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DETROIT (3/8/2014) -- The University of Detroit Mercy will host the
2014 NCAA Midwest Fencing Regionals on Saturday at Calihan Hall starting at 9:00 a.m. 10 student-athletes will represent UDM at the one-day event which will be the last step for fencers before advancing to the NCAA Championships to be hosted by Ohio State starting on March 20, 2014.
Senior
Eva Berndt (sabre), junior
Katie Lang (sabre), senior
Paige Zmudczynski (epee), junior Kayla Berndt (epee), and sophomore
Roby Wong (epee) will represent the UDM women while freshman
Aaron Dittel (epee), sophomore
Jacob Theut (epee), freshman
Austin Carlisle (sabre), senior
Yaroslav Ivanov (foil), and senior
Elijah Robertson (foil) will represent the men.
Not everyone on every team advances to the NCAA Regionals. In order to fence in the regionals, individuals must have at least 21 bouts against varsity opponents throughout the year and also have a minimum winning percentage of 20% in those bouts. In order to advance to the NCAA Championships at Ohio State, fencers are chosen with 60% of consideration based on results from the Midwest Regional while the other 40% is based on varsity bouts during the season.
"There should be some absolutely fantastic fencing going on and if you're interested at all in fencing, it's going to be a great time," said UDM men's and women's fencing head coach
Todd Dressell who is also the commissioner of the Midwest Fencing Conference in which the Titans compete. "It's a big responsibility, this is our third time hosting it and we're looking forward to it."
This will be the third time the Titans have hosted the tournament with the other years in 2007-08 and again in 2000-01. The location of the event rotates every seven years among the different teams. Men's and women's varsity teams from Detroit, Notre Dame, Wayne State, Cleveland State, Ohio State, Lawrence and the women from Northwestern will all be at Calihan Hall on March 8.
"The regionals is perhaps the most important competition of the season because this is where you are going to figure out whether you go to nationals or not. For many fencers, this is going to be the highest amount of pressure and the toughest competition of the whole season."
The format for the tournament will feature pool rounds with individual bouts to five touches followed by the direct elimination rounds that will feature bouts to 15.
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