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Princeton Grabs A Share of the Lead After Day Two of the NCAA Fencing Championships
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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Princeton gained a share of the
lead after day two of the 2012 NCAA Fencing Championships, which
took place at Ohio State's French Field House and St. John
Arena.
With the women's portion of the championship drawing to a close,
the Tigers are tied at the top with Ohio State, as both squads
amassed 88 points in the first two days of the four-day
championship. Other teams that have cracked the 80-win plateau and
look to be title contenders heading into the men's portion of the
championship include Notre Dame (82), St. John's (81) and Penn
State (81).
Penn's Luona Wang (foil) and the Princecton duo
of Eliza Stone (sabre) and Katherine
Holmes (epee) all qualified for the medal round in their
respective weapons to earn first team All-America honors on Friday.
Wang led the group as she won her semifinal showdown against Ohio
State's Mona Shaito, 15-8, to advance to the NCAA
Championship bout. Wang lost the final to Evgeniya
Kirpicheva of St. John's, 15-8, to finish with the silver.
Wang qualified for the semifinals with a total of 17 foil wins in
the two days of pool play and she became the first Penn women's
fencer to advance to a championship bout since Jane
Hall fenced for a title in 1986.
Holmes advanced to the semifinals with 19 wins in the seven rounds
of pool fencing, but in the semifinals she lost to eventual NCAA
Champion Katarzyna Dabrowa of Ohio State, 15-8.
Stone notched 16 wins in pool play to book a spot in the
semifinals, where she faced Duke's Rebecca Ward.
Ward won the semifinal bout, 15-5, and went on to claim her third
career NCAA Championship, becoming the first woman to claim three
sabre titles in NCAA history. In fact, Yale legend Sada
Jacobson (2001 & 2002) is the only fencer with two
women's sabre NCAA Championships.
Harvard remained in sixth place after the second day of fencing with 62 wins. Columbia is seventh (53), followed by Penn (52), who is tied for eighth, and 12th-place Brown (21). Thirteenth-place Cornell (18) and 14th-place Yale (15) round out the Ivy contingent.
The top-12 finishers in each weapon earned All-America honors,
giving the Ivye League 13 All-Americans after the women's portion
of the championship.
Joining Holmes as women's epee All-Americans was her teammate
Hannah Safford (seventh place, second team
All-Ameircan), as well as Columbia's Lydia Kopecky
(eighth overall, second team All-American) and Penn's Amrit
Bhinder (12th overall, third team All-American). Safford
and Kopecky finsihed the championship with 15 wins each, while
Bhinder totaled 12.
In foil, Yale's Lauren Miller won 15 bouts en
route to claiming All-America honors (seventh overall, second
team), while the Ivy trio of Princeton's Ambika
Singh (10th), Harvard's Alexandra Kiefer
(11th) and Princeton's Eve Levin (12th) all earned
third team honors. Singh had 14 wins, while Kiefer and Levin each
had 13.
In sabre, 2010 NCAA Champion Caroline Vloka of
Harvard finished with 15 wins to place fifth and earn second team
All-America honors. Penn's Dominika Franciszkowicz
(10th) and Columbia's Samantha Roberts (12th) each
recorded 12 wins en route to claiming third team honors.
Men's fencing action begins on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. with rounds
one, two three and four slated to take place. An institution's
place finish in the championships will be based on points earned by
each individual. A team will be awarded one point for each victory
by its student-athletes for the duration of the championships (in
pool play).
2012 NCAA
Championship Overall Team Standings - Day Two:
1. Ohio State -- 88
1. Princeton -- 88
3. Notre Dame -- 82
4. Penn State -- 81
4. St. John's -- 81
6. Harvard -- 62
7. Columbia -- 53
8. Northwestern -- 52
8. Penn -- 52
10. Temple -- 40
11. Duke -- 37
12. Brown -- 21
13. Cornell -- 18
14. Yale -- 15
15. Stanford -- 12
16. North Carolina -- 8
17. Sacred Heart -- 6
18. M.I.T. -- 5
19. Boston College -- 4
20. U.C. San Diego -- 1
