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 Anna Garina became just the second woman in WSU athletic history to win a national individual title. |
March 26, 2004
Waltham, Mass. - Wayne State University sophomore epeeist Anna Garina (Kiev, Ukraine) has won the second national individual championship in WSU women's athletic history (Yasemin Topcu was the 1989 women's foil NCAA champion in fencing).
Garina finished the individual round-robin competition in first place with a 20-3 record. Kerry Walton of Notre Dame, the 2002 champion, was second with a 17-6 record. Last year's NCAA champion, Katarzyna Trzopek of Penn State, finished sixth.
The top four fencers advanced to the semifinals where Garina defeated the fourth seed, Anne Kercsmar of Duke, 15-12. In the title bout, Garina posted a 15-10 win over Walton.
Warrior junior Anna Vinnikov (Ma'alot, Israel) moved from 22nd place to 16th place after compiling a 6-3 record on Friday. Despite finishing with a 9-14 mark, Vinnikov was only outscored 90-83 in the 23 bouts.
The team standings are determined based on the individual finishes in the six categories (men's and women's epee, men's and women's foil, and men's and women's sabre).
After the completion of the three women's weapons, Wayne State is in 10th place with 29 points. Ohio State leads with 97 points and is followed by Notre Dame (96), Penn State (84) and Pennsylvania (68).
The men's competition begins on Saturday with 14 round-robin bouts in each weapon. The final nine round-robin bouts are scheduled for Sunday along with the gold medal bout. Participating for WSU will be Bobby Smith in the men's sabre along with Marek Petraszek and Wojciech Dudek in the men's epee.
