Fencing in the News

[LongBlade]

Fencing reaches 18th at NCAA Championships
Runyan, Sprowles, Ambort and Martin face intense competition at Nationals

UCSD Guardian
By EVAN WANG
Senior Staff Writer

www.ucsdguardian.org/cgi-bin/sports?art=2005_03_28_03

UCSD fencing sent four of its brightest young stars to the NCAA Championships in Houston, Texas, from March 17 to March 20. They returned home as leaders of the 18th-ranked fencing program in the United States.

Freshmen Jason Runyan, Cameron Sprowles and Chelsea Ambort and junior Bret Martin represented the Tritons on collegiate fencing’s grandest stage. Competing in fields of 24, the Tritons were up against the top competition the nation had to offer, including a number of Olympians.

Runyan and Martin competed in the men’s sabre event, Sprowles in the men’s foil and Ambort in the women’s epee. This was Martin’s second visit to Nationals, and the other fencers’ first.

“I loved [the experience],” Martin said. “I loved it last time, and I enjoyed it just as much this time. The experience wasn’t as new this time, but it was different because I had teammates with me.”

The tournament was in a round-robin format. Each fencer went against the other 23 fencers in his or her field in a series of five-touch bouts spread over two days. After the completion of the round-robin bouts, the top four finishers fenced one another in fifteen-touch bouts to determine the placing for the top finishers.

“The great thing about this tournament was that you are able to go up against every other competitor in the tournament,” Runyan said. “Whereas at another tournament you may only go up against eight other fencers, Nationals provides a great way to gain experience against a lot of great fencers. You learn a ton.”

Martin made good on his promise to improve on his performance last year, where he picked up five victories en route to a 19th -place finish. This year, he picked up seven victories — though in the overall standings he once again placed 19th.

“I got off to a slow start, going 0-11 on the first day,” Martin said. “But on the second day, I went 7-5. I wish I had come out and fenced like that from the start. Even though some of the competition was tougher on the first day, I think I could have taken a few more bouts.”

Martin’s fellow sabreur, Runyan, finished with four victories and a 23rd-place finish.

“With so many bouts, it was hard to fence at my best for all 23,” Runyan said. “I fenced better during some bouts than others. It changed a lot over the course of two days.”

Sprowles managed three victories in the tournament, and placed 23rd overall among the men’s foilists.

UCSD’s lone female representative, Ambort, scored the most points for UCSD, winning nine bouts on her way to a 19th-place finish.

The combined effort of the Triton fencers led to an 18th-place team finish for UCSD. Notre Dame took the top overall team award, squeaking by last year’s champion, rival Ohio State, on the last day of competition. These efforts were bolstered by the Fighting Irish’s large number of competitors at the Championships.

All four UCSD fencers missed out on All-American status, designated for the top 12 placers in each of the six events (men’s epee, foil and sabre for both men and women).

As the collegiate fencing season comes to a close, the fencers already have their sights set on next year. While many will continue to compete and train with private teams and coaches during the off-season, their minds will certainly be with the team.

“I feel like I’ve accomplished a good amount, and I hope that I don’t feel too much pressure next season,” Martin said. “I just want to enjoy my last year with the team. I love the sport and am having more fun with it and enjoying it more all the time.”

[LongBlade]

Catherine's fighting spirit

By SUN ONLINE REPORTER

(Check out the link for a great shot that I can't import of Catherine Zeta-Jones fencing!)
www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2004580002-2005141710,00.html

OSCAR-winning beauty Catherine Zeta-Jones enjoyed reprising her role as Elena in The Legend Of Zorro – because she loves fencing.

The Welsh actress became interested in the sport while she made The Mask Of Zorro in 1998 - and couldn't wait to pick up a sword again to film the sequel in Mexico last year.

Catherine told Empire magazine: "I forgot how much I enjoyed it.

"Every time I got the sword in my hand, I'd get a little glint in my eye, 'Come on, bring it on’.

"Even though it is hard to do it in corsets and petticoats."

The Legend Of Zorro is out in the UK on November 4.

[LongBlade]

Interactive festival takes dead aim at the fans
By Nick Crews
Indianapolis Star correspondent
April 1, 2005

www.indystar.com/articles/0/233475-6140-062.html

Imagine a hometown where basketball reigns supreme, sportsmanship is the order of the day and free-throw and other hoops-related contests are what you do instead of going to work.

