Irish favored to defeat Nitanny Lions in NCAAs
Mike Connolly
Sports Writer
RACINE, Wisc.
First the first time in seven years, Notre Dame enters the National Fencing Championships in an unfamiliar position — the Irish are expected to defeat the Penn State Nittany Lions.
Since Notre Dame's last national title in 1994, the Irish have finished third once and second five times. All six times, Penn State has won the national title.
But in 2001, everything has changed. Notre Dame is one of only two teams to qualify 12 fencers for the Championships. Penn State and Stanford, two perennial fencing power houses, qualified only 11 fencers are at a significant disadvantage when compared to Notre Dame and St. John's, who each qualified the maximum 12 fencers.
Although Notre Dame has the advantage over Penn State and Stanford, most Irish fencers and coaches believe St. John's is the favorite this year.
"By the names, they have the strongest team at the moment," assistant coach Janusz Bednarski said.
The biggest name for St. John's is 1997 and 1999 sabre champion and 2000 Olympian Keeth Smart. The senior did not fence in collegiate competition last season while he trained for the Olympics, but he has returned to NCAA fencing his year to post a 19-1 record.
Smart's teammate Ivan Lee is nearly as talented as Smart. The sophomore posted a 26-1 record after finished third in sabre at last year's NCAA championships.
Men's sabre is also a strong weapon for the Irish,. Two-time All-American Andrezj Bednarski and Andre Crompton have both qualified for the Championships for the Irish. Crompton will be called upon to fill the role of 2000 sabre champion Gabor Szelle who has not fenced for nearly a month.
Although Crompton has never competed at the NCAA Championships before, he is familiar with Smart and Lee and believes he can beat them. The three of them have been training together for seven years and Crompton has beaten both of them this year.
"We actually trade bouts and go back and forth," the Notre Dame junior said. "We know how each other fence from the club. We actually grew up fencing together."
St. John's is also strong in men's epee where they return two first team All-Americans in Doron Levit and Alex Roytblat. Last year, Roytblat beat Irish sophomore Jan Viviani in the semifinals but Viviani bounced back to beat Levit for third place.
A welcome improvement to the Irish over the last few weeks has been the fencing of epeeist Brian Casas. After earning All-American honors in 1999, Casas had a disappointing showing at the 2000 Championships and struggled for most the 2001 season. In the post-season, however, Casas has been nearly unstoppable — taking first place in both the Midwest Conference and Regional Championships. In both tournaments he defeated teammate Viviani, who earned first team All-American honors last year.
"Brian is back" head coach Yves Auriol said. "It's good to see him fencing well again."
The Red Storm and Irish men's foil teams are also evenly matched. Notre Dame features first team All-American Ozren Debic and 2000 NCAA qualifier Forrest Walton while St. John's sends 1999 first team All-American Jonathan Tiomkin and 2000 second team All-American Joseph Fisher.
After finished second to Stanford's Felix Reichling in 2000, Debic hopes to win the individual foil crown and finally defeat Reichling.
"There is always room for improvement," Debic said. "I am definitely better than the last two times. I am looking forward to that bout, that's for sure."
The men will open the Championships on Thursday and Friday. After defeating St. John's in the regular season, the Irish expect to build a lead on the first two days and hope the women can hold it on Saturday and Sunday.
"The key for us is for the men to come out and dominate the first two days and then have the women fence their butts off and keep us close," Crompton said. "If we do that we should be alright."
Women bring experience, balance
Building the lead shouldn't be too much of a problem. The men's team is undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the country. The Irish women's team, however, is weaker than the men's and ranked only fifth nationally. The women's team does not feature the stars and first team All-Americans that the men have.
The St. John's women have more big name fencers than the Notre Dame women, but the Irish feel they are a more balanced team than the Red Storm.
"St. John's is a strong team," sabre captain Cari McCullough said. "They have some stars but I think we are more balanced. Our women's team is more balanced than they are. I think that gives us more of a shot than most people give us credit."
McCullough will be competing in her second Championship but for her teammate Destanie Milo, this weekend's tournament will be her first NCAA experience.
Milo and foilist Maggie Jordan will each be competing in the Championship for the first time but the other four Irish qualifiers fenced in the Championship last year.
In addition to McCullough, foilist Liza Boutsikaris and epeeists Meagan Call and Anna Carnick will all make their second appearance at the NCAAs. That experience is critical, according to McCullough.
"It's great that most of us are returners," she said. "You already know what to expect. It is so valuable to realize that every touch counts. As long as you realize that, you have a much better chance of winning more bouts."
McCullough believes the key to holding the lead the men are expected to build on the first day is focus. If the women ignore the pressure and the scoreboard, they can hold the lead.
"We won't have a lot of pressure on us if we don't look at that stupid scoreboard," McCullough said. "My goal for the weekend is not to look at it. I don't want to know where we stand. I don't want to know where I stand because I don't want to see any kind of lead falling."
While St. John's will be the main competition for the Irish, they are certainly not writing off Stanford or Penn State because they only have 11 qualifiers. Last year St. John's qualified just 11 fencers and tied for second with Notre Dame — just four bouts behind Penn State.
"They are going to be there," Auriol said. "Penn State is going to be a contender even with 11 fencers. It's going to be more difficult but they still have a chance."
"They are going to be good," Debic said. "They are going to cause a lot of problems but I don't think they are going to be a threat to the championship.
Stanford is a bigger threat. This year is going to be different because there won't be two strong teams. There are going to be five equally strong teams {St. John's, Notre Dame, Penn State, Stanford and Princeton who qualified 10 fencers) and good people are going to drop bouts because the competition is going to be tougher."
The Championships begin today at 8 a.m. and continue through Sunday at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.
All Sports Stories for Thursday, March 22, 2001
