Sept. 14, 2010

Contact: Dan Carr

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Five freshmen, including a national champion, two state high school champions and a Turkish national finalist, will join the Cleveland State fencing team for the 2010-2011 campaign. Head coach Andy Tulleners made the announcement Tuesday (Sept. 14).

Anton Griepp (Rochester, N.Y.), Tom Bienvenu (Falls Church, Va.), John Cuturic (Westlake, Ohio) and Salih Yasun (Bursa, Turkey) will add depth to the men's squad. Alex Dickinson (Medina, Ohio) is the newest member of the women's fencing team.

"These freshmen represent a big step for our program," Tulleners said. "They will make an immediate impact on the team."

Griepp won the 2007 North American Cup, defeating fencers from across the country. He also finished seventh in the 2007 and third in the 2008 Fencers Attacking Diabetes Tournaments, and placed 11th in the Jeff Wolfe Regional Circuit while a member of the Rochester Fencing Center.

Bienvenu won the Virginia Division II Championship and placed third in the Virginia Division Championship in 2009 as a member of the Virginia Academy of Fencing. Cuturic, who fenced with Cyrano's Place in nearby Westlake, placed third in the 2009 Wolverine Snow Belt Challenge.

Yasun placed fifth in 2007 and sixth and third in 2008 in various national tournaments in Turkey. Yasun graduated from Portland High in Portland, Mich. as an exchange student, where he also helped start a fencing program.

Rounding out the class is Dickinson who, as a member of the Hooked on Fencing club in Medina, placed first in the Ohio High School Fencing Championships in 2009 and third in 2010. She also finished second at the North American Cup fencing tournament in Iowa.

Cleveland State is one of only 23 Division I schools with a varsity fencing team. Last season the squad had five members qualify for the Midwest Fencing Regional and sent one fencer, Liran Gross, to the NCAA Fencing Championships.