Dec. 23, 2006
The Notre Dame fencing program has made a name for itself as the nation’s top sabre school and that distinction looks to continue into the future, following the recent signing of four elite sabre talents to national letters of intent. The four high school seniors – southern California native Barron Nydam and three fencers from Oregon (Avery Zuck, Sarah Borrmann and Eileen Hassett) – are set to join the Notre Dame program in the fall of 2007 and each will have the opportunity to be immediate starters with the Irish. Current sabre All-Americans Valerie Providenza, Patrick Ghattas and Matt Stearns each are preparing for their final college season while Mariel Zagunis will not fence for Notre Dame in 2007-08, as the 2004 Olympic sabre gold medalist will be focusing on qualification and training for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Providenza, Ghattas and Zagunis (plus current Notre Dame sophomore Bill Thanhouser) all are products of the Portland-based Oregon Fencing Alliance that is the home club for three of the four signees, who all train under former Notre Dame assistant coach Ed Korfanty.
Barron Nydam and his fellow Notre Dame signees already have plenty of top-level bouting experience on the national and international levels.
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“We knew that we would be facing a big challenge next year, without our four All-America sabre fencers, but I must say that we are very excited with these four signees and anticipate great things from them at Notre Dame,” said fifth-year Notre Dame head coaching and sabre specialist Janusz Bednarski, whose coaching efforts recently have helped produce two NCAA sabre champions (Providenza in ’04, Zagunis in ’06) and three NCAA runner-up finishes, by Zagunis in ’05 and by Ghattas in each of the past two seasons. Notre Dame also won the NCAA combined men’s and women’s championship in 2003 (Bednarski’s first season as head coach, after eight years and an assistant) and the Irish were victorious again in 2005, bringing home the fencing’s program’s seventh overall NCAA team title.
Sarah Borrmann recently logged an impressive bronze-medal finish at the Junior World Cup event held in Italy.
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Hassett (8th) and Borrmann (12th) already own lofty spots in the USFA’s overall rankings for women’s sabre fencers, with Zagunis occupying the top spot while Providenza is 10th. Hassett is a top-five fencer (#5) in the USFA’s junior-level women’s sabre rankings (for under-20 fencers) and Borrmann is right behind her, as the sixth-ranked junior women’s sabreist.
Nydam (35th) and Zuck (40th) also own USFA senior-level rankings (for men’s sabre fencers) despite their youth and they join their fellow signees on the women’s side with top-12 USFA junior rankings (Zuck is 11th and Nydam 12th, among the nation’s under-20 men’s sabres).
All of the signees likewise show up on the FIE world junior rankings and two of them – Hassett (68th) and Borrmann (106th) – even own spots on the overall world rankings for their weapons. Borrmann’s world junior ranking currently is 20th while Hassett is 47th, Zuck 58th and Nydam 85th.
The three signees from Oregon all hail from the Beaverton area but attend different high schools. Borrmann will be entering her final semester at Beaverton High School, as will Hassett at Aloha High School, while Avery attends Jesuit High School (as did Providenza). Zagunis went to high school at Valley Catholic while Ghattas and Thanhouser were schoolmates at Oregon Episcopal High School before making their respective decisions to attend Notre Dame.
Avery Zuck is ranked 11th among the nation’s under-20 men’s sabreists.
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Borrmann has posted several impressive finishes in recent months, placing seventh at the Junior World Cup in Sosnowiec, Poland (Oct. ’06), and adding a bronze-medal finish at the Junior World Cup in Frascati, Italy (Nov. ’06). She also won the USFA North American Cup event that was held last month in Albuquerque, N.M., was 11th at the N.A.C. held in Richmond earlier this month, and had an impressive week at the USFA’s 2006 Summer Nationals in Atlanta, finishing as the runner-up in the senior-level bouts and placing third in the junior (u-19) field.
Barron Nydam (pictured) and fellow signee Avery Zuck recently joined current Notre Dame fencers Pat Ghattas and Bill Thanhouser in posting top results among an elite sabre field at the North American Cup held in Richmond.
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Nydam’s career highlights include serving as an alternate with the U.S. team at the 2005 Cadet (under-17) World Championships, in addition to helping the U.S. boys sabre team win the gold medal at the 2005 Cadet World Cup in Konin, Poland (he placed 17th individually), and finishing 18th at the 2005 Cadet World Cup in Godollo, Hungary. The 6-foot-1 lefthander has fenced on the Junior World Cup circuit this year, with a top finish of 12th at the event in Odessa, Ukraine, while also competing at recent Junior World Cups in Dormagen, Germany, and Sosnowiec, Poland. He was the third-place finisher in the under-16 competition at the 2005 Summer Nationals, held in Sacramento, Calif. A seven-year member of the Spartak Fencing Club, Nydam is coached by former U.S.S.R. fencing standout Dmitriy Guy. Nydam was born in San Diego and attends the Santa Fe Christian School near his hometown of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.
Zuck credits his youth-sports background as a nationally-ranked racquetball player with preparing him for the mental pressures of fencing, the sport that he switched to starting in the seventh grade. His top results on the 2006 Junior World Cup circuit have included placing 11th in Odessa and 23rd in Arricia, Italy. He took a stab at the senior-level competition during a North American Cup held in Sacramento (April ’06), with a solid placing of 27th, and then was 15th in the under-19 sabre bouts at 2006 Summer Nationals. He recently fenced alongside the other three signees and many current Notre Dame fencers at the N.A.C. in Richmond, placing 27th in a senior-level field that featured some of the nation’s top sabre talent.
