Oct. 25, 2005
Members of the Notre Dame fencing program competed over the weekend at the annual Penn State Max Garret Open and Northwestern’s Remenyik Open. Sophomore Jakub Jedrkowiak won the men’s foil title at the PSU Open, improving on his runner-up finish at the ’04 event. Freshman Kimberlee Montoya added an impressive runner-up showing in women’s epee while two juniors – epeeist Amy Orlando (3rd) and sabre Valerie Providenza (4th) – finished among the top-4 in their respective weapons. Junior men’s sabre Patrick Ghattas and freshman men’s epeeist Karol Kostka also reached the semifinal round while two other Irish fencers reached the top-8.
Notre Dame’s 17 competitors at the Penn State Open included fifth-year epeeist Becca Chimahusky’s sixth-place finish and a spirited effort by junior sabre Matt Stearns, who finished seventh after a controversial finish in the rond-of-8. Five other ND fencers finished among the top-12: sophomore epeeist Greg Howard (12) and the freshman foursome of foilists Emilie Prot (9th) and Adrienne Nott (12th), epeeist Madeline Stephan (10th) and sabre Bill Thanhouser (12th).
Junior Frank Bontempo and freshman Mark Kubik narrowly missed reaching the round-of-16 in the men’s foil competition while senior sabre Nicholas Diacou finished among the top-32 in his weapon. Sophomore foilist Diego Quinonez had several tight bouts before coming just shy of the round-of-32.
Details from each weapon follow below, as does a short recap from the four ND fencers who competed at the Northwestern Open:
MEN’S FOIL (57-fencer field) – Jedrkowiak faced Ohio State’s Boaz Ellis in the semifinals for the second straight year and responded with another win over the two-time NCAA champion (15-10) before topping PSU’s Jeff Chang in a tight final bout (15-13) … Jedrkowiak, who earned All-America honors with his 7th-place finish at the ’05 NCAAs, also posted a noteworthy win in the pool rounds over Jesse Scibilia of Rutgers … Bontempo and Kubik advanced to the final rounds of pools (5 pools of 5) but each suffered costly losses (Bontempo to Princeton’s John-Paul Mitchell and Kubik to RU’s Kevin Cho, who lost an earlier 15-5 bout to Jedrkowiak) … Bontempo, who finished 19th, also had an earlier loss to PSU’s Emerson Dinapoli (who finished 15th) … Kubik ended up 20th in the final standings … Jedrkowiak had a 3-2 lead on Harvard All-American Enoch Woodhouse in the pool rounds but failed to get the win.
Amy Orlando advanced to the PSU Open semifinals before losing to teammate Kim Montoya.
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WOMEN’S EPEE (50-fencer field) – Montoya has an impressive debut vs. college competition, besting her teammates Chimahusky in the quarterfinals and Orlando in the semifinals … she lost to Wayne State’s Anna Garina (the two-time defending NCAA champ) in the title bout, making a late rally before falling 10-15 … Montoya earlier had forced Garina to overtime in the pool rounds (Garina claimed the narrow win) … Orlando battled through a slow start (7-6 in the pools) but registered some key wins, including a pair of victories over Princeton’s Erin McGarry (5-2, 4-3/OT), a round-of-16 win over another Tiger fencer (15-9 vs. newcomer Jasjit Bhinder), a late surge to beat Wayne State newcomer Justina Konczalska in the round-of-8 (15-12) and a win in the 3rd-place bout over PSU’s Case Szarwark (15-9) … Chimahusky’s noteworthy bouts included a pair of wins over Harvard’s Maria Larsen (5-4, 15-12) and victories in the pool rounds vs. Ohio State newcomer Alexandra Obraztsova (5-3) and Harvard’s Jasmine McGlade (4-3, OT) … Stephan turned in a solid debut that included a loss to OSU’s Obraztsova.
Patrick Ghattas – shown during his win over Franz Boghicev in the ’05 NCAA semifinals – faced his rival from PSU again in the third-place bout of the ’05 PSU Open.
