St. John's University Athletics
Homer, Israelian Capture Back-To-Back National Championships
3/25/2011 12:00:00 AM | Fencing
March 25, 2011
Columbus, Ohio - Daryl Homer and Marat Israelian each captured national championships for the second-straight year to lead the Red Storm to a third-place standing after the second and final day of men's competition at the NCAA Championships at Ohio State University. The Red Storm earned 71 total points and trail Notre Dame (90 points) and Penn State (84 points).
Homer won the men's saber national championship after finishing 19-3 in round-robin competition to earn the first seed in the semi-final round. In the semi-finals, he out-touched Evan Prochniak of Pennsylvania, 15-7, before defeating Avery Zuck of Notre Dame, 15-14.
In the men's epee, Marat Israelian also earned the first seed in the semi-final round. He finished round-robin competition with a record of 16-7 and defeated Yale's Peter Cohen, 15-4 and Princeton's Jonathan Yergler, 15-10, to capture the championship.
In addition to Homer and Israelian, Sean Buckley and Nicholas Vomero also earned All-America honors. Buckley finished eighth in the men's saber with a record of 14-9, while Vomero placed 12th in the men's epee going 12-11.
In the men's foil, freshman Eli Schenkel went 10-13 to finish 13th.
The Red Storm are back in action on Saturday for the opening day of women's competition at the 2011 NCAA Championships, which concludes on Sunday. Following the completion of the round robin rounds, the top-four finishers in each women's weapon will fence simultaneous semifinal 15-touch bouts, with the winners fencing to determine the champion and the losers being awarded a tie for third place.
An institution's place in the championship will be based on points earned by each individual win and the team national championship is based on the combined points earned by both the men's and women's teams. The NCAA team title will be crowned on Sunday at the conclusion of women's competition.
