March 15, 2006

Five members of the Wayne State University fencing teams will be participating in the 2006 NCAA Championships this Thursday through Sunday at the JW Marriott Hotel in Houston, Texas. Rice University and the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority will host the championships.

Anna Garina (Kiev, Ukraine), the only women's epeeist to have won back-to-back national titles in NCAA fencing history, will attempt to join Penn State's Olga Kalinovskaya (won four straight women's foil national titles 1993-94-95-96) and Notre Dame's Alicja Kryczalo (won three straight women's foil national titles 2002-03-04) as the only women to win three or more consecutive national titles in any weapon.

Garina had a 52-5 record in dual meets while winning the Penn State Open, the Michigan Open and the Midwest Fencing Conference Championship.

Also competing for the Warriors in women's epee will be Justyna Konczalska (Innsbruck, Austria), who defeated Garina in the finals at the NCAA Midwest Regional on March 4th at Cleveland State. Her father is currently the men's epee national coach for Canada. Konczalska had a 46-11 mark in dual meets, while placing fifth at the Penn State Open and second at the Michigan Open (to Garina).

Junior foilist Lindsey Howard (Goshen, Ind./Mishawaka) will be making her inaugural appearance at the NCAA Championships. She placed sixth at the NCAA Midwest Regional. Howard compiled a 46-19 record in dual meets, while placing first at the Michigan Open and sixth at the Midwest Fencing Conference Championship.

Kasia Kuzniak (Konin, Poland) will be the lone WSU fencer competing in the women's sabre. Kuzniak had a 49-13 mark in dual meets while placing second at the Penn State Open, first at the Michigan Open and fourth at the NCAA Midwest Regional.

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 championship begins with round 1 of the women's foil and women's epee at 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 16. Rounds 2-4 for both weapons follows at 11:30 a.m. The women's sabre starts with round 1 at 3 p.m. with the final three rounds starting at 4 p.m.

Women's foil and women's epee rounds 5-7 begins at 9 a.m. on Friday, March 17. The final four for both weapons, plus rounds 5-7 for the women's sabre is at 12:45 p.m. The women's sabre final four commences at 3:30 p.m.

The men's epee takes center stage at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 18 with round 1. Rounds 2-4 start 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 four 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.