April 5, 2002
ANTALYA, Turkey – Notre Dame sophomore fencer Kerry Walton (Londonderry, N.H.) – fresh off her stunning first-place showing at the NCAA Championships – took home the bronze medal today at the World Junior Championships, becoming just the second United States fencer ever to earn a medal in any level of women’s epee World Championship competition.
Walton also is just the second Notre Dame fencer ever to medal at the World Juniors (while at Notre Dame) and the first to do so in more than 25 years – joining men’s epeeist Tim Glass in that distinction. Glass was the bronze medallist at the 1975 World Juniors, held in Mexico City, becoming the first U.S. men’s fencer ever to medal in World Junior competition.
Walton and her mother Yvonne were featured in Tuesday’s USA Today, as the first parent/child combination ever to compete concurrently for U.S. Fencing in the World Championships. Yvonne Walton – who also was featured in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd” – will compete in the Aug. 31-Sept. 2 Veterans World Championships, to be held in Tampa, Fla., for fencers 50 and older.
Kerry Walton joined her brother Forest (ninth place at 2001 NCAAs) as the first brother-sister combination ever to earn All-America honors in the storied history of Notre Dame fencing (Forest currently is spending his junior year studying in Rome).
Another Notre Dame fencer, freshman women’s foilist Andrea Ament (Gates Mill, Ohio), could make a run at a medal in Saturday’s final day of the individual competition. Ament claimed the bronze medal in women’s foil at the 2001 World Junior Championships in Gdansk, Poland, during her senior year of high school.
The 18-fencer U.S. Junior National (under-20) team includes seven current college fencers, with three hailing from Notre Dame. Freshman foilist Derek Snyder (Chatsworth, Calif.) – who battled back from a severe bout with tonsillitis to finish seventh at the NCAAs – advanced from the World Junior Championship pool competition into the round of 64 before finishing a respectable 45th on Thursday in the elite men’s foil field.
All three Notre Dame fencers also will be in action during the team competition, to be held Sunday and Monday.
In the round of 16, Walton knocked off the world’s No. 2-ranked fencer and the 2001 World Junior silver medalist, Britta Heidemann of Germany (15-9), before rallying from a 7-4 deficit to edge 99th-ranked Panayiota Lionti of Greece, 15-14, in the quarterfinals. Eventual gold medallist Ana Branza of Romania (ranked 37th) then beat Walton in the semifinals, 15-9.
Walton becomes just the eighth U.S. women’s fencer in any weapon – and second in epee – to post a medallist finish at the World Junior Championships. Penn State’s Jessica Burke is the only other U.S. women’s epeeist ever to take home a medal in any level of World Championship competition, as a bronze-medal finisher in 1999.
Walton – who also fenced at the 2000 World Juniors (in Hungary) – won four of her six bouts in the preliminary pools, including key 5-4 wins over Estonia’s Olga Aleksejevna (ranked 30th in the world) and Ana Toulinev of Israel (ranked 120th). Her other preliminary wins came versus Turkey’s Seda Goydenir and Sabrino Lui of Hong Kong (both 5-2), with losses to 9th-ranked Monica Sozanska of Poland (1-5) and 144th-ranked Ekatarina Skornevskaya of Kazakhstan (0-5).
She then faced two tough bouts prior to facing Heidemann, with a 15-7 win over 15th-ranked Daphnee Cramer of Switzerland and a 15-10 decision over 11th-ranked Marisea Baradji-Duchene of France.
China’s Tan Li defeated Jung Hyo-Jung of Korea in the other women’s epee semifinal.
Snyder – ranked 40th in the World Cup standings – won four of his six bouts in the preliminary-round pools, highlighted by a 5-2 win over the world’s 26th-ranked junior men’s foilist, Tobias Hinterseer of Austria. Snyder also posted wins over Maxim Driga of the Mediterranean (5-2), Amet Baghasarayan of Armenia (5-2) and Simon Theland of Denmark (5-1), with losses to 151st-ranked Julian Montero of Spain and 109th-ranked Gabor Szabados of Hungary. He then dropped a 15-7 bout to 20th-ranked Jerome Jault of France, in the round of 64.
Ament enters Saturday’s pool competition ranked 15th in the world, with her seven-fencer pool also including 13th-ranked Marta Simoncelli of Italy, 77th-ranked Elizabeth Wright of Great Britain and 80th-ranked Laetitia Laik of Canada – plus Korea’s Kim Na-re (most of the fencers from Asia do not compete in many World Cup events). Others in Ament’s pool include Japan’s Skoko Ogi and Auricia Mindu of Moldova.
In addition to Walton, Burke and Ament, here are the other U.S. women’s fencers who have medaled at the World Juniors: foilists Ruth White (bronze, 1971), Monique deBruin (bronze, ’94) and Iris Zimmerman (bronze ’96, silver ’97, gold 2000) and sabres Sada Jacobson (silver ’01, bronze ’02) and Mariele Zagunis (gold ’01). DeBruin – sister of former Notre Dame All-American Claudette deBruin – and Zimmerman both fenced at Stanford while Jacobson has won the last two NCAA titles while fencing for Yale.
KERRY WALTON COMMENTS: “The NCAAs were a great prep for this competition and really boosted my confidence. I did better in both events than I expected. I’m just really happy and it has been a great experience. The whole U.S. team was there cheering us on. … The biggest thing for me the past few weeks has been that my mental game has been really sharp. Technically, I have not been as sound as I’d like to be but mentally I have been able to stay very focused and not let my mind wander. I didn’t let things faze me and did a good job of sitting back and being relaxed. … The second direct-elimination bout (vs. Duchene) was an important one for me today, because I had lost to her two years ago in Hungary. … This has been a great experience for me and the team as a whole is doing great. The (under-17) cadet fencers got a lot of medals and that set a good standard for us and we just rolled with it. We have a tough seed in the team competition but hopefully we can pick it up. … The location here is very scenic, right on the water. We are going to go into the town and do some shopping tomorrow and then get focused on the team events.”