Now look around: It's no fantasy. This is a real town, and you'll be "living" here, when the NCAA Hoop City becomes Indiana's latest municipality Saturday. The event runs through Monday at the Indiana Convention Center.
..........
Basketball isn't the only thing going at "the city of hoops." Residents also will be able to test their skills at sports including baseball, softball, soccer golf, fencing and rock climbing.
..........
At Hoop City's NCAA Zone, fans get a first-hand look at NCAA sports. In the Zone, which features a locker room arranged with authentic college sports gear, fans can participate in NCAA sport activities including baseball and softball speed pitches, soccer penalty kicks, putting at a three-hole golf course and fencing.

[LongBlade]

Mariel Zagunis Wins Junior World Championship!

www.collegesports.com/sports/c-fenc/stories/032705aaa.html

LINZ, Austria - Notre Dame freshman sabre Mariel Zagunis (Beaverton, Ore.) won her sixth career world championship fencing title, taking home the gold on Saturday at the 2005 Junior and Cadet World Championships. Zagunis now has won nine world championship medals on the junior (under-20) and cadet (under-17) levels - with no other U.S. fencer in any age group ever coming close to earning as many world titles as Zagunis, who also made history in winning the 2004 Olympic gold medal.

Zagunis defeated Russia's Sophia Velikaia in a 15-9 gold-medal bout, after winning by the same score over Ukraine's Ogla Kharlan in the semifinals. Kharlan earlier had knocked off U.S. fencer and 2004 Olympian Emily Jacobson in the round of 16, by a 15-6 margin (Jacobson, who fences for Columbia University, edged Zagunis last weekend in the NCAA title bout).

Three Notre Dame fencers - the most from any college program - qualified for the 2005 Junior World Championships, with the rest of the U.S. contingent including just nine other college fencers (two each from St. John's and Penn State, plus one from Ohio State, Harvard, Princeton, Rutgers and Columbia). Sophomore sabre Patrick Ghattas (Beaverton, Ore.) will take to the strips tomorrow (March 27) in Linz while sophomore epeeist Amy Orlando (Brookline, Mass.) qualified in the fourth/alternate women's epee spot but elected not compete.

[LongBlade]

Grand Junction fencing teacher brings
students' childhood dreams to life

By MARIJA B. VADER
The Daily Sentinel
April 03, 2005

www.gjsentinel.com/hp/content/news/stories/2005/04/03/4_3_1B_Fencing.html;COXnetJSessionIDbuild69=CQUSuzigRcP6P3kQky92L2Ec6evXHrz1NmU8QuxqRm8OSgYhj95p!-67005196?urac=n&urvf=11125607865160.3955841943898035

Aaron Wall wants you to get the point. To put your best foot forward. To lunge into a new sport.

Wall and his wife, Corriann, have opened a fencing school in Grand Junction, introducing a new sport that most everyone can participate in. And not get cut, so to speak.

Fencing is the art or sport of fighting with a sword.

In a small garage space on Independent Avenue, chalk lines are drawn in the concrete. Electronic sounds and green, red and white lights signal when a fencer has either hit or missed the mark.

Students and teachers wear white denim uniforms, thick canvas gloves and the trademark masks. They lunge at each other in a dignified and controlled manner.

Wearing the uniforms, 10-year-olds Christian Richardson and Douglass Culver said at first they thought the class would teach them how to be Samurai fighters.

“In the beginning, I didn’t like it, but I had to keep the class,” Richardson said. “It’s challenging,” Culver said. “You can never be perfect at fencing. There’s always room for improvement.”<br>
When Richardson was younger, he’d fight his cousin with wooden swords.

There’s a certain romance in fighting with a sword, Wall said. In movies, sword fights have been immortalized with the likes of the Three Musketeers and pirates. “People have a weird fascination with watching sword fighting,” Wall said.

By learning to fence, people expand their knowledge in an area that others only dream about, especially while growing up, he said. “People dream abut being a knight in shining armor or a pirate,” Wall said.

Bruce VanBenschoten joined the classes with his son Michael, a junior at Fruita Monument High School. VanBenschoten said he wanted the exercise and likes the intellectual strategy of the sport. He likened it to playing chess at 60 mph. His son Michael said he likes the sport because it’s something he can do with his dad.

Wall teaches beginning, intermediate, advanced and elite levels.

There are four types of fencing: foil, saber, epe and shinai.

In foil fencing, the only legal target is the body. No points are awarded for striking the arms, heads or legs of an opponent.

