Northwestern University Athletics
Fencing Announces Signees to National Letters of Intent
11/15/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Fencing
Nov. 15, 2004
EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern Head Coach Laurie Schiller announced the signing of four future Wildcats to National Letters of Intent. Sophia Long, Samantha Nemecek, Adrienne Shon, Megan Ross will join the Wildcats next season as a member of the class set to graduate from NU in 2009.
Sophia Long is from Paradise Valley, Ariz. and attended Phoenix Country Day School. She fences for the Phoenix Falcons Fencing Club and has been fencing epee for two years. She is now ranked 29th on the USFA junior epee point list after finishing 27th at the Louisville World Cup. In April 2004 she was the Rocky Mountain Sectional Champion in Under 20 women's epee and went on to take 35th place in the USFA 2004 Summer Nationals in Division IA women's epee.
"We are very pleased to have Sophia sign with Northwestern. She is an up and coming epeeist with a lot of potential that she is just beginning to show. She hasn't had a great deal of exposure outside of Arizona, which is not a strong fencing region, and we expect her to develop quickly when she joins our program. Her current coach, Skip Shurtz, is a former USA Olympian and has done an excellent job of preparing her for higher things." Schiller said.
Samantha Nemecek is from Alto, Mich. and attended Caledonia High School. She fences for the Western Michigan Fencing Club and her dad, Mike, was her coach. Sam is the number-two ranked fencer on the US junior women's foil list and currently ranked 20th in the World Junior foil list. She placed third at the Nov. 7 Junior World Cup in Louisville, KY and 15th at the Junior World Cup at Bratislava, Slovakia, in October 2004.
"Sam is the strongest foil fencer coming out of high school this year and will be a fantastic addition to our program. She is a great young person and athlete and we can't wait to work with her. We know that she is going to have an exemplary college career," Schiller said.
Adrienne Shon is from San Diego, Calif. and attended The Bishops School. She fences for Spartak club in San Diego. Adrienne has been fencing sabre for three years and in the past year rapidly moved from a D to a B classification. In the 2003-4 season she was ranked 36th on the US fencing Association cadet (under 17) list. In addition, she placed first overall at the Pacific Coast Section junior circuit. She also came in first in the sabre competition at the Southern California Scholastic fencing league. She placed sixth at the Division II Women's Sabre and took third Division III Women's Sabre.
"We are very pleased to have Adrienne join our team and give us some additional depth. We will be losing two of our mainstays this year, Lauren Dunn and Lauren Van Gieson, and Adrienne will help us to fill those substantial holes in our line up," Schiller said.
Megan Ross is from Pittsburgh, Penn. and attended Fox Chapel High School. In addition to taking private lessons, Megan fences for Fox Chapel which placed second in the Western Pennsylvania high school championships. Megan had a record of 119-39 (75.3 %) and was ranked fourth in her conference. In the USFA, she is ranked 23rd on the junior women's epee point list after finishing 19th at the Junior World Cup in Louisville, Ky. At USFA Summer Nationals in July 2004 held in Charlotte, NC, she placed 19th in the under 19 women's epee. In March, 2004 in Arlington, TX, she placed 7th at the Division II Women's Epee.
"Megan is a strong, tough epee fencer who has great potential and is developing rapidly. At the Louisville Cup she nearly beat the Ohio State fencer who ended up placing 3rd. She is an impressive fencer and will most definitely help our team," Schiller said.
