Schneider Takes Bronze Medal as Fencers Finish Fourth at NCAA Championships
Written By: Columbia University AthleticsRelease: 03/22/2009
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Daria Schneider made the women's sabre semifinals and finished third, three teammates made the top seven, and Columbia scored 151 points to take fourth place in the NCAA Men and Women's Fencing Championships, which concluded Sunday at Penn State. It was the third straight year the Lions finished fourth or higher.
"I'm very, very pleased with our performance," head coach George Kolombatovich said. "With the depth of talent in this competition, fourth is a great accomplishment for us. This is one of the most talented fields ever in the NCAA Championships."
Schneider, who lost to Olympian Becca Ward of Duke in the semifinals, 15-9, was joined on the awards platform by sophomore Nicole Ross, fifth in women's foil; first-year Neely Brandfield-Harvey, sixth in women's epee; and sophomore Jackie Jacobson, seventh in women's sabre. The host Nittany Lions won the team title with 195 victories (points), followed by Notre Dame, second with 182, and defending champion Ohio State, third with 166.
The top three, all full athletic scholarship schools, were followed by two Ivies, Columbia and Harvard. After another scholarship school, St. John's, came two more Ivy Leaguers, Penn and Princeton. Yet another, Yale, was 10th, just behind Stanford.
"Think of that," Kolombatovich said. "Five Ivy League schools in the NCAA Championships Top Ten. That proves how very strong our league is."
It became apparent early that Columbia would "strike wood" — the NCAA awards team trophies, metal on wood, to the first four finishers — as the Lions were well behind third-place Ohio State and well in front of the fifth-place team, at first Penn, then Stanford, and finally Harvard. So Columbia's focus turned to its individuals.
Daria Schneider, in her first NCAA since she won the 2007 NCAA women's sabre title, fenced beautifully. Fighting against a talent-rich sabre field, Schneider excelled on Sunday, winning eight of her nine bouts. She defeated two fencers each from Penn, Ohio State and Temple, while suffering her only loss at the hands of the nation's top-ranked senior women's sabre fencer, Duke freshman Becca Ward, 5-3.
When combined with Saturday's results, Schneider had turned in a superb 19-4 record. Yet so had two others in the strong field, Dagmara Wozniak of St. John's and Monika Aksamit of Penn State. Ward went 22-1 and Caroline Vloka of Harvard was 20-3, insuring that both would be in the four-person semifinal.
So the tourney organizers went to indicators, fencing's term for the difference between cumulative touches scored and touches allowed. Wozniak had made 108 touches and allowed 51, +57 indicators. She was placed third among the sabre fencers. Schneider came next, with +56 indicators, fourth-best and enough to edge out Penn State's Aksamit (+49) for the final semifinal spot.
Seeded fourth, Schneider was matched against Ward, a 2008 Olympian. She started slowly, trailing 4-1 in the 15-touch bout. But Schneider fought back, tying the bout at 4-4. WArd pulled away to lead 8-6 at the three-minute break.
Following the break, Schneider seemed energized. She scored two tough touches to tie it up at 8-8. But Ward caught fire; she was successful on straight six straight touches, breaking the bout open. When Daria finally scored, she trailed, 14-9, and Ward then got the final winning touch.
"She lost her confidence," associate coach Aladar Kogler noted. "She then seemed to hesitate on every move."
Wozniak had also lost, to Caroline Vloka. In previous years, the two would have fenced for third. But under a rule change this year, head-to-head fencing was not needed; they were declared co-third place finishers.
Indicators came into play with another Lion, Nicole Ross in foil. Ross went 19-5, but so did Hayley Reese of Notre Dame. There was one foil semifinal spot left, the others occupied by Oksana Dmytruk of Ohio State (22-2), Doris Willette of Penn State (20-4), and Emily Cross of Harvard (21-3). Unfortunately, it was awarded to Reese, who had +48 indicators to Ross's +44.
Ross, who was awarded fifth, was one of three Lions to place between fifth and eighth, earning second team All-American honors. Jackie Jacobson went 15-8 in women's sabre to take seventh and Neely Brandfield-Harvey, in a sterling debut, was 16-7 in women's epee to finish sixth.
Besides a number of parents who made the trip to University Park, Pa., Columbia had a familiar figure lending support. Dan Eck, one of Penn State's athletic trainers assigned to the Championships, spent three years working at Columbia, from 1981 to 1984.
The final results:
NCAA M&W Fencing Championships (Day Four) Sunday, March 22, 2009 Ashenfelter Multi-Sport Facility, Penn State University
1. Penn State 195; 2. Notre Dame 182; 3. Ohio State 166; 4. Columbia 151; 5. Harvard 116; 6. St. John's 115; 7. Penn 103; 8. Princeton 94; 9. Stanford 73; 10. Yale 68; 11. Duke 57; 12. Northwestern 56; 13. Temple 49; 14. Wayne State 38; 15. NYU 36; 16. Air Force 32; 17. UC San Diego 30; 18. Brandeis 24; 19. Cornell 23; 20. Brown & North Carolina 16; 22. Fairleigh Dickinson 9; 23. Boston College 8; 24. MIT & Vassar 5.
Individual Standings (medalists and Columbia fencers, with victories)
Courtesy: Columbia University Athletics/Gene Boyars