With a saber, points are awarded for strikes from the waist up, and with an epee, a strike on any point of the body will score.

The shinai is a bamboo sword that represents a Samurai sword and is used in kendo.

Wall likes the sport because it’s good aerobic exercise. And it’s safe, particularly compared to school sports such as football, soccer and basketball, which can result in expensive and serious injuries, he said.

“The worst (fencing) injury I’ve ever seen was a twisted ankle, and that was from a trip on the way into the building,” Wall said.

With the fencing school up and running, Wall has other teaching plans in mind. He said he soon will offer language classes, starting with Spanish. Wall is a foreign language teacher, certified in Spanish, French and German.

So now, he joked, “The pen is mightier than the sword.”<br>
Or is it?

“We’ll put those two together,” he said.

[LongBlade]

Fencer John Moreau takes on cancer and a world championship

By Jeff Walker - Features Editor
San Marcos Daily Record
Sunday, April 03, 2005

sanmarcosrecord.com/articles/2005/04/03/news/news4.txt


John Moreau is crowned winner at the
2003 National Fencing Championships
held in Austin in 2003.
(SergeTimacheff/ FencingPhotos.com)

John Moreau was regrettably in San Marcos, missing the 2004 World Fencing Championships in Austria when he got the call from the doctor.

Though he had been noticing a sharp pain in his lungs at the time, it was a lack of funds that had kept him from competing for yet another title. But Dr. Schneider's following words over the phone would prove that it was all a blessing in disguise.

"He asked me if I was driving my car. I laughed and asked, 'Why, have I got the big C?' He affirmed my suspicions and I remember not having the 'kick in the chest' feeling that others have described to me when they found out about their cancer, but rather a sense of relief. At least now I knew who my enemy was and could now work on destroying him."

And that's just the kind of attitude that helped him prevail. On March 12, two days after his final chemo treatment, he took top honors at the North American Veteran's Cup fencing competition, securing a number one ranking on the US Team in the upcoming world championships.

The two time Olympian fencer illustrates the craft of fencing by mentioning a scene from the '80s classic "The Princess Bride."

In a duel of minds over a poisoned goblet, the character Vinzinni says "I am not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you. But you must have known I was not a great fool, you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of me."

The same lightning speed wit, Moreau says, is a must for a sport that happens so fast the touches are scored electronically. Moreau first got interested in the sport while attending college in upstate New York. Moreau, a self dubbed 'gym rat,' was drawn to the mental toughness that fencing demanded. He qualified for the Olympics in both 1984 and 1988.

And his psychological strength and dedication to physical activity were likely his saving grace when he discovered the Stage III Lymphoma pressing on his diaphragm nerves. Moreau's body borders on 0 percent body fat, and his daily workout habits mirror those of any other Olympian.

Even after the CAT scans discovered the cancer, the blood work showed no abnormalities that would indicate any problems. His body was seemingly able to function normally while the cancer was growing because of his high level workouts.

"Everyone would ask, 'how could this happen to you, you're in such good shape,'" Moreau said. "I firmly believe that my state of physical conditioning was one of the primary factors in the relative ease in which I completed my course of treatments."

Moreau immediately started chemotherapy treatments, the first round lasting until the end of December.

"I got my transfusion on New Year's eve and asked if they couldn't possibly slip a little champagne in the IV bag," Moreau said.

He then started radiation therapy to eradicate any resistive cancer cells. All the while, Moreau continued to teach physical education at Texas State University and coached the All Texas Athletic Fencing Club in San Marcos. Though he admits the treatments wore him down, it hardly showed.

"I never had a doubt that I wouldn't beat this no matter how serious it was," Moreau said.

He also set goals for himself. One, to continue teaching and coaching no matter how serious the cancer got. The second was to continue training for the national championships. Now, his goal is to win at the world championships.

"When that is accomplished, I will set new goals," Moreau said.

Moreau said that the hardest part of dealing with cancer wasn't the excruciating pain. It wasn't inner thoughts of sickness and death - he never experienced that. It was seeing other cancer patients at his treatments, hopeless, desperate and scared of their own fate.

After all, as Moreau says, cancer - just like fencing - is more or less a mental game.

"I refuse to be labeled a 'cancer survivor,'" Moreau said. "To me, the word survivor means you were in a fight and were just able to hang on until the end. I want to be known as the person who took the challenge, kicked cancer's butt and embraced every moment of the challenge. I think people should rethink their attitude towards their fight against cancer and call themselves 'cancer conquerors.'"

