April 29, 2002

Louisville, Ky. – Notre Dame sophomore women’s epeeist Kerry Walton (Londonderry, N.H.) captured yet another fencing title over the weekend by claiming the gold medal at the United States Division I “Open” Nationals. Five Notre Dame fencers competed in national championships, which ran from Friday to Sunday, including junior men’s epee captain Jan Viviani, senior men’s sabre captain Andre Crompton, junior women’s epee captain Anna Carnick, freshman women’s foilist Andrea Ament and Walton.

The Nationals are open to U.S. fencers of all ages and the event’s competitiveness rivals that of the NCAA Championships. The NCAAs consist of many fencers from around the world, increasing the competitiveness, while the Nationals are open to American fencers of all ages, thus making the fields essentially equal in terms of the competition. The U.S. Division I Nationals consist of regional divisions, depending on where each competitor fences, so ultimately the five Irish fencers represented four regions. Each fencer must qualify for the event through his or her particular region. The competition begins with pools of six or seven individuals fencing to determine the seedings. Thereafter, the competition is direct elimination (meaning that one loss eliminates a fencer from the competition) through the finals. The finals consist of the top eight fencers, who are reseeded prior to the finals rounds.

Roughly a month removed from winning the NCAA national championship in women’s epee, Walton once again finished on top while representing the Northeast Region in the women’s epee field of 45. Walton said she had few expectations for the event.

“I was not expecting myself to do too much coming into it, but it was not as difficult as the World Junior Competition,” said Walton (her bronze medal earlier this month in the World Junior Competition made her just the second U.S. women’s epeeist ever to capture a medal in any level of world competition).

“It was nice to fence some familiar faces and it was a real confidence booster for me.”

Walton’s toughest competition on the day came from Penn State All-American Jessica Burke (the 2000 NCAA champion). Walton avenged her 5-3 loss to Burke in the NCAAs with a 15-12 victory over Burke.

Ament – the 2002 NCAA runner-up behind her ND classmate Alicja Kryczalo – represented the Indiana region with a fifth-place finish out of 48 women’s foil competitors. Fencers who finished ahead of Ament included 2001 NCAA champion Iris Zimmerman of Stanford (tied for third), who Ament defeated 5-3 i last month’s NCAAs.

Carnick – a three-time All-American at Notre Dame – also represented the Indiana region and placed ninth in a women’s epee field of 45 (she missed the finals by one seed, as the top eight from each weapon advance to the finals).

Three-time All-American Viviani finished 13th in a field of 55, representing the Metro New York City region. The men’s epee competition was won by Air Force All-American Seth Kelsey.

Crompton – who claimed All-America honors in 2001 and ’02 – finished 26th in a pool of 50 while representing the New Jersey region. The sabre competition ultimately was won by last year’s runner-up, three-time NCAA champion Keeth Smart of St. Johns.