March 4, 2006

CLEVELAND - By Wojciech Dudek,
WSU Sports Information Student Assistant

Wayne State University junior Marek Petraszek (Gliwice, Poland) and sophomore Justyna Konczalska (Innsbruck, Austria) each won individual titles at the 2006 NCAA Midwest Regional Championship hosted by Cleveland State University. The competition was the last stepping-stone to qualify for the NCAA championships later this month.

Teams competing at the NCAA Regional could qualify no more than two fencers from each weapon category (epee, foil and sabre) per gender.

The Warrior fencing squads has five automatic qualifiers for the NCAA Championship to be held March 16-19 in Houston, Texas. Two other WSU fencers are under at-large consideration with their fate to be determined this Tuesday (March 7). There are two at-large spots for nationals in each weapon: two for men's epee, two for women's epee, etc.

Petraszek won the NCAA Midwest Regional epee title upsetting Notre Dame's Aaron Adjemian, 15-10, in the championship bout. Petraszek will go to the NCAA Championships looking for his first individual title. He might be joined at the NCAA's by sophomore Steve Znoy, who placed ninth overall to earn the Midwest Regional at-large bid in epee.

Petraszek had a 3-2 record in pool 2 competition and was +3 (23-20) in touches. He defeated Ohio State's Christian Rivera, 15-8, in the quarterfinals, Notre Dame's Karol Kostka, 15-13, in the semifinals before his triumph over Adjemian in the finals.

Znoy went 3-2 in round 1 (-1 in touches/20-21), before compiling a 2-3 mark (-4 in touches/16-20) in round 2 of pool 1. Znoy fell, 15-7, to Ohio State's Jason Pryor in the first bout of round 3.

In the men's sabre, Bobby Smith finished ninth to earn the Midwest Regional at-large bid. Smith went 2-4 in pool play (-6 in touches/18-24). After a 15-6 loss to Detroit's Jaroslaw Jelinek, Smith defeated Notre Dame's Nicolas Diacou 15-14. Junior Marshall McClendon finished 12th after compiling an 0-6 mark in pool play (-22 in touches/8-30).

In men's foil, senior Joe Langdorf placed 12th. He had a 2-3 mark in round one of pool play (+3 in touches/21-18), and an 0-5 record in round two of pool play (-20 in touches/5-25).