Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Fencers Head to Ohio State for NCAAs
March 22, 2011 | Men's Fencing, Women's Fencing
PRINCETON -- Looking to continue a long string of success, the Princeton fencing teams will head to Ohio State for the NCAA championship meet to begin Thursday and continue through Sunday.
The event will be held at Ohio State's French Field House and St. John Arena. The first four rounds of men's competition will begin Thursday at 10 a.m., with the final three men's rounds beginning Friday at 9:30 a.m. The gold medal bouts in each weapon will begin at 2 p.m. in the order of saber, foil and epee. The women's competition will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday with the first four rounds, followed by the final three rounds at 9:30 a.m. Sunday and gold medal bouts at 2 p.m. in the saber, foil, epee order.
Princeton has had a top-10 national finish in 18 straight trips to the finals. This will be the 21st year that the champion will be determined by the total number of bouts won between the men's and women's teams combined. Princeton's finish has gone up each of the last two years, from 10th in 2008 to eighth in 2009 and sixth in 2010.
A year ago, the Tigers were just four points out of fourth place, which would have tied the program's best finish under the current scoring format, set in 1994, 1996 and 1999.
For the second straight year, Princeton qualified the maximum 12 fencers to the NCAA finals, a good place to start in pursuit of a high finish. Only Ohio State and Notre Dame also qualified the maximum 12. Of the 144 invited fencers, 53 are from the Ivy League, representing 37% of the total.
Princeton's dozen competitors are as follows:
Men's epee: Mike Elfassy, Jonathan Yergler
Men's foil: Robert Malcolm, Alexander Mills
Men's saber: Philip Dershwitz, John Stogin
Women's epee: Phoebe Caldwell, Hannah Safford
Women's foil: Eve Levin, Hyun-Kyung Yuh
Women's saber: Eliza Stone, Diamond Wheeler
At the 2010 NCAA finals, Princeton saw six fencers earn All-America honors, including Thomas Abend (saber), Yergler (epee), Mills (foil), Stone (saber), Susannah Scanlan (epee) and Brianna Martin (foil).
In the final USFCA poll released Tuesday, March 22, the Ivy League champion women's team was ranked second behind Notre Dame, which received top billing in both polls. The Princeton men's team was ranked sixth. All seven Ivy League women's teams were ranked or receiving votes, as were five of the six Ivy men's programs.