March 6, 2011
Contact: Dan Carr
SOUTH BEND, Ind. - A fifth place finish by the men's epee team highlighted the Cleveland State fencing team's performance at the Midwest Conference Championships on Sunday (March 6) in South Bend, Ind. The men's team finished ninth out of 19 participating schools while the women's team placed 17th.
"This really, as a whole, was our best performance at conferences since I've been the head coach," said Andy Tulleners, in his third season as the head of CSU's fencing program. "I'm very pleased with everyone's performance."
The men's epee squad opened its bracket with a 5-1 win over Lawrence. John Marshall and Patrick Weber each won two bouts while Salih Yasun earned the deciding point. The Vikings then fell to the consolation bracket after dropping a 5-0 decision to eventual champion Notre Dame.
Up next for the men's epee team was a match with Chicago, with the Vikings again winning, 5-1. Yasun and Marshall both won two bouts and Weber took the fifth.
That led to the competition for fifth place in the epee bracket, an exciting match with Michigan that came down to the last bout. The Wolverines won the first three bouts, including a win by Marvin Lowenthal over Marshall in a sudden-death match, but CSU rebounded to take the next three.
The two schools split the next two bouts, with UM's Andrew Aitkin beating Marshall, 5-3, and Yasun blanking Lowenthal, 5-0. That led to the final, tie-breaking bout, in which Weber managed to hold off the Wolverine's Jacob Trithart to secure a fifth place finish for the Viking men's epee squad.
"The men's epee finished where I thought they would," Tulleners said. "They fenced well as a team today."
The men's saber squad finished its bracket in eighth. The team, seeded 12th in the tourney, began its day with a 5-4 upset win over fifth-seeded Purdue. The two teams alternated every point, with Tom Bienvenu going a perfect 3-0. Bryan Twitchell and Mike McDonald also won matches, with McDonald's victory being the deciding point.
"Bryan fenced the best he has so far at Cleveland State," Tulleners said. "Mike also really stepped up at the end, helping us knock off the fifth seed. Both guys really fenced well today."
That victory was the high point of the day for the saber unit, which dropped decisions to Lawrence (5-2) and Indiana (5-4) the rest of the way.
The men's foil team also picked up a victory on Sunday. The Vikings dropped their first three matches of the bracket to Detroit (5-1), Iowa (5-4) and Chicago (5-1), but managed to pull out a win in their final match of the day, defeating Xavier, 5-4, to finish in 15th place.
"Both the men's foil and saber teams fenced up, meaning they beat opponents seeded higher than them," Tulleners said. "Chris Tucker especially is someone in the foil who has really stepped up at the end of this season. He fenced well yesterday and was good again today, and our foil team almost pulled out a couple other wins."
On the women's side, the epee team was again the biggest winner for CSU. After falling in a close 5-4 contest to Indiana, the Vikings rebounded with a 5-4 win over Iowa in their first consolation match. The epee squad ended up taking 12th after falling to Michigan and Purdue in 5-4 contests.
Alex Dickinson led the epees with the best individual performance of any Viking on the day. The freshman went 11-1, including 3-0 sweeps of Indiana, Iowa and Michigan. The other big performer at the epee was Marie Blatnik, who won six bouts.
"Both of our fencers at the epee had great days," Tulleners said. "Alex in particular fences very consistently, and I'm pleased with overall performance this season."
Neither the women's foil or saber teams placed, but the Vikings had two fencers in the latter division that finished the tournament well. After falling, 5-2, to Indiana, CSU won two round robin matches to finish in 17th place in the saber. The Vikings picked up a 5-3 win over Oberlin and a 4-3 win against Minnesota.
Stephanie Lee led the way, winning five bouts. Maureen Forinash picked up her first collegiate victory against Indiana's Yessenia Garza, a 5-3 decision. Forinash finished with four wins on the day, including two against Minnesota.
While the Midwest Conference Championships represented the end of the season for most of CSU's fencers, seven Vikings will advance to the NCAA Regional Qualifiers next weekend (March 12-13) in Detroit, Mich.
Representing Cleveland State on the men's side will be Bienvenu and Twichell in the saber division and Yasun, Weber and Marshall in the epee, while Dickinson (fencing with the epee) and Lee (foil) will go from the women's team.
