Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Fencing Trio Shares Athlete of the Week Honors, Presented by Coach USA
March 28, 2011 | Men's Fencing, Women's Fencing
Each earning a silver medal at the NCAA fencing championships over the weekend, freshman Eve Levin and sophomores Jonathan Yergler and Eliza Stone have been named the GoPrincetonTigers.com Athletes of the Week presented by Coach USA.
Levin, a foilist, earned the fourth and final seed in the direct elimination portion of the NCAA finals after going 16-7 during the round robin portion of the competition. She then upset top seeded Doris Willette of Penn State 15-12 to move on to the gold medal bout where she fell to Alexandra Kiefer of Harvard 15-7. The second-place finish was the best performance for a Princeton fencer at the NCAA finals since 2006, when Jacqueline Leahy '06 also took silver.
Stone, a saberist, had the top seed in the direct elimination round after winning 20 of 23 round-robin bouts. After a 15-14 win over Eileen Hassett of Notre Dame, Stone fell 15-12 to Rebecca Ward of Duke in the gold medal bout. A year ago, Stone had already turned in the top performance by a Princeton fencer in women's saber at the NCAA finals since the saber began as a women's event in 2000, finishing eighth as a freshman.
Stone and Levin are just the third and fourth Princeton fencers to finish as high as second since 1995. The NCAA began awarding a women's foil title in 1990, a women's epee title in 1995 and a women's saber title in 2000. Only Leahy and Eva Petschnigg '03, the 2000 NCAA foil champion, finished as high as second as a Princeton fencer.
Yergler, an epeeist, went 16-7 in the round robin and had the No. 2 seed in the direct elimination, getting by Marco Caneveri of Ohio State 15-9 before falling in the gold medal bout to defending champion Marat Israelian of St. John's 15-10. Yergler's finish was the highest for a Princeton men's fencer in any weapon since 2009, when current senior Graham Wicas, a fellow epeeist, earned the silver. With Yergler's performance, nine times since 1983 has a Princeton fencer taken first or second at the NCAA finals.
The three performances helped Princeton finish fourth in the combined men's/women's standings, tying its highest finish since the combined scoring format began in 1990. Princeton also finished fourth in 1994, 1996 and 1999 but won more round-robin bouts in 2011, a total of 150, than in any of the three previous fourth-place finishes.
Princeton's women won 87 round-robin bouts, the most of any school, achieving that mark with all six Tiger competitors as either freshmen or sophomores.
Notre Dame won its first title since 2005 when current Princeton head coach Zoltan Dudas was an assistant coach with the Irish. Two-time defending champion Penn State finished second ahead of St. John's as the top three finishers stayed the same from 2010, with first and second place swapped. Princeton was the highest finisher of any Ivy League school, a notable achievement as all seven Ivy League fencing programs finished no lower than 17th place and four were in the top eight.