March 11, 2000

APPLETON, Wis. — The Notre Dame men’s and women’s fencing teams traveled to Lawrence University for the Midwest Regional Championship to try to help qualify the maximum 12 fencers for the NCAA Championships and put themselves in good position with high finishes in all six weapons. Freshmen foilist Ozren Debic and senior foilist Magda Krol each won their weapons while 13 other fencers all placed in the top five. Participants in the 2000 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Fencing Championships to be held March 23-26, at Stanford will be announced on Thurs., March 16.

Debic followed up his Midwest Fencing Conference Championship last week by winning the men’s foil crown with an 11-0 record, dropping just nine touches in those 11 wins. Freshman Forest Walton took third with a 9-2 record, while sophomore Steve Mautone was fourth at 8-3.

The Irish swept the top two spots in women’s foil as Krol and freshman Liza Boutsikaris went undefeated against the rest of the field. Krol finished first with an 11-0 record, while Boutsikaris’ only loss was a 5-3 decision to Krol. Senior Aimee Kalogera finished 11th.

The Irish women’s sabre, after not placing any fencers in the semifinals of last week’s Midwest Fencing Conference Championships, had freshman Natalia Mazur and junior Carianne McCullough place third and fourth, respectively. Both finished with 7-4 records and combined to finish 4-2 against the three fencers from Northwestern, which had all four semifinalists last week at the Midwest Fencing Conference Championships. Mazur handed Northwestern’s first-place Vivian Imaizumi her only loss. Junior Katie Flanagan finished ninth.

The Notre Dame men’s sabre squad took second, third and fourth, after sophomore All-American Gabor Szelle lost a fence off against Wayne State’s Jakub Krochmalski for the title. Szelle beat Krochmalski 5-3 during the round robin but a 5-3 loss to junior teammate Andrzej Bednarski dropped his record to 10-1 along with Krochmalski. Bednarski was second with a 9-2 record, while sophomore Andre Crompton was 8-3 for fourth place.

Notre Dame took second, third and fifth in men’s epee. Freshman Jan Viviani went 9-2 for second place, sophomore Brian Casas 8-3 for third and senior James Gaither 6-5 for fifth. Ohio State’s Alan Jones was 11-0 to take first.

Freshman Megan Call posted a 7-5 record to finish fourth in women’s epee with all losses coming by 5-4 scores. Freshman Anna Carnick also had a 7-5 record took fifth based on the number of touches allowed. Northwestern’s Kate Rudkin went 11-0 to win the title.