Columbia University
NCAA Championships
Smith, Spear in Medal Contention after Strong First Day at NCAA Fencing
3/27/2010 7:00:00 PM | Fencing
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- After the first day of the men's competition at the 2010 NCAA Fencing Championships, Dwight Smith was in fourth place in the men's epee field after posting 10 victories on the day. Fellow senior Jeff Spear was in ninth place in men's sabre, but just two victories away from the top four finishers after day one.
After finishing second at the Northeast Regionals at Brown two weeks ago, Dwight Smith kept his string of fine fencing going on the first day of comepetition at Harvard.
Smith was one of three fencers to post 10 wins in 14 bouts during the men's epee competition. The Brooklyn native finished day one just two wins behind Marat Israelian of St. John's, who won 12 bouts on the first day and is currently alone in first place.
Smith is tied with Penn State's Nick Chinman and Viacheslav Zingerman of Wayne State with 10 wins apiece. Chinman is officially in second place with 14 indicators (combined margins of victory in each bout). Zingerman and Smith have eight indicators apiece but Zingerman, the three-time defending champion in epee, had more touches scored than Smith and officially sits in third place overall.
In a highly competitive men's sabre field, Jeff Spear won eight of 14 bouts on the first day of the tournament. Spear was one of three fencers to finish the day with eight wins. Two others have nine wins and three posted 10 victories.
A 2008 NCAA champion in men's sabre, Spear did post 5-2 victories over Penn State's Aleksander Ochocki (nine wins), last year's defending champion. Spear also posted a key win over Penn's Evan Prochniak, who also had eight wins on day one.
Both Smith and Spear are back in action on the final day of the 2010 NCAA Fencing Championships at Harvard. Fencing will begin at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, March 28 and there will be free streaming video online, courtesy of CollegeFencing360.com and CBS Sports.
NCAA M&W Fencing Championships (Day Three)
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Gordon Indoor Track, Harvard University
1. St. John's, 152; 2. Penn State, 150; 3. Notre Dame, 148; 4. Harvard, 113; 5. Princeton, 108; 6. Ohio State, 102; 7. Columbia, 86; 8. Penn, 59; 9. Northwestern, 53; 10. Stanford, 52; 11. Duke, 49; 12. Air Force, 42; 13. Temple, 38; 14. Yale, 32; 15. Wayne State, 27; 16. NYU, 20; 17. Cornell, 19; 18. UC San Diego, 18; 19. Boston College & Brown, 13; 21. North Carolina, 12; 22. Sacred Heart, 11; 23. Vassar, 6; 24. Brandeis, 5; 25. Haverford, 3; 26. Cal Tech, 1.
Individual Standings (top four and Columbia fencers)
Men's Sabre
1. Daryl Homer, St. John's
2. Daniel Pak, Penn State
3. Avery Zuck, Notre Dame
4. Valentin Staller, Harvard
9. Jeff Spear, Columbia
Men's Foil
1. David Wilette, Penn State
2. Nathaniel Botwinick, Yale
3. Gerek Meinhardt, Notre Dame
4. Miles Chamley-Watson, Penn State
Men's Epee
1. Marat Israelian, St. John's
2. Nick Chinman, Penn State
3. Viacheslav Zingerman, Wayne State
4. Dwight Smith, Columbia
Players Mentioned
