March 22, 2013
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The University of Notre Dame’s men’s fencing team finished its final day of competition Friday in third place with 77 points at the NCAA Championship, inside Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Texas.
The Irish were led by an impressive performance from foilist Gerek Meinhardt. Meinhardt’s only loss during pool play was to Olympic teammate Miles Chamley-Watson of Penn State, a narrow 5-4 decision in Meinhardt’s second-to-last bout of the morning pools.
The 2010 men’s foil national champion, Meinhardt’s 22-1 bout record tied for second place in Notre Dame history behind Alicja Kryczalo, who went 23-0 with a +100 indicator to win the women’s foil championship in 2002.
Meinhardt and Chamley-Watson were joined by fellow London teammate Alex Massialas (Stanford) and Chamley-Watson’s Penn State teammate David Willette in the semifinal bouts. Facing off in the first semifinal tilt, Meinhardt went up 6-3 at the end of the first period, and then went on a five-touch run to increase the score to 12-6 against Massialas. Massialas returned fire with a seven-touch spurt of his own to take the lead 13-12.
Meinhardt scored the next two touches, bringing him within reach of the win, but Massialas countered and tied the score. Massialas had the winning touch moments later to advance into the NCAA Championship bout against Willette.
Meinhardt finished the day with a +67 indicator and earned first-team All-America honors after tying for third place, while Massialas outscored Willette 15-10 to win the men’s foil individual national championship. Meinhardt’s performance improved his career NCAA Championship record to 58-10.
Wrapping up pool play in men’s foil, Ariel DeSmet went 4-4 on the day to finish 13-10, earning third-team All-America recognition in the process.
In men’s epee, Garrett McGrath posted a 6-2 record for the day to finish with a 12-11 record and a +7 indicator in 13th place. Epee teammate Michael Rossi finished 4-4 for an 8-15 final record, good for 20th place overall.
Marco Canevari of Ohio State won the men’s epee NCAA Championship bout. Canevari won the epee draw of the NCAA Midwest Regional held March 10 at the Castellan Family Fencing Center at Notre Dame with a record of 14-1.
In the sabre event, Kevin Hassett placed ninth, while freshman John Hallsten finished 18th with a 9-14 overall mark. Hassett, who had a 9-6 record Thursday, finished the competition with a 13-10 docket and a +11 indicator, earning third-team All-America status. Michael Mills (Pennsylvania) won the NCAA Championship bout against Gordon with a score of 15-9.
The women’s portion of the NCAA Championship is scheduled to begin at 9:15 a.m. Saturday.
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