[LongBlade]

Denver Fencing Center Announces 2004 Summer Camps:
An Opportunity to engage in ‘Physical Chess’

Khalsa News Network
Copyright 4/4/05

www.kntimes.com/fitness/fullstory0305-insight-Denver+Fencing+Center+Announces+Summer+Camps-status-1-newsID-18.html

The Denver Fencing Center continues to expand its suite of offerings to the community with its 2004 summer camps for youth aged 8-14. These 1-week camps supplement the DFC’s fencing curriculum that focuses on the instruction, technique, and strategy of the exciting sport of fencing.

The first set of camps from June 7th to the 11th will focus on the fundamentals of fencing foil, which has been fencing’s primary training weapon. Students will learn to fence and develop an understanding of how fencing’s strategy, rules, and conduct relate to the history of swordsmanship. Nathan Anderson, DFC Head Coach and former all-American, all Ivy-League foil fencer (University of Pennsylvania), will teach this camp with an emphasis on basic and intermediate attacks and parries.

The 2nd set of camps, from July 12th to the 16th will teach kids how to fence both foil and epée and show the differences between the two weapons. Epée, a modern descendant of the dueling weapons, follows a different set of rules and strategies than foil. Nathan Anderson and Whitney Anderson, former all-American Epee fencer (Yale) will teach this camp.

Fencing, over the past four years, has grown to over 500,000 competitors nationally and locally, Colorado has seen similar growth. According the Denver Fencing Center head coach Nathan Anderson, “Participation in the sport of fencing has surged for several reasons: the popularity of films such as ‘Pirates of Caribbean’ that prominently feature sword fighting; the uniqueness of a sport where boys and girls can compete equally, and most important, the great physical and mental workout that one receives. This is why fencing is often referred to as ‘physical chess.”

Space in the camps is limited. Prospective campers are invited to tour the facility during normal business hours. The Denver Fencing Center is open Monday-Thursday from 4pm to 9:30pm, Fridays from 4pm to 7pm, 9am to 12:30 on Saturdays, and by appointment for private lessons. Home school classes can also be arranged. Contact Nathan Anderson at 303-922-7288 or visit www.denverfencingcenter.com for registration materials.

[LongBlade]

Fencing contest held at MSU
Team takes 5th in biggest national college club event
By JOSH JARMAN
The State News

www.statenews.com/article.phtml?pk=29425

The MSU fencing club's attempt at swashbuckling supremacy was foiled by the United States Military Academy in the third USA Collegiate Fencing Club Championship.
This year's competition was sponsored by the MSU fencing club and allowed club teams to compete for national ranking.

Fencers from more than 20 colleges and universities crowded into IM Sports-West to cross blades during the event which took place Saturday and Sunday.

"This is the national championship," Michael Hoffman, an international relations senior said. "It's the biggest event in club fencing."

Fencing became a club sport at MSU in 1997 after it lost its varsity status. Since then, it has been run and organized by students.

Hoffman is the captain of the MSU men's épée squad. The competition is broken up between men's and women's teams and then further divided by the three classes of weapon: épée, foil and saber.

Although they vary little in size and weight, the weapons are scored differently and a fighter must train in a particular style to gain mastery in his or her weapon.

The event drew teams from as far away as Texas and Florida, and Hoffman said he looks forward to the new competition.

"A lot of these teams came from really far away," Hoffman said. "I'm interested in seeing the ones we've never faced before."

MSU women's team captain Aggie Ostrowski said the club had been organizing the event for about a year. She said it was hardest finding officials to judge the individual competitions.

"For an event this size, you need about 24 officials," Ostrowski said. "There are maybe four that live in Michigan."

Ostrowski, a chemistry senior, explained that the competition is scored on an individual basis. Fighters are scored on the outcome of their personal matches, and at the end of the tourney, the teams with the highest-scoring individuals win first-place honors.

MSU scored fifth place in the overall competition.

Music junior Erin Socia competed with the women's saber squad. She said her favorite part of the competition was the team's matchup with the University of Michigan on Saturday.

"It was sweet," Socia said. "We took out two of their fencers - it was the best part of the day."

Socia said she got into the sport because her older brother also is a fencer at MSU. She said competing offers fighters a unique combination of physical action and individual strategy.

"The game is so intense," Socia said. "The rush is incredible."

