St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Fencing Prepares For 2009 NCAA Championships
3/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Fencing
March 18, 2009
QUEENS, N.Y. - The St. John's men's and women's fencing teams will take part in the 2009 NCAA Championships beginning Thursday at the Ashenfelter Multi-Sport Facility on the campus of Penn State. The Red Storm will be sending 10 fencers to compete in the field of 145 competitors representing 25 Division I fencing teams.
"Our expectations are very high for the tournament," said head coach Yury Gelman. "We feel that many of our fencers have a legitimate chance of winning medals in their respective events. The team is ready to take on a tough field and will do its best to finish high."
Fencers will compete in a round-robin format of five-touch bouts. After the round-robin, the top four fencers in each event will fence direct elimination 15-touch bouts for first, second and third places.
Men's epee, foil and sabre competition will be held on Thursday (Rounds 1-4) and Friday (Rounds 5-7) and the gold medal bouts will take place at 2 p.m. on Friday. The women compete Saturday and Sunday, with the gold medal bouts taking place Sunday at 2 p.m. A total of six individual national champions will be crowned.
All victories secured by an individual will count towards the team total. The team with the most points following the men's gold medal matches on Sunday will be crowned team national champion.
The Red Storm is led by freshman Daryl Homer, who captured the men's sabre gold medal at the NCAA Regionals on March 8. Also representing St. John's in the men's sabre will be freshman Alejandro Rojas, while competing in the women's sabre will be sophomore Dagmara Wozniak and senior Dora Varga. In the foil, junior Alexis Landreville will compete for the men, while junior-transfer Nora Szita will represent the women. Freshman Nicholas Vomero and senior Stan Vaksman will bout in the men's epee field, while junior Tanya Novakovska and senior Joanna Guy compete in women's epee.
St. John's will be looking to improve on its fifth-place finish at the 2008 NCAA Championships.
Players Mentioned
