The NCAA News - News and Features

March 17, 1997

National Collegiate

Even with graduation loss, Penn State still tops

Event: 1997 National Collegiate Men's and Women's Fencing Championships.

Overview: Despite the departure of four-time women's foil titlist Olga Kalinovskaya, two-time champion Penn State remains the team to beat. The Lions are likely to qualify 10 fencers -- two in each weapon, the maximum possible -- which is a tremendous advantage because team scoring is based on individual results. The best of the rest will struggle to qualify eight or nine competitors. The top challengers are likely to be Notre Dame, St. John's (New York) and Stanford, a team that's just right for this format because it has one or two top-notch fencers in each weapon but lacks overall depth ... Despite the return of 1996 champions Jeremy Kahn of Duke in men's epee, Maxim Pekarev of Princeton in men's sabre and Nicole Dygert of St. John's in women's epee, the individual titles are a toss-up once again -- newcomers always make an impact. But several Penn State fencers are likely to be near the top, most notably men's sabre runner-up Serge Lilov, Jeff Feinblatt in men's epee, and Alexandra Korfanty in women's foil ... The most competitive event probably will be men's foil. The talent is so deep across the country in this weapon that several top-quality foilists have moved to different weapons for the collegiate season ... Notre Dame's hopes would get a big boost if Sara Walsh, who lost to Kalinovskaya in last year's gold-medal bout, can regain the form she displayed in a round-robin defeat of the eventual champion. Other Irish to keep an eye on include freshman Magda Krol in women's epee and three-time all-American Jeremy Siek in men's foil ... Air Force serves as the site of the NCAA fencing championships for the first time since 1971, when it hosted the men's championships. The last time an NCAA fencing tournament was held west of the Mississippi River was 1982, when San Jose State hosted the women's championship.

Field: A total of 120 fencers -- 24 in each weapon -- 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 (10 per bout victory) earned by each school's fencers in the round-robin portion of the individual events.

Dates and site: Air Force will host the championships March 20-23.

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. Championship results also will be available on the World Wide Web at www.ncaa.org. Results will be published in the March 31 issue of The NCAA News.