St. John's University Athletics
St. John's Headed To 2015 NCAA Fencing Championships
3/17/2015 12:00:00 AM | Fencing
The NCAA Fencing Championships include individual events in each of the six weapons: men's épée, men's foil, men's saber, women's épée, women's foil, women's saber.
The 144 total fencers will compete in a round-robin format of five-touch bouts. After the round-robin, the top-four finishers in each weapon will fence in semifinal 15-touch bouts, with the winners fencing to determine first and second places, and the non-advancing fencers being awarded a tie for third place.
An institution's place finish in the championships will be based on points earned by each individual. A team will be awarded one point for each victory by its student-athletes for the duration of the championships.
St. John's is one of four schools that qualified 11 fencers, with six on the men's side and five for the women's squad. The others are Ohio State, defending champion Penn State, and Princeton. Only two schools - Columbia and Notre Dame - qualified the maximum of 12.
For the men's team, juniors Ferenc Valkai and Roman Sydorenko will compete in saber, freshman Andras Nemeth and junior Michele Caporizzi will compete in foil, while freshman Sean White and sophomore Cooper Schumacher will compete in men's epee.
For the women's team, redshirt sophomore Margaret McDonald will compete in saber, senior Marta Hausman and junior Irene Spezzamonte will participate in foil, while freshman Veronika Zuikova and senior Isis Washington will compete in epee.
St. John's Championship History
Since men's and women's teams began competing together in 1990, St. John's has won one NCAA Championship (2001), has made five runner-up finishes (1995, 2000, 2002, 2007, 2010). The Red Storm has had 21 individual NCAA Champions.
Red Storm at NCAA Championships in 2014
The St. John's men's and women's fencing programs qualified 11 fencers for the 2014 NCAA Fencing Championships. Seven of the qualifiers still compete with the Red Storm.
Seven Red Storm fencers earned top-10 finishes to help St. John's to a third place finish overall. Yevgeniy Karyuchenko led St. John's as he became the 21st national champion in program history. Karyuchenko defeated Garret McGrath of Notre Dame (15-13) to take the gold in men's epee.
Ticket Information
Tickets for the event are available at ncaa.com/tickets or at French Field House on the day of the event. Daily tickets are $10 or $30 for the entire tournament. Doors will open for spectators one hour before the start of competition.
Watch on ESPN3
Live coverage of the 2015 NCAA Fencing Championships will be available on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app. An hour-long special will be featured on ESPNU at 3 p.m. ET on Wednesday, April 8.
2015 NCAA Fencing Championships
Columbus, Ohio
French Field House/St. John Arena
March 19-22
St. John's 2015 NCAA Qualifiers:
Men's Saber
Ferenc Valkai, Jr. (Gödöllö, Hungary)
- 2nd NCAA appearance
- Silver medalist at 2014 NCAA
Roman Sydorenko, Jr. (Kiev, Ukraine)
- 2nd NCAA appearance
- Bronze medalist at 2014 NCAA
Men's Foil
Andras Nemeth, Fr. (Budapest, Hungary)
- 1st NCAA appearance
Michele Caporizzi, Jr. (Milan, Italy)
- 3rd NCAA appearance
- 9th at 2013 NCAA (All-American Honorable Mention)
- 5th at 2014 NCAA (First-team All-American)
Men's Epee
Sean White, Fr. (Manassas, Va.)
- 1st NCAA appearance
Cooper Schumacher, So. (Pompton Lakes, N.J.)
- 2nd NCAA appearance
- 8th at 2014 NCAA (Second-team All-American)
Women's Saber
Margaret McDonald, R-So. (Atlanta, Ga.)
- 13th in 2013 NCAA
Women's Foil
Marta Hausman, Sr. (Torun, Poland)
- 3rd NCAA appearance
- 11th at 2013 NCAA (All-American Honorable Mention)
- 8th at 2014 NCAA (Second-team All-American)
Irene Spezzamonte, Jr. (Spinea, Italy)
- 2nd NCAA appearance
- 10th at 2014 NCAA (All-American Honorable Mention)
Women's Epee
Veronika Zuikova, Fr. (Tallinn, Estonia)
- 1st NCAA appearance
Isis Washington, Sr. (Parsippany, N.J.)
- 2nd NCAA appearance
- 18th at 2014 NCAA
Players Mentioned