Jeremy Fowler, a recent University of Florida graduate, came to the event to help coach Florida's saber squads. He said he fenced for five years at the university and helped organize the first USA Collegiate Fencing Club Championship in Gainesville, Fla. in 2003.

He said the event is increasing in size since its inception, with more teams competing each year.

"It encourages smaller teams to form," Fowler said. "Now they have something to go to - a goal to set."

[LongBlade]

En Garde! MU professor fields questions during the day and fences at night

By SHEENA MARTIN
Columbia Missourian
April 4, 2005

columbiamissourian.com/utown/story.php?ID=13068

Friends say Pat Peritore is a mild-mannered professor of political theory during the day, but at night he’s a dueling sword fighter — even though he can’t even stand the sight of blood.

“It’s an interesting dichotomy,” said Rick Hardy, Peritore’s colleague in MU’s political science department. “Pat is a mild individual, and to imagine him in a fencing outfit, he’s the last person I would think of doing that.”<br>
It wasn’t until Peritore failed at all other sports that he took up fencing. After receiving a C in ballroom dancing in college, Peritore began fencing to fulfill his physical education requirements.

“I couldn’t catch. I can’t throw,” Peritore said. “My body was made for this. This is the only sport it was made for.”<br>
Nearly half a century has passed since college, and Peritore is now teaching a new generation of fencers the classical French style. His goal is to build fencers for life instead of short-lived competitors.

“If you can fence a good match, there’s something really beautiful about it,” he said. “Once you fence somebody, you know them really well. You know them psychologically. Everything is out there — it’s personal combat. That’s the fun of it. When you start to compete, you learn to take shortcuts and cheap shots to get the quick win, and you don’t develop a rounded fencer.”<br>
Peritore received a scholarship in college to study under Delmar Calvert, who learned to fence in France and was a guerrilla fighter in the French resistance. Peritore said the dynasty of instructors Calvert studied with dates back to Napoleon.

“I just trained to be a competitor, but what happened is I learned how to teach. I absorbed the technique,” he said.

Learning the strategy and technique essential to fencing is not the same as telling a football player, “Go tackle,” Peritore said. The competition involves a long chain of strategic moves falling into place like dominos, such as throwing fake attacks and counter attacks to build up to the moment of pouncing at the opponent.

“Actually, it’s fun because you can do the game all your life,” Peritore said. “You make up for speed with smarts. You get more tactical. You get more tricky. I’m the king of cheap shots.”<br>
Often fencing is compared to chess because of the thinking involved. In considering fencing as an intellectual venture, it’s not so uncharacteristic for Peritore. Peritore has studied political theory extensively in his travels of more than a dozen countries. He also is learning classical guitar.

Students acknowledge Peritore’s intelligence, but they still find his identity as a fencer unusual.

“It’s kind of hard to try to imagine him being a fencer,” said Zach Daughtrey, a student in Peritore’s Modern Political Theory course. “I think he’s a very intelligent person; I just don’t see him being much of a fencer.”<br>
After moving to mid-Missouri, Peritore returned to fencing after a decade-long hiatus. However, his career makes it difficult for him to advance to the top level. Peritore is a Prevost d’armes, one tier below master.

To reach the class of master fencer, Peritore would have to give fencing lessons to students in front of four masters acting as judges. The judges critique teaching and would tear him apart, he said. Then Peritore would have to become a national referee, which he said he’s “terrible” at. Finally, Peritore would write a dissertation on some aspect of fencing for a panel of master fencers to take into consideration.

The process shows that the sport is elite and complex — and why, Peritore said, it will never be widely popular.

He said bowling was considered as an option to replace fencing in the Olympics. But he said he does not find a group of “fat guys drinking thingytails” any more exciting for the public than fencing.

The complexity of fencing, however, makes it more difficult than bowling for outsiders to follow.

“Fencing is on TV and shown in the Olympics for about five minutes,” Hardy said. “How is it scored? What are these white suits? Is it dangerous? I think it is. It’s fascinating that he does this.”<br>
Fencing also can be dangerous. The dueling sword, known as a sabre, can leave a person’s body bruised and sore. As for the scoring, Peritore said it is difficult even for him to judge.

But in the workout rooms of Dexter’s Tae Kwon Do, Peritore is showing a new generation the complexities and dangers of fencing. He is so eager to recruit fencers and so confident that newcomers will love the game that he offers the first lesson for free.

