Fencing Qualifies Two For NCAA Championships

New Jersey may not be a spring break hot spot, but for Harvard women’s fencing co-captain Ellen Shulz and senior Tamara Knutsen, exit 10 on the Jersey Turnpike may as well be paradise.

With strong performances in the NCAA Regionals at Columbia, Shulz and Knutsen qualified for the NCAA Fencing Championships at Drew University in Madison, NJ. The tournament runs from March 21-24.

Knutsen finished sixth in the epee at regionals, following up her strong third-place finish a week ago at the IFA Championships. Shulz placed eighth in the foil to qualify for the NCAAs.

“We are all really excited about Ellen qualifying because it is well deserved after an outstanding season,” said co-captain Nicole Jarrett. “Tamara also had a very strong season and was able to continue to compete at the level needed to qualify for the NCAA tournament.”

It will be Knutsen’s second trip to the NCAA finals, where she finished 19th a year ago. As a senior, Shulz will be making her first and only trip.

“Only 24 competitors in each event qualify,” Jarrett said. “And this is a great way for Ellen and Tamara to finish their college careers.”

In the men’s field, the Crimson failed to qualify a fencer for the NCAA Championships but still delivered a solid overall performance.

“Our success this season has been based on having a well-rounded team,” co-captain Ben Schmidt said. “So in a way it wasn’t too big of a surprise that we weren’t able to qualify any ‘superstars’ to nationals.”

Three Crimson fencers finished consecutively in the epee. Unfortunately for the trio, the back-to-back-to-back finishes did not include first, second, and third.

Freshman Mike Soto placed 14th and junior Derek Lindblom finished 15th. Both advanced to the semi-final round. Sophomore Steve Milder was eliminated in the second round but ended up 16th.

Sophomore Noah Fabricant topped the Crimson fencers in the saber with a 17th-place finish, while Schmidt led the team with a 12th-place showing in the foil.

In the first round, Schmidt pulled off a huge upset, defeating No. 1 seed John Tiomkin of St. John’s, 5-3. Tiomkin was the 1999 national champion in men’s foil.

In the semi-finals, however, it was Tiomkin who had the last laugh, narrowly edging Schmidt, 5-4. Schmidt’s only other loss in the round was another close 5-4 decision to NYU’s Aleksandr Nazarov.

“It was a disappointment that we didn’t qualify anyone,” Schmidt said. “But we had several strong finishes against some very difficult competition.”

The NCAA will fill out the remainder of the field Thursday, when the two wild card spots in each event are announced.

Soto and sophomore foil Liz Blasé just missed out on making the finals and may be considered for wild card berths.

The Harvard women finished the year 15-7 (1-4 Ivy), while the men finished 11-8, but were winless in Ivy competition.