Notre Dame signee Eileen Hassett currently is listed eighth on the USFA rankings for all of the nation’s women’s sabre fencers, in addition to owning a senior-level world ranking of 68th.
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Hassett – whose sister Maria currently is a basketball player at Gonzaga University – has been fencing for just two years but has quickly climbed up the national and international rankings. Possibly her most impressive result came last June at the Senior World Cup in Vancouver, B.C., with Hassett’s 12th-place finish at that event including a round-of-32 win over France’s Anne-Lise Touya (the 2005 world champion). She went on to place 16th later that month at the Senior Grand Prix in Las Vegas and matched that finish at the Junior World Cup in Sosnowiec (Oct. ’06). Her strong showing at the Junior Olympics in Hartford, Conn. (Feb. ’06) included placing second in the junior women’s sabre bouts and third in the cadet-level sabre.
Brief quotes from the signees and some additional bio. notes follow below:
Sarah Borrmann (right) reacts to scoring a tough during World Cup action in Vancouver.
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SIGNEE BIO. NOTES – BORRMANN was 12th at the Junior World Cup in Dormagen, Germany (Nov. ’06) … her 3rd-place finish at the Junior World Cup in Frascati came behind only fellow American Dagmara Wozniak (a freshman at St. John’s and currently the world’s top-ranked junior fencer) and Italy’s Irene Vecchi … the only fencers listed higher than Hassett and Borrmann in the USFA junior rankings are national-teamer Becca Ward (their club teammate at OFA), Wozniak, Caroline Vloka (#2 in the world junior rankings) and national-teamer Caity Thompson (a sophomore at Penn State and also an OFA product) … the current top-12 in the USFA overall women’s sabre rankings: Zagunis, Ward, Sada Jacobson (2004 Olympic bronze medalist), Thompson, former Columbia four-year All-American Emma Barrata, Wozniak, Alexis Jemal (’03 NCAA champ, at Rutgers), Hassett, Ohio State’s Eileen Grench, Providenza, Vloka and Borrmann … Borrmann was born in Nov. of 1988 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., but she has lived in Oregon most of her life (her parents Bernie and Tina signed her up for fencing at the age of 10) … she combined with Hassett, Thompson and Ward to win the women’s sabre gold medal at 2006 Summer Nationals (she also was a member of the U-19 gold-medal team) … Borrman’s 2005 Summer Nationals results (Sacramento) included placing 8th in the senior-level bouts, plus gold in the team event (silver in the U-19 team) … she placed 8th at the 2004 Junior World Cup in Louisville, Ky. … NYDAM‘s other 2006 results have included 68th at the Junior World Cup in Dormagen, 16th at the Albuquerque N.A.C. and 30th at the Richmond N.A.C. … he placed 13th at the 2005 JWC in Louisville … Nydam’s recent Junior Olympic results have included placing 8th in the 2006 cadet bouts (in Hartford) while posting top finishes in both the junior (13th) and cadet (7th) JO bouts in ’05 … he held a #6 USFA cadet ranking … Nydam (born March 17, 1989) won three recent Senior Pacific Coast Championships gold medals (2006 individual and team; ’05 team, also ’05 individual silver) … his sister Alexa also is a sabre fencer (their parents are Bill and Dorothy Nydam) … ZUCK was 65th at the Junior World Cup in Dormagen and 19th at the N.A.C. in Albuquerque … the Richmond N.A.C. featured an elite men’s sabre field that produced four current/future ND fencers among the top-30 finishers (Thanhouser 8th, Ghattas 22nd, Zuck 27th and Nydam 30th) … Zuck is active in several sports on a recreational basis and intends to major in business at Notre Dame (he is the son of Jeremy Zuck and Anita Wentworth) … HASSETT (born April 19, 1989) placed 10th at the 2006 N.A.C. in Sacramento and 11th at the Houston N.A.C. (Jan. ’06) … she is the daughter of Kevin and Ann Hassett.
The Notre Dame fencing program’s connections to the Oregon Fencing Alliance will continue with the addition of (from left) Eileen Hassett, Avery Zuck and Sarah Borrmann.
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NOTRE DAME SIGNEE QUOTES ON THEIR DECISIONS TO JOIN THE IRISH
Sarah Borrmann – “I am very excited to be starting this new chapter in my life at a great school like Notre Dame. It is a tremendous academic school and I look forward to being part of that and of course joining the great fencing tradition. I look forward to helping continue that respected reputation of Notre Dame fencing.”
Barron Nydam -“I thought picking the right school would be a tough decision until I visited Notre Dame. Before I had even spent a day on campus, I had made up my mind. With strong academics, world-class fencing and a spiritual environment, I knew Notre Dame was where I wanted to spend the most important years of my educational career. Now that I have signed with Notre Dame, I can’t wait to get started.”
Barron Nydam is one of many recent Notre Dame signees with experience fencing for U.S. youth national teams.
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Avery Zuck – “I chose to attend Notre Dame because of its amazing academic reputation and the very strong fencing program. I had also heard great things about the school from my teammates who currently attend ND.”
Eileen Hassett -“I am absolutely thrilled to be going to Notre Dame. I was extremely impressed with the campus and the students during my visit last September. I think Notre Dame provides a great balance of excellent academics and superb athletics. I’m really looking forward to fencing under coach Bednarski and being part of a great collegiate fencing squad. Notre Dame is my perfect dream.”