“I have learned all of the techniques of the game,” said David Lemasters, who has studied with Peritore for more than two years. “Now I just come out here to have fun.”

[LongBlade]

They were running this video on the 24 hour news station in Austin a few months ago.
A nice bit of publicity for fencing! ;D

www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=115599&SecID=2

[LongBlade]

"That game you play with swords." ;D

Voepel: Baylor's trio of chance
Baylor's coaches have worked hard to recruit and build the program. But sometimes, good players – or even a trio of them – just fall into your lap.

Mechelle Voepel
Special to ESPN.com
April 5. 2005

abcnews.go.com/Sports/ESPNSports/story?id=644414

INDIANAPOLIS – It's so strange how the best-intended and planned things can go nowhere, while sometimes random-chance things work out almost perfectly.

Baylor has done a lot of planning to build the women's basketball program to the level of national-championship contender in Kim Mulkey-Robertson's fifth season. But she'd be the first to admit "good fortune" has blessed the program, too.

Sophia Young came from St. Vincent, West Indies. Abiola Wabara arrived from Parma, Italy. A third starter, Chelsea Whitaker, is from good old Dallas, just up Interstate 35 from Waco. Yet she didn't begin her college career at Baylor.

So how did all three end up there?

"I'm sure there was a reason for it," Young said.

Whitaker's take: "I think it's pretty much destiny."

Somehow, pure accident doesn't seem likely.

Maybe by now, you've heard Young's story. If not, we'll quickly summarize: At age 15, she left home to go to Shreveport, La., for the chance of getting an education and playing sports in the United States. At the time, she didn't know how to play basketball, but she did understand hard work and persistence. She finally got a local AAU guru to watch her, and he happened to be the father of Baylor assistant Jennifer Roberts.

So Mulkey-Robertson came to see Young, watched her briefly and said, "OK, that's it. Let's get her signed right now."

She says in reflection, "Really, those kinds of things – where you just make a surprise discovery – really don't happen very often."

Except at Baylor, it's happened twice. Second story: Wabara.

First off, we'll tell you her dad is an architect, she speaks four languages, she wants to be a doctor and she confirms that it's impossible to find truly great alfredo sauce in the United States.

Anyway, there are smart kids and then there are SMART kids and Wabara is definitely in the latter category. Her English is very good, but sometimes, of course, she doesn't quite know the word for something.

Such as "that game you play with swords."

You mean fencing? Yes, fencing. It seems when she was 13, a friend wanted to go learn to fence, and requested that Wabara accompany her. She did, and the gym they went to had a basketball office right next to the fencing office.

Somebody connected with hoops took one look at Wabara, who even at 13 was clearly an athlete, and asked if she'd like to play basketball. She replied she didn't know what basketball was – although she could deduce that it didn't involve swords – but she was willing to try.

Then she got good at it and watched people like former Houston Comets star Cynthia Cooper, who played 11 years in Italy. Wabara knew by the time she was finishing high school that the next step was to try to play in the United States. One of her aunts went to Truett Seminary at Baylor.

And you can figure out the rest, right? Most coaches would get the e-mail from an "aunt with a niece who is a great player" and if they satisfied their curiosity … they'd find out that the niece was 4-foot-2 but worked really, really hard and could even dribble with her left hand.

Baylor, however, had someone like Wabara walk into the office.

Coaches search high and low for players like Young and Wabara, while Baylor more or less stumbled upon them. There's always the adage the harder you work, the luckier you get. And Mulkey-Robertson and her staff have worked very hard. But, still, that's pretty darn lucky.

(Aside: It reminds me of when I was really little, and there was this mysterious-looking dirt road we passed every time we were driving to see my aunt. So I somehow started daydreaming that if you actually turned down that road [which my parents never did], at the end of it was a magic restaurant where all the food was completely free but no one knew about it. I totally imagined that as soon as I was old enough to drive, I'd go there. But you grow up and decide any kind of thought like that is so totally silly just in principle – because whatever is worth discovering, plenty of people must already know about. And yet that's not always the case. Sometimes, you do go down a path and something really great just happens to be there.)


Mulkey-Robertson couldn't put Wabara through a workout because of NCAA recruiting regulations at the time of her visit.

"She trusted her instincts," Wabara said.

And Mulkey-Robertson trusted an old friend and teammate from Louisiana Tech, Janice Lawrence. She'd played several years in Italy and saw the young Wabara competing in club basketball.

