March 19, 2015
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The University of Notre Dame men’s fencing team earned the Irish 41 points in the team competition on day one of the NCAA Championships, bolstered by 2011 NCAA Champion Ariel DeSmet. They currently are in eighth place with two rounds of pool play left on Friday morning before the semifinal bouts.
Foil, the first weapon to start on Thursday, saw DeSmet and sophomore Virgile Collineau post near identical records in the first round (DeSmet was 5-2, Collineau, 4-3). DeSmet posted impressive wins throughout the morning against John Vaiani (Penn, 5-4), both St. John’s opponents (Andras Nemeth, 5-2, Michele Caporizzi, 5-1) and Penn State’s David Gomez (5-1), culminating with a 10-5 record after three rounds.
Collineau finished the day in 11th place with an 8-7 record and had a slew of equally impressive victories on his own scorecard. He finished the first round of pools with three straight wins against Princeton’s Thomas Dudey (5-3) and Penn’s Jason Chang (5-3) and Vaiani (5-0). He also out-touched both of host school Ohio State’s entrants (Maximilian Chastanet, 5-4 and Stanislav Sudilovsky 5-1) and beat Nemeth (St. John’s) 5-3.
The Irish earned their lowest marks of the day in epee, as both Garrett McGrath and Nicholas Hanahan finished the first round with 3-4 marks. The Irish faced Penn State, Ohio State and Columbia in that round, all traditionally strong programs. Moving into the second round, McGrath improved to 5-6 with a pair of victories against Sacred Heart’s Khristopher White (5-2) and Stanford’s Ben Riviere (5-3). He finished the day in 21st with a 5-10 ledger, while Hanahan, who struggled to maintain momentum throughout the day, sits at 24th.
In sabre, both Jonah Shainberg and Jonathan Fitzgerald finished the first round with 4-3 records. The Irish took three of four bout victories against ACC Conference foe Duke. In the second round, Shainberg improved to 6-5 with strong wins against Columbia’s William Spear (5-1) and Princeton’s Edward Chin (5-3). He finished the day with two 5-4 wins against MIT opponents to match McGrath’s 8-7 record, earning 13th place heading into day two. Fitzgerald, the ACC Men’s Sabreist of the year finished the day 6-9 and standing 18th. His notable victories came against both Air Force, Duke and MIT foes.
Notre Dame will start competition on day two at 9am ET in the French Field House, with the semifinal and final bouts live streamed on ESPN3 in the afternoon (watch here).
Lizzie Mikes,
Media Services Coordinator