March 17, 2006

Houston, Texas - The Wayne State University women's fencing team finished in sixth place at the 2006 NCAA Championship being held at the JW Marriott Hotel in Houston, Texas. Rice University and the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority are co-hosting the championship.

Anna Garina (Kiev, Ukraine), the two-time defending national champion, had an 8-1 mark on Friday to complete the round-robin portion of the women's epee in first place with a 21-2 record. In the semifinals she defeated Ohio State's Kaela Brendler, 15-14. In the national title bout, Garina fell to Penn State's Katarzyna Trzopek, the 2003 NCAA Champion, 12-11, with the bout concluding due to time limit.

Also competing for the Warriors in women's epee was Justyna Konczalska (Innsbruck, Austria). She had a 7-2 record on Friday to finish the round-robin portion of the tournament in fourth place with a 17-6 mark. In the semifinals, Konczalska was edged, 15-14, by Trzopek. In the consolation bout, Konczalska lost 15-11 to Brendler.

Junior foilist Lindsey Howard (Goshen, Ind./Mishawaka) recorded two wins in nine bouts on Friday to finish in 19th place with a 7-16 record.

Kasia Kuzniak (Konin, Poland), WSU's lone fencer competing in the women's sabre, compiled a 7-2 mark on Friday to finish in 12th place with a 12-11 record. In Friday's round-robin five-touch bouts, Kuzniak defeated the 2004 Olympic champion, Mariel Zagunis from Notre Dame.

WSU's lone male competitor, Marek Petraszek (Gliwice, Poland), is looking to improve upon his national runner-up finish in 2005. Petraszek battled Notre Dame senior Michal Sobieraj to the wire before falling 15-13 in the national title bout in 2005. Petraszek was a Second Team All-American in 2004 after placing seventh at the NCAA Championship.

The NCAA Championship has each fencer competing in a round-robin of five-touch bouts with the other 23 fencers in that weapon. After the round-robin, the top four fencers in each weapon will fence direct elimination 15-touch bouts for first, second, third and fourth place. Absolute ties for the seeding will be broken as follows: for positions one through three, by a coin toss; for position four, by a fence-off.

An institution's finish in the championships will be based on points earned by each individual. A team will be awarded one point for each victory by its student-athletes for the duration of the championships.

The men's championship begins with round 1 of the foil and epee at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 18. Rounds 2-4 for both weapons follows at 11:30 a.m. with rounds 5-7 being contested on Sunday, March 19 beginning at 9 a.m. The men's epee final starts at noon.

WSU head coach Maestro Jerzy Radz has led his team to the national championships all 15 years recording four individual national champions and five team top-10 national finishes.