Jan. 21, 2001
NEW YORK, N.Y. (1/21/00) – A rare early-season fencing clash between Notre Dame and St. John’s provided many of the highlights at Sunday’s New York University Open, with the Irish men surging past the Red Storm (15-12) en route to defeating all four opponents while the Notre Dame women lost to three of their four opponents, including an 18-9 loss to St. John’s.
Notre Dame and St. John’s both return the bulk of their teams from the 2000 season, when those squads finished tied for second at the NCAA Combined Men and Women’s Fencing Championship, just four points behind champion Penn State (marking ND’s fifth straight NCAA runner-up finish).
The Notre Dame men also posted wins Sunday over NYU (18-9), Yale (18-9) and Columbia (16-11) while the women defeated NYU (23-4) before losing to Yale (15-12), SJU and Columbia-Barnard (17-10).
The Irish men downed St. John’s thanks to strong showings by all three sabre participants and a clutch performance from junior foilist Steve Mautone (Short Hills, N.J.), who lost all three of his bouts versus NYU and Columbia but managed to post a 2-1 record versus the Red Storm. Mautone’s 5-3 win over Davis Merritt pushed the Irish ahead of the Red Storm for good, at 10-9.
Sophomore foil captain Ozren Debic (Zagreb, Croatia) won all three of his bouts versus St. John’s fencers and finished the day with an 11-1 record while senior Andrzej Bednarski (Granger, Ind.) and juniors Gabor Szelle (Budapest, Hungary) and Andre Crompton (Irvington, N.J.) each posted 2-1 marks in sabre competition versus the Red Storm. Sophomore epee captain Jan Viviani won two of his three bouts (and nine of 10 overall) to help the cause versus SJU.
The Irish men also had their hands full with Columbia but held on for the 16-11 win behind three wins each from Crompton , Viviani , sophomore sabreman Matt Fabricant (Elizabeth, N.J.) and junior epeeist Brian Casas (Mishawka, Ind.).
A pair of freshmen had impressive debuts with the Irish in the women’s sabre competition, as Jessie Filkins (Wilmette, Ill.) won seven of her eight bouts while Destanie Milo (Know, Ind.) went 7-3. Sophomore All-American Meagan Call (Eugene, Ore.) went 7-4 to lead the women’s epee squad while All-American foilist Liza Boutsikaris won eight of her 12 bouts.
The men’s sabre squad enjoyed the most productive day for Notre Dame, with the four fencers combining for a 29-7 record (Bednarski 4-1, Crompton 8-4, Fabricant 9-0 and Szelle 8-2). The sabre squad likewise led the way for the women, with the four-including senior captain Carianne McCullough (Philadelphia, Pa.) and sophomore All-American Natalia Mazur (Summit, N.J.)-combining for 22 wins in 36 bouts.
Notre Dame returns to action on Jan. 27 at the Northwestern Open before playing host to the Notre Dame Open, to be held Feb. 3-4 in the Joyce Center Fieldhouse.
NOTRE DAME FENCING RECAP - NYU MEET - JANUARY 21, 2001
Men WomenNotre Dame 18 NYU 9 Notre Dame 23 NYU 4Notre Dame 18 Yale 9 Yale 15 Notre Dame 12Notre Dame 15 St. John's 12 St. John's 18 Notre Dame 9Notre Dame 16 Columbia 11 Columbia-Barnard 17, Notre Dame10
RECORDSM-Epee NYU YALE SJU COL WEEKCasas 1-2 2-1 1-2 3-0 7-5Gabler 2-0 1-2 1-2 0-2 4-6Tyler 0-1 ---- ---- 0-1 0-2Viviani 1-0 3-0 2-1 3-0 9-1 5-4 6-3 4-5 6-3
M-FoilBeau ---- 0-3 ---- ---- 0-3Debic 3-0 3-0 3-0 2-1 11-1Mautone 0-3 ---- 2-1 0-3 2-7Walton 2-1 1-2 0-3 1-2 4-8 5-4 4-5 5-4 3-6
M-SabreBednarski 1-0 1-0 2-1 ---- 4-1Crompton 2-1 3-0 2-1 1-2 8-4Fabricant 3-0 3-0 ---- 3-0 9-0Szelle 2-0 1-1 2-1 3-0 8-2 8-1 8-1 6-3 7-2
W-EpeeCall 3-0 3-0 1-2 0-2 7-4Carnick 2-0 1-2 0-3 1-2 4-7DeMaio 2-1 1-2 0-3 1-2 4-8Salb 1-0 ---- ---- 0-1 1-1 8-1 5-4 1-8 2-7
W-FoilBoutsikaris 3-0 3-0 2-1 0-3 8-4Flanagan 0-1 0-3 ---- 0-2 0-6Jordan 3-0 1-2 2-1 0-3 6-6Sutton 0-2 ---- 0-3 0-1 0-6 6-3 4-5 4-5 0-9
W-SabreFilkins 3-0 0-1 1-0 3-0 7-1Mazur 3-0 0-2 0-3 2-1 5-6McCullough 1-0 1-2 0-2 1-0 3-4Milo 2-0 2-1 1-2 2-0 7-3 9-0 3-6 2-7 8-1