Nov. 2, 2008
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Notre Dame men’s fencing team competed at the 2008 Garret/Penn State Open on Sunday, November 2. The Irish had five fencers finish in the top-five in their respective weapons, including one in foil, one in epee and three in sabre.
In foil action, freshman Frederick Bentley (Little Rock, Ark./DuPont Manual) finished in third to take the bronze medal at the individually scored competition. Nick Chinman of the host school, Penn State, came in first in the field of 64 foil competitors.
The epee portion of the event saw 64 fencers take to the strips at Penn State’s White Building. Sophomore Jacob Osborne (Colleyville, Texas/Faith Christian) was the highest Irish finisher, earning the bronze medal with a third-place finish. Penn State’s Maxwell Dettlinger won the gold medal.
Notre Dame fared best in the sabre competition, as the Irish had four of the top-eight finishers. Sophomore Barron Nydam (Rancho Sante Fe, Calif./Sante Fe Christian) took home the silver medal after falling in the title bout to Daniel Bak of Penn State. Freshman Keith Feldman (Stony Brook, N.Y./Ward Melville) had a strong collegiate debut, earning the bronze medal in sabre action. Sophomore Avery Zuck (Beaverton, Ore./Jesuit) finished in fifth, while senior Bill Thanhouser (Portland, Ore./Oregon Episcopal) finished eighth overall.
In summation of the weekend, head coach Janusz Bednarski said, “I thought we fenced well, we had a medalist finisher in each event on both the men’s and women’s side. Penn State is a traditionally strong team and I was really impressed with how our freshmen fenced.”