March 22, 2003

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NOTRE DAME FENCING – NCAA DAY ONE NOTES

Saturday, May 22, 2003 … Colorado Springs, Colorado (Air Force Academy)

(Note: see PDF link for complete NCAA Tournament notes)

Notre Dame’s quest to reclaim the NCAA combined fencing title resumes today at Air Force’s Cadet Field House, in a condensed two-day format that will feature the men and women competing on the same day. Notre Dame – runner-up to Penn State every year from 1996-2000 before finishing third in 2001 and ’02 – is taking aim at its first national title since 1994 and joined growing regional rival Ohio State as the only teams to qualify the maximum 12 fencers for the NCAA field (Columbia and defending champion Penn State qualified 11, followed by St. John’s with 10).

The 144-fencer field includes 24 men’s and 24 women’s fencers at each of three weapons (foil, epee, sabre) … fencers will compete against the other 23 competitors in their respective weapons, with teams earning one point for each round-robin victory posted by a fencer from that team … the top four round-robin finishers in each weapon then will fence for the respective individual titles at the end of Sunday’s competition (those results do not factor into the team scores) … the top 12 finishers in each weapon receive All-America honors.