Rohrbach	Yale	6	0.261	63	106	-43
23.	Andrew Sofer	Brandeis	4	0.174	69	109	-40
24.	Alex Bruske	Penn State	3	0.130	52	107	-55