Feb. 21, 2002
The Notre Dame men’s fencing team has returned atop the U.S. Fencing Coaches Association poll, with the Irish moving up from No. 2 to the No. 1 ranking by virtue of their unbeaten record (14-0) and a 14-13 victory over previously top-ranked St. John’s, at the season-opening NYU Duals.
The Irish men – who are riding the third-longest winning streak (55 matches) in the program’s storied history – also held the No. 1 ranking for most of the 2001 season before returning the bulk of their team for the current season.
The Notre Dame women (16-2) currently are ranked third in the USFCA poll, dropping one spot following losses to top-ranked St. John’s and sixth-ranked Northwestern.
The Notre Dame men’s squad includes five of six fencers who competed in the 2001 NCAA Championship, plus a pair of freshmen who currently rank among the top young fencers in the college ranks. The Irish men have won 301 of 388 individual bouts in 2002, led by the epee (103-23, .818) and sabre (97-29, .770) squads.
Notre Dame’s top men’s performers in 2002 include the team’s tri captains: two-time All-Americans Jan Viviani (35-3 in epee) and Ozren Debic (30-2 in foil) and senior sabreman Andre Crompton (33-5), who earned All-America honors at the 2001 NCAAs.
Other top fencers for the Irish men include the freshman tandem of epeeist Michal Sobieraj (26-1) and foilist Derek Snyder (32-6), plus junior sabre Matt Fabricant (32-8), fifth-year sabre and three-time All-American Andrzej Bednarski (27-11), and senior epeeist Brian Casas (30-10).
Both Notre Dame teams complete the regular season with four matches this weekend versus teams at the Wayne State Duals, followed the next two weekends by the Midwestern Fencing Conference Championships (at Notre Dame) and the Midwest Regional Championship.
USFCA College Fencing Coaches Poll (2/21/02) Men: 1. Notre Dame, 2. St. John’s, 3. Penn State, 4. Columbia, 4. Ohio State, 6. Princeton, 7. Pennsylvania, 8. Stanford, 9. Yale, 10. NYU. Others receiving votes: Air Force, Duke, Rutgers, MIT, Brandeis, North Carolina, Harvard, Brown, Wayne State.
Women: 1. St. John’s, 2. Penn State, 3. Notre Dame, 4. Ohio State, 5. Princeton, 6. Northwestern, 7. Yale, 8. Temple, 9. Columbia-Barnard, 10. Pennsylvania. Others receiving votes: Stanford, North Carolina, Rutgers, Air Force, Duke, MIT, Cornell, NYU.