"Sign her," Lawrence told Mulkey-Robertson.

OK, then there's Whitaker, who incidentally is Wabara's roommate and explained that they have to endure each other's "odd" eating habits.

"This child eats pasta all day and no meat," Whitaker said of Wabara. "I'm from Texas, and we eat a lot of beef. Anything she cooks for me, she has to cook a pound of meat to go with it. Anything I cook for her, I have to 'de-meat' it, I guess.

"She eats dinner really late and has weird snacks, and meat is nowhere to be found in any of that."

Note the "I'm from Texas" part. Even so, at first Whitaker wanted nothing to do with Baylor. She ignored the school totally during the recruiting process and went to Virginia.

Things didn't work out there, while simultaneously Mulkey-Robertson was changing the whole atmosphere at Baylor. Whitaker came back, sat out the required transfer year, and became another integral piece of the puzzle.

Now here they all are at Baylor, along with plenty of other important players who made the decision to come to Waco. Sometimes they think about it, Texan Chameka Scott said, about how if any one of them had gone someplace else, they might not have this national-championship opportunity.

"Whatever led us all here at this point in time," Scott said, "was just meant to happen."

[LongBlade]

Notre Dame Now Fifth In NACDA Directors' Cup
New standings include football, volleyball, cross country, soccer, fencing, hockey, swimming and indoor track and field.

CollegeSports.com
April 7, 2005

und.collegesports.com/genrel/040705aaa.html

The University of Notre Dame stands in fifth place in the second set of winter sports standings released in the 2004-05 United States Sports Academy Division I Directors' Cup all-sports competition sponsored by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (formerly known as Sears Directors' Cup).

The current standing comes after the Irish finished the fall seasons in first place -- marking the first time in the 12-year history of the program that Notre Dame ranked number one. The previous highest ranking for the Irish had been second in the 2004-05 second set of fall standings.

Winter competition so far has netted Notre Dame 153 points --- based on its NCAA combined men's and women's championship in fencing (50 points), a 24th-place NCAA finish in women's swimming (49.5 points) and a 20th-place NCAA finish in men's indoor track and field (53.5 points). Still to come are points from Notre Dame's second-round NCAA appearance in women's basketball. Fall NCAA competition earned the Irish 337 points based on their NCAA title in women's soccer (100 points), their fourth-place finish in women's cross country (80 points), their 11th-place finish in men's cross country (57 points) and their second-round NCAA appearances in both men's soccer and volleyball (50 points each).

[LongBlade]

Fencing finishes 11th

By Alexis Peterson
The Standford Daily
April 8, 2005

daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=16727&repository=0001_article

The Stanford fencing team thinks it can do better. That says something, because after the squad finished its season ranked No. 11 nationally and with two All-Americans, disappointing is hardly the first word that comes to mind.
Five of the 28 Cardinal team members competed at NCAAs in Houston two weeks ago, where they faced a field of 144 competitors. Senior standouts Iris Zimmerman and Steve Gerberman each walked away from the four-day competition with Second Team All American titles. Zimmerman placed fifth, and Gerberman placed eighth.

Impressed? How would you feel if you knew that Zimmerman — an Olympian in 2000 — had participated in exactly zero competitions this year before packing up to take on the field in Texas?

Zimmerman began the year by enjoying a break from training after trying for the Athens Olympics. Then in October, she underwent knee surgery. Recovering from that would be trial enough, without aiming to compete nationally a mere five months later. But compete she did, in an event that had considerable depth, against many national team fencers.

Zimmerman had been unsure what to expect at the tournament, not only because of her surgery but also because she was contending with some rule changes. Her preparation for the event, however, was simple.

“Fencing, cross training, stressing out that I would never make it through the quarter,” Zimmerman said.

Gerberman, who was a member of the United States fencing team two years ago and competed all over the world last year while trying to make the team that went to Athens, was disappointed by his personal performance at the championships.

Although Gerberman had his sights set on winning, and felt he had the skills to do so, Finals and Dead Week fell right before NCAAs this year. His training during that final stretch suffered as a result.

“I trained pretty hard until the week before NCAAs, which was the end of Dead Week and beginning of Finals week,” Gerberman said. “I found it pretty hard to do anything outside of schoolwork during this week.”<br>
And while Gerberman’s personal goals may not have been fully realized at the end of the season, he said the team realized its goal to develop greater unity and cohesion in what is otherwise a very individual sport.

