University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Temple Intercollegiate Open - Men's Fencing
Tar Heels have excellent outing at Temple Open
November 9, 2007 | Fencing
Nov. 4, 2007
PHILADELPHIA, PA. - The UNC fencing team concluded their initial open event of the 2007-08 season with strong finishes in all weapons at the 28th annual Temple Fencing Open.
In women's competition, Tar Heel freshman Katie Williamson finished first in women's foil with a 14-0 total while fellow foil fencer sophomore May Chen-Contino finish fifth with 12 victories and one loss.
In women's epee freshmen Melissa Litschi had a 12th place finish and sophmore Claire Brandow followed at 15th. In women's sabre, UNC sophomores Patti Sanders and Jen Sawicki finished third and sixth, respectively.
In men's foil competition, UNC junior Alex Grigorenko finished seventh at 12-1 and sophomore Alberto Lugo matched Grigorenko's effort with a 12-1 performance.
In epee, freshmen Eric Hsieh and Joel Thompson finished fifth and ninth with 13-1 and 11-1 records, respectively. In sabre fencing junior Bobby Ziechmann had an excellent outing compiling 15 victories and one loss and teammate, senior Joe Pipkin, had an impressive 11-1 open.
Head UNC fencing coach Ron Miller, stated "this year's Temple Open was a very good start for us in national level competition. Our freshmen and transfers had especially strong performances, as did our top returners. The most important result was the consistency shown across all weapons. Any time our top athletes are winning as average of 90% of their bouts, our rising athletes above 80% of our young fencers and average of above 70% , we have to be very satisfied with their results. There were son many outstanding performances that it is hard to single out one. Freshman Katie Williamson's first place (in a field of 94) in women's foil was a remarkable result."
Coach Miller went on to say, "our men's squads slightly outperformed the women, but the women showed stronger improvement from the beginning of our pre-season a few weeks ago. We are looking forward to our first Dual Meets of the season this coming weekend at Haverford, and out final pre-season this coming weekend at Haverford, and our final pre-season national open at Penn State the following weekend."
Players Mentioned
