Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer
Cleveland State University

The Official Home of the Cleveland State University Vikings

Marshall Finishes 21st at the NCAA Championships

Marshall Finishes 21st at the NCAA Championships
Posted: Mar 25, 2011

March 25, 2011

Contact: Dan Carr

COLUMBUS, Ohio - John Marshall won seven matches at the 2011 NCAA Fencing Championships, finishing the tournament ranked 21st in the epee discipline.

"This competition is unique, and it is the toughest in the country," head coach Andy Tulleners said. "Just the way it is set up is very challenging, and John proved that he was up to the challenge."

Between Thursday (March 24) and Friday (March 25) Marshall fenced in 23 bouts, facing every other qualifier once and earning seven victories. Those wins included decisions over Jake Harbour (5-2) and Kevin Mo (5-2) of Stanford, two fencers who had defeated Marshall earlier in the season.

"Historically, John has had trouble with those two Stanford fencers, but this time around he flat out dominated them," Tulleners said. "He really stepped up to the challenge and fenced very well against the best collegiate fencers in the country."

Marshall also won bouts against Jonathan Parker of Duke (5-3), Anthony Green of Penn State (5-4), Harvard's Mike Raynis (5-3), Sacred Heart's Justin Dion (5-4) and Mike Elfassy of Princeton (5-2).

He was also competitive in losses to James Hawrot of Harvard and Clifford Fishler of Pennsylvania, being edged out in both, 5-4.

"John had been training for this for four years," Tulleners said. "This is an objective he had been wanting to achieve since he started at Cleveland State, and I'm very proud of his effort and performance."

Marshall's parents were on hand to watch him compete, as were a number of fencing supporters from the Cleveland area.

"His parents had always given him great support in his attempts to reach this goal, so it was good to see them there," Tulleners said. "In addition, I received numerous texts and calls from Cleveland State alumni, including a call from Liran Gross, who represented CSU last year at the NCAA Championships. It was really good to hear from so many who had been keeping track of our program and our success this season."

Gross qualified for the 2010 NCAA Fencing Championships in the foil, finishing 24th.