April 8, 2002

Three members of the Notre Dame fencing program concluded competition with the United States team at the World Junior Championships, with the U.S. posting an impressive sixth-place finish in the overall team standings after registering several noteworthy finishes in the earlier individual events.

Notre Dame’s three U.S. competitors represented the most from any college team, with the 18-fencer U.S. junior squad including just four other collegiate fencers (two from Ohio State and one each from Stanford and Yale).

Notre Dame freshman women’s foilist Andrea Ament (Gates Mill, Ohio) finished 44th on Saturday in the individual competition before helping the U.S. women’s foil team reach the round of 16 on Sunday, with the U.S. losing a tight 45-40 match vs. Romania while finishing ninth overall.

Another Notre Dame freshman foilist, Derek Snyder (Chatsworth, Calif.), was a member of the U.S. men’s foil team that finished 19th in Monday’s team completion, losing a close 45-39 decision to Korea in the round of 32 (Snyder earlier had finished 45th in the individual foil event).

Sophomore Kerry Walton (Londonderry, N.H.) – who had claimed the bronze medal in Friday’s individual competition – helped the U.S. women’s epee squad finish ninth overall on Monday, with a 45-34 loss to Ukraine in the round of 16.

Ament advanced from the preliminary pools thanks to wins over 80th-ranked Laetitia Laik of Canada (5-3), Shoko Oji of Japan (5-4) and the Mediterranean’s Auricu Mindu (5-0). Her preliminary-round losses came vs. 13th-ranked and eventual silver medallist Marta Simoncelli of Italy (3-5), plus 77th-ranked Elizabeth Wright of Great Britain (4-5) and Korea’s Kim Na-Rae (2-5), who is unranked due to her lack of World Cup competition.

Ament then lost a 15-8 bout vs. Hungary’s Szilvia Jezenszky in the round of 64.

Poland’s Katarzyna Kryczalo – sister of current Notre Dame freshman and 2002 NCAA foil champion Alicja Kryczalo – earned a bronze-medal finish in the World Junior foil competition, losing to Germany’s Carolin Neckermann in the semifinals (15-9).

Russia won the overall team competition with 317 points, followed by France (308), China (264), Italy (257), Germany (224) and the U.S. (212).