The St. John’s fencing
team came in second place
overall with two individual
national champions at the
NCAA championships at
Harvard on Sunday.
It was the fi fth time the
Red Storm had fi nished second
and the fi rst time they fi nished
that high since 2007
The Johnnies were led on
the men’s side by sophomore
sabre Daryl Homer and sophomore
epee Marat Israelian,
who both won individual
NCAA championships.
The second place finish
continues St. John’s string of
impressive fi nishes. They have
fi nished sixth or better
every year since 1993, including
a national championship in
2001 and second place finishes
in 1995, 2000, 2002 and 2007.
In addition, freshman sabre
Sean Buckley, senior foil Alexis
Landreville and sophomore foil
Nicholas Vomero all earned All
America honors.
Homer led the way throughout
the day for the Johnnies.
After an almost perfect performance
in the regionals on March
14th at Brown, he picked up
right where he left off at Harvard.
He earned the second seed
in the fi nal bracket in the sabre
competition with a 20-3 record.
In the semifi nals, he beat
Notre Dame junior Avery Zuck
15-10. He then moved on to
beat Daniel Bak by the same
score in the fi nals to win his
fi rst individual championship.
Israelian, who came in fourth
at the regionals, went 19-4 to
earn the top seed in the fi nal
epee bracket. He earned a 15-9
victory over Columbia senior
Dwight Smith in the semifi nal
and then outlasted Air Force
senior Peter French 14-10.
Israelian’s win was an upset.
Wayne State senior and fellow
Israeli Slava Zingerman had won
three individual epee championships
in a row and was favored
to be the fi rst person to win
four straight.
But Zingerman fi nished
seventh and failed to make the
fi nal bracket, giving Israelian
the opportunity to continue his
country’s streak.
On the women’s side, fi ve
Johnnies garnered All America
honors. Junior sabre Dagmara
Wozniak, an alternate on the
United States Olympic team in
2008, fi nished third for the second
straight year.
A trio of freshmen women
earned All America honors. Foil
Evgeniya Kirpicheva placed
third in her national debut
while epee Sanne Gars came
in fi fth and foil Irina Koroleva
fi nished ninth.
Junior sabre Martyna Wieczorek
was the fi fth All-American
woman, placing tenth.
The women put the Red
Storm in the lead after the fi rst
day of competition. They won
58 bouts on the fi rst day which
put them four ahead of eventual
champion Penn State.
They kept the lead through
the third day of competition
with 152 victories, compared to
150 for Penn State, but the Nittany
Lions roared back on the
fourth and fi nal day to fi nish with
191 victories, nine more than
St. John’s 182. It was the
second straight national
championship for the Penn
State team.
