Nov. 8, 2015
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The University of Notre Dame men’s fencing team scooped up a handful of medals Sunday to close out the Penn State Garret Open, highlighted by a podium sweep in the foil weapon category.
Junior Kristjan Archer took the foil gold, while classmate Virgile Collineau claimed silver and freshman Michael Antipas tied for the bronze as the Irish dominated the bracket. Adding to the medal haul was senior Garrett McGrath, who took home gold in epee.
The third-seeded Archer had to go through two Irish teammates to claim the top spot in the foil event. He defeated junior John Crumpler 15-7 in the quarterfinals, then upended second-seeded Collineau 15-2 in the final to clinch. Collineau defeated Antipas, 15-6, in the semifinal round.
McGrath scored a trio of upsets en route to his gold. He seeded tied for the eighth seed after three rounds of pool play, but defeated the other eighth seed, Inaki de Guzman of Ohio State, 15-12 in the first round, fifth-seeded Marc-Antoine Blais, 4-1 in the semifinal, and sixth seed Simon Jones 15-14 in the final. McGrath also defeated 16th seed and teammate, freshman Cole Mallette, who upset top-seeded Peregrine Badger of Harvard 15-13 in his collegiate debut.
The Irish will kick off their collegiate season November 21 at the Penn Elite Invitational in Philadelphia.
Penn State Open
November 7-8, 2015
Sunday
Men
Direct Elimination (Top 16)
Round of 16
Foil
[3] Virgile Collineau (ND) def. [14] Jay Petrie (JHU), 15-7
[4] Kristjan Archer (ND) def. [13] Umar Masood (Brown), 15-6
[7] Michael Antipas (ND) def. [10] Julian Fevry (PSU), 15-10
[12] John Crumpler (ND) def. [5] Aaron Ahn (UPenn), 15-7
Epee
[8T] Garrett McGrath (ND) def. [8T] Inaki de Guzman (OSU), 15-10
[16T] Cole Mallette (ND) def. [1] Peregrine Badger (Harvard), 15-13
Quarterfinals
Foil
[3] Virgile Collineau (ND) def. [6] Stas Sudilovsky (ND), 15-12
[4] Kristjan Archer (ND) def. [12] John Crumpler (ND), 15-7
[7] Michael Antipas (ND) def. [15T] Paul Won (Yale), 15-10
Epee
[8T] Garrett McGrath (ND) def. [16T] Cole Mallette (ND), 15-14
Semifinals
Foil
[3] Virgile Collineau (ND) def. [7] Michael Antipas (ND), 15-6
[4] Kristjan Archer (ND) def. [8] Stephen Mageras (Harvard), 15-3
Epee
[8T] Garrett McGrath (ND) def. [5] Marc-Antoine Blais (OSU), 4-1
Finals
Foil
[4] Kristjan Archer (ND) def. [3] Virgile Collineau (ND), 15-2
Epee
[8T] Garrett McGrath (ND) def. [6] Simon Jones (Brown), 15-14
Final Results
Foil
1. Kristjan Archer
2. Virgile Collineau
3T. Michael Antipas
7. John Crumpler
18. Steffen Felt
36. Spicer Emge
40. Matthew Owens
Epee
1. Garrett McGrath
8. Cole Mallette
20. Arthur Le Meur
22. Christian Aguilar
36. Nicholas Hanahan
42. John Poremski
Sabre
17T. Ian Jones
25. David Brown
27. Paul Cepak
41. Ian Dwyer
—
To keep up with Irish fencing, visit UND.com/NDFencing, follow @NDFencing on Twitter and like Notre Dame Fencing on Facebook.
–ND–
Joanne Norell, athletics communications assistant at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2014 and coordinates communications efforts for the Notre Dame women’s soccer, men’s tennis, women’s tennis and fencing programs. Norell is a 2011 graduate of Purdue University and earned her master’s degree from Georgetown University in 2013.