Falcons qualify for NCAA Fencing Championships
3/6/2011 12:00:00 AM | Fencing
March 6, 2011
U.S. Air Force Academy, Colo. -- Three Air Force Academy fencers automatically qualified for the NCAA Men's and Women's Fencing Championships on March 24-27 at Ohio State University. The four West Region schools (Stanford, Air Force, UC San Diego and Cal Tech) took action at the 2011 NCAA West Regional, on Sat., March 5 at the Air Force Academy's Cadet Gymnasium East Gym.
Sophomore Heather Nelson (Clifton Park, NY) won 100% of her bouts in women's saber (8-0) and was one of only two fencers to go undefeated. Stanford's Meaghan Conway went undefeated in women's foil. Freshman Daniel Cohen (Scarsdale, NY) won in men's foil with a 9-1 bout record. Sophomore Scott Pippin (Palm Desert, CA) won in men's saber with a 5-2 bout record.
When asked what she attributed her success to, Nelson said, hard work and practice everyday, and giving everything to every bout and making sure I did everything right."
Daniel Trapani took second place in men's epee with a 9-3 bout record. Before the men's championships, Trapani said his biggest competitors have always been from Stanford and this year he was looking to beat their two toughest fencers. Trapani went 3-1 versus Stanford. Simone Barrette finished third in women's epee with a 7-2 bout record.
Pippin, Cohen and Nelson have an automatic bye to the NCAA Championships, however, the West Region's at-large nominations were yet to be determined at the time of this posting.
"It was a very good finish for us," commented head coach Abdel Salem. "To have two sophomores, Scott and Heather, and Dan Cohen, who is a freshman, earn an automatic bye is very good for us." "I am sad that Dan Trapani did not finish in first place, he put up a very good fight. I was hoping that Simone would get a bye or at least an at-large."
NCAA Fencing West Regional Seedings
How the fencers were seeded on Saturday:
The West Regional format in each weapon was one pool in each weapon with each fencer facing off against the others. The placements were based on the won/loss record of each fencer. Each school can qualify a maximum of two fencers per weapon for the NCAA Championships, March 24-27 at Ohio State. The results from Saturday's championship will count to 60% of the individual qualification for the NCAAs. The other 40% is based on each fencer's individual seed factor (regular-season dual-meet bouts). The NCAA will feature 24 competitors in all six weapons, epee, saber and foil. Each school's region receives a varying number of automatic berths in each weapon. Each school can qualify a max of two fencers in each weapon for the NCAAs. The West Region has two in each weapon for automatic berths, except men's epee, which has three. Two candidates in each weapon may be submitted in each weapon as "at-large" nominees for the NCAAs. (Two total at-large spots in each weapon, for the respective 24-fencer fields in each weapon.)
Seedings for yesterday's championships are listed below:
NCAA FENCING WEST REGIONAL
Sat., March 5 - Host USAFA Cadet Gymnasium East Gym
Seedings/final placements
WOMEN'S FOIL (6 entrants ... 2 automatic NCAA berths)
1 Meaghan Conway (Stanford) 1st
2 Jia Wu (UC San Diego) 2nd
3 Rebecca Chung (Stanford) 5th
4 Rose Forcier (UC San Diego) 3rd
5 Amrit Khalsa (UC San Diego) 6th
6 Maneeshika Madduri (Stanford) 5th
WOMEN'S EPEE (10 entrants ... 2 automatic NCAA berths)
1 Francesca Bassa (Stanford) 1st
2 Simone Barrette (Air Force) 3rd
3 Kersten Schnurle (Stanford) 4th
4 Ashley Titan (Stanford) 2nd
5 Juli Nokleberg (Air Force) 6th
6 Katherine Lynch (Stanford) 9th
7 Olivia Prosseda (Air Force) 5th
8 Casey Gilchrist (UC San Diego) 7th
9 Amy Bianchini (UC San Diego) 8th
10 Diane Yi (UC San Diego) 10th
WOMEN'S SABRE (9 entrants ... 2 automatic NCAA berths)
1 Heather Nelson (Air Force) 1st
2 Elissa Gesner (UC San Diego) 3rd
3 Laura Decker (Cal Tech) 2nd
4 Suraya Omar (Syanford) 4th
5 Alexandria Stanley (UC San Diego) 7th
6 Saskia Hicks (Air Force) 8th
7 Lianna Louis (Stanford) 6th
8 Atira Richards (Stanford) 5th
9 Jordan Conway (UC San Diego) 9th
MEN'S FOIL (11 entrants ... 2 automatic NCAA berths)
1 Turner Caldwell (Stanford) 2nd
2 Daniel Cohen (Air Force) 1st
3 Aelx Khoshnevissan (Stanford) 4th
4 Phil Arredondo (Stanford) 7th
5 Brennan Louis (UC San Diego) 3rd
6 Nicholas Stockdale (Air Force) 6th
7 Michael Fond (UC San Diego) 5th
8 Alexander Lavin (UC San Diego) 9th
9 Joseph Schenkel (UC San Diego) 8th
10 Travis Dyson (Air Force) 10th
11 Eugene Vinitsky (Cal Tech) 11th
MEN'S EPEE (13 entrants ... 3 automatic NCAA berths)
1 Kevin Mo (Stanford) 4th
2 Kae Harbour (Stanford) 1st
3 Kian Ameli (Stanford) 3rd
4 James Galamba (San Diego) 5th
5 Cole Connely (Stanford) 9th
6 Nichola McGuinness (UC San Diego) 8th
7 Daniel Trapani (Air Force) 2nd
8 Terry Lee (Cal Tech) 10th
9 Chase Houser (Air Force) 7th
10 Benjamin Rinaldi (Air Force) 6th
11 Patrick Burton (UC San Diego) 11th
12 Anson Lam (Cal Tech) 13th
13 Stanford Schor (Cal Tech) 12th
MEN'S SABRE (8 entrants ... 2 automatic NCAA berths)
1 Max Murphy (Stanford) 3rd
2 Nicholas Bartuzik (UC San Diego) 2nd
3 Scott Pippin (Air Force) 1st
4 Lucas Jansen (Stanford) 5th
5 Jeremy Klepner (Stanford) 8th
6 Emerson Woerner (Air Force) 7th
7 Jonathan Ott (UC San Diego) 4th
8 Bryson Abilay (UC San Diego) 6th
Seedings information courtesy of Collegefencing360.com and NCAA
