March 23, 2012
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The University of Notre Dame fencing team sits alone in third place after the second day of the 2012 NCAA Championship Friday at the French Field House. The Irish amassed 82 total points on the two days of women’s fencing.
Ohio State and Princeton pulled ahead for the day two lead, ending the women’s portion of the Championship with 88 points apiece. After Notre Dame in third, Penn State and St. John’s check in one point back of the Irish with 81, sharing fourth place. Notre Dame was led by the women’s foil duo who posted 31 total points for the team score, while women’s epee concluded with 28 and women’s sabre finished with 23.
Grace Hartman (St. Paul, Minn.) continued to pace the Irish foil lineup, finishing with a round-robin record of 16-7 with a +31 indicator. The junior ended the day with a record of 6-3 on the second day of competition, good for fifth place overall and second-team All-America distinction, the first such honor of her Irish career.
Madison Zeiss (Los Angeles, Calif.), meanwhile, posted the best day of any Irish fencer Friday, finishing with a record of 8-1 to climb to a final pool record of 15-8 with a +25 indicator. Sprinkled in her 15 victories were wins over the individual NCAA Champion Evgeniya Kirpicheva of St. John’s (1-0) and third-place finisher Alina Antokhina of Penn State (5-2). Zeiss finished eighth place overall and also received second-team All-America honors.
After coming out yesterday with matching records of 10-4, Ashley Severson (Franklin Lakes, N.J.) and Nicole Ameli (Las Vegas, Nev.) posted marks of 6-3 and 2-7, respectively, Friday. Severson concluded her first NCAA tournament as a second-team All-American after placing fifth with a record of 16-7 with a +25 indicator.
Ameli, meanwhile, struggled on the second day but with her overall record of 12-11 and +5 indicator earned third-team All-America honors after earning an 11th-place finish. The highlight of both Irish epeeists day was earning matching 5-4 victories over NCAA silver medalist Margherita Guzzi Vincenti of Penn State.
Ohio State’s Katarazyna Dabrowa claimed the gold medal with a narrow 15-14 decision over Guzzi Vincenti in the title bout.
In sabre, Lian Osier (Battle Ground, Wash.) used a 4-4 Friday to finish eighth place overall with a final record of 13-9 and a +8 indicator. After being named a third-team All-American last season, Osier earned second-team honors this year as a result of her top-eight finish. Abigail Nichols (Concord, Wash.) concluded with a 5-3 record on day two to finish with a 10-12 mark overall and a 15th place finish in her first appearance at the NCAAs.
Duke’s Rebecca Ward won her third gold medal – freshman, junior, senior – of her career, defeating Penn State’s Monica Aksamit in the title bout, 15-12.
Men’s round robin play begins Saturday and will conclude on Sunday. Following the completion of the round-robin rounds, the top-four finishers in each men’s weapon will fence 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.
Check back with UND.com for a complete recap of the third day of the championships. Fans can also follow the Irish via live results at http://www.prisedefer.com/NCAA and twitter updates via @NDSIDBrent.
2012 NCAA Championship Overall Team Standings - Day Two:1 Ohio State University 881 Princeton University 883 NOTRE DAME 824 Penn State University 814 St. John's University 816 Harvard University 627 Columbia/Barnard 538 Northwestern University 528 Pennsylvania, University of 5210 Temple University 4011 Duke University 3712 Brown University 2113 Cornell University 1814 Yale University 1515 Stanford University 1216 UNC, Chapel Hill 817 Sacred Heart University 618 M.I.T. 519 Boston College 420 U.C. San Diego 1
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