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 Slava Zingerman is WSU's first male fencer to win an NCAA title since 1996. |
March 23, 2007
Madison, N.J. - Wayne State freshman epeeist Slava Zingerman defeated teammate Marek Petraszek, 15-8, in the semifinals, and then edged top-seeded Benjamin Bratton of St. John's 15-13 to become an NCAA champion.
Zingerman (Ashkelon, Israel) won seven of his nine bouts during Friday's round-robin to earn the No. 2 seed for the semifinals, while senior Marek Petraszek (Gliwice, Poland) won six bouts this morning to earn the No. 3 seed.
In the semifinal bout between the Warriors, Zingerman prevailed 15-8. Petraszek claimed third place with a 14-12 triumph over Columbia's Dwight Smith. In the gold medal national championship bout, Zingerman defeated top-seeded Benjamin Bratton, a senior at St. John's, 15-13.
Zingerman becomes the first WSU male fencer to be a national champion since Thorstein Becker won the foil in 1996, and the first in the epee (sixth male epeeist ever) since WSU Hall of Famer Harald Bauder in 1992. This marks the 22nd individual national champion for WSU men's fencing.
As a team Wayne State is 10th after the men's competition with 33 points. Columbia leads with 93 and is followed by Penn State (89), Notre Dame (85), Ohio State and St. John's (82), Penn (64), Harvard (62), Stanford (37), and Rutgers (35).
Wayne State has four female fencers that begin competing on Saturday including senior Anna Garina (Kiev, Ukraine), who was the national champion in the women's epee in both 2004 and 2005, and was runner-up in 2006. Joining Garina in the epee is junior Justyna Konczalska (Innsbruck, Austria). Competing in the sabre for WSU will be Kasia Kuzniak (Konin, Poland) and Ann Bartoszewicz (Macomb, Mich./Eisenhower).
