March 16, 2010

Contact: Renee Adam

Cleveland, Ohio - Following a sixth place finish in the men's foil at the Midwest Regional, Liran Gross will represent the Vikings at the NCAA Championships being held March 25-28 in Boston, Mass., on the Harvard University campus. Gross is one of 144 competitors that will participate in the 2010 National Collegiate Men's and Women's Fencing Championships.

The NCAA National Men's Fencing Committee made the announcement of the qualifiers Tuesday (March 16) afternoon.

Gross finished the Midwest Regional with a 4-2 record in pool play, 2-1 round two record and a 1-2 record during round three. He had victories over Ohio State's Joe Streb, Tim Mulligan from Wayne State, Steve Kubik from Notre Dame, Detroit's Brad Coon, Raffi Nersessian from Wayne State and Detroit's Michael Purdy-Sachs.

This will mark his second trip to the NCAA Championship, with his first trip coming as a sophomore when he was the first alternate in men's foil.

Gross has a season record of 32-23 in men's foil and has been leading the Vikings during his four years at CSU.

Fencers will compete in a round-robin format of five-touch bouts. After the round-robin, the top-four fencers fence semifinal 15-touch bouts, with the winners fencing to determine first and second places, and the losers being awarded a tie for third place. Absolute ties for the seeding will be broken as follows: for positions one through three, by a coin toss; for position four, by a fence-off.