The NCAA News - News and Features

March 16, 1998

National Collegiate Men's and Women's Fencing

Penn State is team to beat for title

Event: 1998 National Collegiate Men's and Women's Fencing Championships.

Overview: Three-time defending champion Penn State remains the team to beat. Top teams competing against Penn State for the title will be Columbia-Barnard, Notre Dame, St. John's (New York) and Stanford .... Penn State's Ola Korfanty and Charlotte Walker will compete in women's epee, along with defending women's epee champion Magda Krol and Nicole Mustilli of Notre Dame and Nealia Mann and Jessica Lisagor of Stanford. Nicole Dygert of St. John's, 1996 women's epee champion and 1997 runner-up, also will have her sights set on the epee championship .... Women's foil will be up for grabs. Notre Dame's Sara Walsh, last year's runner-up, returns to compete against 1997 champion Yelena Kalkina of Ohio State, teammate Patricia Szelle, and Stanford's Felicia Zimmermann and Monique DeBruin, who placed above Kalkina and Szelle in last year's round-robin standings. Also, Susan Jennings and newcomer Erinn Smart of Columbia-Barnard and Yale's Allison Calabia will be contenders .... In the men's events, watch for sophomore Keeth Smart of St. John's to attempt to repeat as sabre champion. He will defend the title against Penn State's Aaron Stuewe and Notre Dame's Luke LaValle .... Contenders for men's foil should include defending champion Cliff Bayer of Pennsylvania, Peter Devine of Yale, Dan Kellner of Columbia, Tim Chang and Alex Wood of Stanford, Gang Lu and Donald McGill of Penn State, and John Tejada of Notre Dame .... Last year's runner-up in men's epee, George Hentea of St. John's, will battle again for the title against competitors like freshman teammate and newcomer Alex Roytblat, Notre Dame's Carl Jackson and Duke's Jeremy Kahn, men's epee champion in 1996.

Field: A total of 120 fencers -- 24 in each of the five events -- will compete for individual titles in men's epee, foil and sabre, and women's epee and foil. Team scoring will be determined by adding the points (one point per bout victory) earned by each school's fencers in the round-robin portion of the individual events.

Dates and site: Notre Dame will serve as host of the championships March 19-22.

Information/results: The fax-on-demand telephone number is 770/399-3060 (passcode 1915); request numbers are 1315 for bracket/schedule, 5079 for first-day results, 5080 for second-day results, 5081 for third-day results and 5082 for final results. Championships results also will be available on the World Wide Web at www.ncaa.org. Results will be published in the March 30 issue of The NCAA News.