March 9, 2013
EASTON, Pa. - Eleven Penn State fencers qualified for the 2013 National Championships during Saturday's Mid-Atlantic/South Regional that was hosted by Lafayette College. Six Nittany Lions placed within the top three of their event, including a sweep of the men's foil top three. Princeton's was the only team that placed more in the top three of their events, with nine. Nationals will be held in San Antonio, Texas on March 21-24.
After ending the regular season undefeated, the men's foil team once again proved their dominance at the Regional event. Five Nittany Lions competed and all of them finished within the top eight. Senior Olympian and three-time All-American Miles Chamley-Watson won the event and teammate David Willette took second, which qualified both men for the National Championships. Chamley-Watson and Willette will each look to bring home the title this year, after having both finished in second and third place at Nationals in previous years. Freshman Nobuo Bravo placed third, followed by sophomore David Gomez-Tanamachi in sixth place, and junior Jeremy Goldstein in eighth place.
Men's saber also had a successful day, and qualified two more Nittany Lions for the National Championships. Freshman Shaul Gordon had an outstanding performance to place first the event, and team captain Adrian Bak followed in fourth place. Bak will look to improve on his sixth place finish at last year's National Championships. Freshman Kaito Streets finished the day in eighth place.
Two members of the men's epee team finished the day as at-large candidates for Nationals. Sophomore Yasser Mahmoud finished in seventh place, followed directly by sophomore Benjamin Russell in eighth place. Vernon O'Garra and Jeffrey Miller finished in ninth and sixteenth place, respectively.
Freshman Clarisse Luminet led the way for women's foil with her second place finish, followed by sophomore Alina Antokhina in third. Antokhina will return to Nationals for the second straight year after finishing third last year. Sophomore Kane Gladnick finished the event in ninth place, an improvement on last year's eighteenth place finish. Junior Kylei McGill-Patterson rounded out the event for the Nittany Lions in thirteenth place.
Women's saber was led by team captain Jessica Russo's seventh place finish. Right behind Russo was junior Nicole Glon in eighth place. Glon will look to improve on her ninth place finish at last year's Nationals. Sophomore Elizabeth Rapp and freshman Brianne Cavaliere finished in thirteenth and seventeenth place, respectively.
Former National Champion (2010) Margherita Guzzi-Vincenti was the only member of the women's epee team to qualify for the National Championships with her fourth place finish. The Penn State star will look to better last year's second place finish, and win her second National Championship. Junior Anne Stephenson placed nineteenth, Ana Coutinho tied for 26th, and Rebecca Stanley placed 35th.
As a team the Nittany Lions look to improve on last year's fifth place finish at Nationals. Penn State will be searching for its thirteenth National Championship, and its third in the last five years, under head coach Emmanuil Kaidonov.