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 Senior Justyna Konczalska defeated last year's national runner-up Kelley Hurley. |
March 13, 2008
Columbus, Ohio - The Wayne State University women's fencing team is in 10th place after the first day of the 2008 NCAA Championship being hosted by The Ohio State University.
The Warriors won 21 bouts (14 in sabre and seven in epee). OSU leads with 62 and is followed by Notre Dame (60), Columbia (49), St. John's (45), Penn State (43), Harvard (37), Temple (26), Northwestern (24) and Penn (23).
Behind WSU are Cornell (19), UC-San Diego (17), Stanford (14), New York University (12), Princeton (10), North Carolina (9), Brown (7), Haverford (7), Brandeis (5), Duke (5), MIT (4), Yale (3) and Sacred Heart (2).
Wayne State was led on day one by freshman Karolina Budna. She won 12 bouts and is +35 in touches (66-31) after the first four rounds to sit in third place. One of her two losses was a 5-4 setback to OSU's Siobhan Byrne, the current leader in the women's sabre.
Sophomore Ann Bartoszewicz had a 2-12 mark on Thursday in the women's sabre with three of her losses coming by a 5-4 score.
WSU senior Justyna Konczalska compiled a 7-7 record on Thursday with four losses by a 5-4 score. She is currently 11th but is only two victories from the top four and a berth in the semifinals. Konczalska defeated Notre Dame's Kelley Hurley, 5-3, but fell 5-4 to UND's Ewa Nelip, the day one leader.
The final three rounds will be fenced on Friday starting at 9:30 a.m. After round seven is completed, the six semifinal bouts (two per weapon) will be fenced simultaneously. These bouts will be followed, after a ten-minute break, by the three third-place bouts.
At 2:30 p.m. on Friday, the three first-place bouts will be fenced on one strip in the order of sabre, foil and then epee. The women's individual awards presentation will be immediately following the finals.
Men's fencing will take place on Saturday and Sunday.
