Fifty-Four Ivy Fencers Named to NCAA Championships Field

NCAA Release | NCAA Championship History | Breakdown by CollegeFencing360.com

Portions courtesy of NCAA.com

INDIANAPOLIS -- The NCAA Men’s and Women’s Fencing Committee announced the field of 144 competitors that will participate in the 2012 National Collegiate Men’s and Women’s Fencing Championships on Tuesday afternoon. The list of participants includes 54 Ivy League student-athletes, including 12 each from Princeton and Harvard. Ohio State will host the championships at the French Field House and St. John Arena, March 22-25, in Columbus, Ohio.

With an institution’s place finish in the championship being based on points earned by each individual, Harvard and Princeton are setup to make a run at the title. Other teams with 12 fencers include 2011 champion Notre Dame, the hosts from Ohio State and St. John's.

Additional Ivy teams with fencers in the 2012 championships include Penn (10), Columbia (8), Brown (6), Yale (4) and Cornell (2).

The National Collegiate Men’s and Women’s Fencing Championships include individual events in each of the six weapons (men’s foil, men’s epee, men’s sabre, women’s foil, women’s epee, women’s sabre).

Fencers will compete in a round-robin format of five-touch bouts. After the round-robin, the top-four finishers will fence in semifinal 15-touch bouts, with the winners fencing to determine first and second places, and the losers being awarded a tie for third place. Absolute ties for the seeding will be broken as follows: for positions one through three, by a coin toss; for position four, by a fence-off.

A team will be awarded one point for each victory by its student-athletes for the duration of the championships.

Ivy League Participants:

MEN’S EPEE (9)        
Kelly McGuire, Brown           
Alen Hadzic, Columbia           
Peregrine Badger, Harvard
James Hawrot, Harvard
Clifford Fishler, Penn           
Rene Gannon-O’Gara, Penn           
Edward Kelley, Princeton           
Jonathan Yergler, Princeton           
Peter Cohen, Yale            

MEN’S FOIL (8)
Barrett Weiss, Brown           
Brian Kaneshige, Harvard           
Lucas Lin, Harvard           
Zane Grodman, Penn          
Vidur Kapur, Penn
Marcus Howard, Princeton           
Alexander Mills, Princeton           
Shiv Kachru, Yale

MEN’S SABRE (10)
Stryker Weller, Brown
Michael Josephs, Columbia
Will Spear, Columbia        
Eric Arzoian, Harvard
Valentin Staller, Harvard           
Michael Mills, Penn
Evan Prochniak, Penn
Philip Dershwitz, Princeton           
Robert Stone, Princeton
Nathaniel Benzimra, Yale            

WOMEN’S EPEE (8)
Cory Abbe, Brown           
Lydia Kopecky, Columbia
Diana Tsinis, Columbia
Nadia Eldeib, Harvard
Emma Vaggo, Harvard
Amrit Bhinder, Penn           
Katherine Holmes, Princeton           
Hannah Safford, Princeton            

WOMEN’S SABRE (8)
Christine Whalen, Brown
Essane Diedro, Columbia
Sammy Roberts, Columbia
Kara Lee, Harvard           
Caroline Vloka, Harvard
Dominika Franciszkowicz, Penn
Eliza Stone, Princeton
Diamond Wheeler, Princeton