Oct. 10, 2005
Members of the Notre Dame fencing program – past, present and future – have been active in various national and international tournaments, with many turning in some impressive results against top competition. Most notably, sophomore women’s sabre Mariel Zagunis currently is competing in the World Championships for the fifth time and is looking to add to her impressive medal collection that includes the 2004 Olympic gold.
Here is an update on the Irish fencers who have been active at recent tournaments, in addition to some other updated notes (also see the following link for information on tournaments earlier in the summer: http://und.collegesports.com/sports/c-fenc/spec-rel/070405aab.html):
World Championships (Oct. 8-15; Leipzig, Germany) – Zagunis is competing with the U.S. four-fencer women’s sabre contingent while her former ND teammate Andrea Ament is a member of the U.S. women’s foil team … Ament faced a tough draw in her pool bouts on Oct. 9, failing to advance after losing five of those six bouts … Zagunis and her three U.S. teammates all have advanced to the final day of the women’s sabre bouts (Oct. 11) … in the past seven months, Zagunis has reached the NCAA women’s sabre final, helped ND win the NCAA title, won the Junior World Championship, won two World Cup events and was the runner-up in a third (plus 6th in the other, after battling through illness) … others on the 2005 USA women’s sabre squad at the World Championships include Becca Ward and Caitlin Thompson (who train alongside Zagunis at the Oregon Fencing Alliance), plus Sada Jacobson … the women’s sabre team competition will be held on Oct. 15 while Ament and the women’s foilists will compete as a unit on Oct. 13 … Ament’s teammates include former college rival Hannah Thompson (formerly of Ohio State), plus Samantha Nemecek and Doris Willette.
World University Games (Aug. 15-18; Izmir, Turkey) – Current junior Amy Orlando and 2005 graduate Kerry Walton, whose clutch wins down the stretch helped ND win the ’05 NCAA combined fencing title, competed with the U.S. at the WUG, alongside Lindsay Campbell and Maya Lawrence … Orlando had the top finish among the four U.S. women’s epeeists, going 4-2 in her pool bouts and then winning in the round of 64 and rounds of 32 before losing a 15-10 bout to Germany’s Lisa Wollinsky (Orlando finished 25th) … Walton advanced after going 2-4 in the pools but lost in the round-of-64, vs. Poland’s Daunta Dmowska … the U.S. then was seeded 13th in the team competition and lost in the 1st round to 3rd-seeded Ukraine (31-45), the eventual team champion.
Senior World Cup event (July 9-10; Vancouver) – Zagunis claimed her second World Cup title of 2005, earlier winning in Austria (she was the runner-up at the ’05 World Cup in Las Vegas and battled through illness to plac 6th at the World Cup in Belgium) … her club teammates Thompson (7th) and Ward (8th) also finished in the top-8, repeating their feat as the first three fencers from the same club ever to finish among the top-8 at a World Cup event … another OFA product, current ND junior and 2004 NCAA champion Valerie Providenza, placed 19th at the Vancouver event (she earlier had posted her best career World Cup finish, 13th, at the competition in Belgium).
USFA Summer Nationals (July 7-10; Sacramento, Calif.) – Providenza reached the semifinals in the d-1 women’s sabre competition, with junior sabre Patrick Ghattas and former ND men’s epeeist Jan Viviani (’03) also reaching the semifinals … Ward and Dagmara Wozniak were the only fencers to finish ahead of Providenza (28-fencer field) while Ivan Lee and Tom Morehouse reached the men’s sabre final (42 entrants) … Ben Solomon and Noah Zucker reached the final among the 55 men’s epee competitors … other ND veterans in the d-1 bouts included Ament (5th), Orlando (7th, of 42), junior sabre Matt Stearns (24th) and junior epeeist Patrick Gettings (21st) … Ament finished behind Hannah Thompson, Willette, emily Cross and Lindsay Knauer among the 39-fencer women’s foil field … four incoming ND freshmen posted top-20 finishes: sabre William Thanhouser (11th), foilists Mark Kubik (12th) and Adrienne Nott (12th), and epeeist Kimberlee Montoya (18th) … three ND fencers competed in the d-1A bouts: senior epeeist Becca Chimahusky (3rd, of 66), sophomore epeeist Greg Howard (6th, of 107), junior foilist Frank Bontempo (40th, of 104) … Chimahusky finished behind Eleanor Leighton and Evelyn Scarborough … Chimahusky also was 27th in the d-2 bouts (field of 141) while sophomore foilist Melanie Bautista was 15th among 154 fencers in the d-3 competition … three of the incoming ND fencers also competed in the under-19 bouts: Thanhouser (3rd, of 76), Montoya (19th, of 85) and Nott (33rd, of 95) … Thanhouser finished behind Teddy Levitt and Raskyrie Davidson.
World Rankings – ND fencers listed among the current FIE overall world rankings include: Zagunis (4th), Providenza (70th), Orlando (223rd), Ament (298th) and Walton (394th) … Zagunis is ranked behind Sada Jacobson, Poland’s Aleksandra Socha and France’s Anne-Ile Powya … four of the newcomers are listed on the world junior/under rankings: men’s epeeist Karol Kostka (20th), Thanhouser (39th), Kubik (59th) and foilist Emilie Prot (184th) … Kostka hails from Krakow, Poland, while Prot is a dual citizen of the U.S. and France.
U.S. Rankings – Zagunis currently ranks behind only Sada Jacobson in the USFA overall women’s sabre rankings, with Providenza 10th … Ament is 5th in the women’s foil rankings, behind Hannah Thompson, Cross, Nemecek and Willette … Walton is 4th and Orlando 5th in the women’s epee rankings, behind Kelly Hurley, Lawrence and Campbell … Viviani holds a similar #5 spot in the men’s epee rankings, behind his 2004 Olympic teammates Seth Kelsey, Soren Thompson and Cody Mattern (Solomon is ranked 4th) … Ghattas is 8th, Thanhouser 10th and Stearns 38th in the men’s sabre rankings while Kubik is 18th on the men’s foil charts … the USFA junior/under-20 rankings show Thanhouser 3rd in men’s sabre (behind Andrew Bielen and Matthew Kolasa), Nott 4th in women’s foil (behind Cross, Nemecek and Willette) and Kubik 11th in men’s foil.
Check back to und.com in the upcoming weeks for more coverage of the Notre Dame fencing program.