“This will help us in the long run when we try to develop a new and stronger team for the years to come,” Zimmerman said.

Building next year’s team is now the challenge for the fencers. The team will graduate a number of seniors this year, including senior Jeni Williams. Described by her teammates as one of the strongest team leaders, Williams walked on to the team four years ago and has proven herself to be one of the team’s most dedicated and passionate members.

Next year, the team will look to take most of its strength from the three underclassmen who competed at NCAAs: juniors Jonathan Pearlstein and Martin Lee, and sophomore Curtis Andrus. Junior Nina Acuna, who is credited with being a driving force on the team this year, also looks to be a major player.

In keeping with the team goal of trying to qualify as many people as possible for NCAAs every year, the team is also excited about the new freshmen they will be bringing in, and the degree of new talent next year promises.

As the Cardinal continue to make strides and push even closer to being in the top 10 nationally, they remember to keep their successes and disappointments in perspective.

“We always get caught up in winning, especially at a school like Stanford where there are so many champions and competitive people,” Zimmerman said. “But sometimes it is nice to recognize the heart and desire of a person who just wanted to be the best that she could and gave everything she had.”<br>
While Zimmerman was speaking specifically of teammate Williams, it is that sort of attitude and leadership that will carry the Cardinal through another strong season.

[LongBlade]

UW fencing team hosts last stop before national tourney

By JEFFREY JACQUET
Casper Star-Tribune correspondent
April 09, 2005

www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2005/04/09/sports/43ab52fe65bc675a87256fdd006ffe76.txt

Starkly dressed in white flak jackets and black chain mail helmets, the fighters brandish 3-foot long sabers and cordially step onto the dueling strip.

As if respectful but determined knights in armor, many give the opponent a slight nod of the head as they raise their weapon, just before the referee says, "OK ... fence!"

Then, a flash of quick footwork and the sounds of "clink, clink-clink-clink, clink, clink, clink." In seconds the battle is over, and one fighter emerges victorious after touching the end of his or her sword to the opponent's jacket.

"We don't like to call it a 'stab,' because that can frighten some people," explains Krista Amunson, president of the University of Wyoming's fencing team. "So, we say 'touch.'"

To the untrained eye, the sport may appear dangerous. But it's more about skill than bravery.

Modern-day fencing weapons aren't razor sharp. Despite the fact fencers are clad in bullet-proof Kevlar vests, the weapons contain a blunt button on the tip that, when depressed, sets off a light designating that a fencer has been touched.

Fencers use not one type of weapon, but three (foil, epee, and saber), and each type comes with a different set of official rules and areas of the body to target.

"Following the rules of the weapon you are using, you try to get a touch," Amunson says. "There are also different styles of fencing, but we do the court duel style. When people say, 'Lets have a duel,' this is what they mean."

Team faculty advisor and long-time fencer Bret Breithaupt jokes that when fencing is brought up in conversation, it usually has something to do with keeping animals from wandering off.

"In Wyoming, you end up with the 'barbed-wire fencing' joke a lot," says Breithaupt. "People just aren't familiar with the sport. They're probably familiar with sword fighting, but what we do is bit different -- this is Olympic style fencing."

While the UW fencing team might not carry the notoriety of some of the university's varsity athletics programs, the UW swashbucklers have had success over the past couple of years.

"We are in a small division, and we have one of the smaller clubs on campus, but we are just as competitive," says team faculty advisor and long-time fencer Bret Breithaupt. "When we compete with those of other states, we do quite well."

How well?

UW nearly swept the Cowboy State Games in Casper last month.

"We got all the top places," says UW's Ben Froidevaux. "In Sabre, Kyle Shane got first, Kristen Amunson got second, I tied for third. "Catherine Durkee was first in women's epee and foil, and I was first in men's epee and foil."

The team also has swept state tournaments and competed on the national circuit.

The UW squad -- which consists of nearly 20 athletes -- will compete today against athletes from Lander, Casper and Cheyenne in a divisional tournament in Laramie. The winner in each event earns a berth in this summer's national tournament in Sacramento, Calif.

"Our prospects for divisionals are very, very good," Froidevaux says. "We are hoping to take all the top spots. Of course, we always hope that anyway."

[Coach Hite]

Today the Amarillo Globe news posted a small article that I wrote for the Div II qualifers.

There should be another on in the paper about Div III next week.

Way to go fencers.... You all fenced well!