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MEN’S SABRE (44-fencer field) – Ghattas was seeded #1 after the first round of pools and ultimately faced his teammate Thanhouser in the round-of-16, winning 15-10 … he then beat PSU’s Alex Rebliewski in the round-of-8 (leading all the way before winning the tight bout, 15-12) but lost to the eventual champion Tim Hagemen of Harvard (14-15, after leading 8-3) and then dropped the third-place bout vs. PSU’s Franz Boghicev (in a rematch of the ’05 NCAA semifinal that was won by Ghattas) … Stearns went 5-0 in the 1st round of pools (highlighted by a 5-3 win over OSU’s Jason Paul) while his 3-1 showing in the 2nd round included a 5-2 victory over Harvard’s David Jakus (with the loss coming vs. Boghicev) … he then topped RU’s Phil Dolata in the round-of-16 (15-8) and suffered a controversial loss to Hagemen in the round-of-8 (13-15) … Thanhouser – who recently had an impressive 6th-place finish at the Junior World Cup event in Sosnowiec, Poland – also could have reached the round-of-8 but the bad luck of the draw placed him opposite Ghattas in the round-of-16 … Diacou won his first bout in the consolation round (15-13) but then lost by the same score to finish 32nd.
WOMEN’S SABRE (42-fencer field) – Providenza was looking to repeat as the PSU Open champion and was in position after topping Harvard’s Sarah Parker in the round-of-16 (15-5) and OSU’s Amelia Gaillard in the quarterfinals (15-8) … she then battled Wayne State newcomer and Polish national Katarzyna Kuzniak in the semifinals, losing a tough 12-15 decision before dropping a 12-15 bout to OSU’s Eileen Grench in the third-place matchup.
Defending champion Valerie Providenza came one win shy of returning to the final bout at the Penn State Open.
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MEN’S EPEE (51-fencer field) – Kostka’s impressive debut ended with losses to a pair of Princeton fencers, vs. Tommi Hurme in the semifinals and Ben Solomon in the third-place bout (both 11-15) … he earlier had defeated Solomon in the pool rounds (5-1) and battled Harvard’s Edward Sherill before losing 4-5 … Howard split a pair of bouts vs. Sherrill in the pool rounds and then was eliminated in the round-of-16 vs. PSU’s James Moody (9-15), after earlier splitting a pair of bouts vs. Moody.
Greg Howard was one of 13 Notre Dame fencers to finish in the top-12 at the PSU Open.
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WOMEN’S FOIL (45-fencer field) – Prot made a strong statement by losing just two bouts in the pool rounds, vs. defending NCAA champion Emily Cross of Harvard (3-5) and Princeton All-America standout Jacqueline Leahy (4-5) … she ultimately advanced to the round-of-16 before losing to PSU’s Tamara Najm … Nott also reached the round-of-16 but lost to former OSU All-American Metta Thompson, her teammate from the Rochester Fencing Club (Metta and her twin sister Hanna were allowed to compete, as they still are enrolled at OSU).
NORTHWESTERN OPEN – senior Colleen Walsh placed 22nd in the women’s foil, going 3-3 in the pools and ultimately losing to Zoe Hesp in the round-of-32 (9-15) … freshman Ashley Serrette finished 16th in the women’s sabre competition, going 3-3 in her pools and bearing Erin Olson in the round-of-32 (15-6) before losing by the same score to Dominika Franciszkowicz … freshmen Ceschino Brooks de Vita (35th) and Tom Horton (37th) competed in the mixed sabre, each losing by narrow margins to come just shy of the final-32 … de Vita had two wins in the pools and then lost to Ron Herman (13-15) in the direct elimination (Horton had one pool win and lost to Brent Tluczek, 14-15).
Jakub Jedrkowiak – pictured receiving his NCAA 7th-place award – is one of six returning All-Americans on the 2005-06 Notre Dame fencing team.
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