Northwestern University Athletics
Five Wildcats Earn Berth to NCAA Championships
3/19/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Fencing
March 19, 2004
EVANSTON, Ill.--Northwestern's sixth-ranked women's fencing team will be sending five of its own to the NCAA Championships, held March 25-28 at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., the NCAA announced.
"I am very pleased we were able to get five bids to the tournament," said head coach Laurie Schiller. "These fencers have had great success all year, and I think they will continue that trend and perform well next week."
Leading the pack are two fencers who also qualified last year--epeeist Sharon Sullivan (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) and foilist Julia F?ldi (Budapest, Hungary/Szent Istavan Gimnazium). Both led their squads with records of 64-20 and 100-9, respectively, and both took fourth place in last week's Midwest Regional Championships.
An alternate last year, sabreist Lauren Van Gieson (Wayne, N.J./Wayne Valley) will be competing for the first time. The junior had her squad's best showing last week by taking seventh; Van Gieson will be joined by squadmate Mai Vu (New York, N.Y./Bronx Science), who had a tremendous season in just her first year at NU.
Rounding out the group is freshman foilist Jessica Florendo (Forest Hills, N.Y./The Dwight School), who paced all Wildcat fencers with her second-place performance at the Regional Championships.
Seeds and draws have not yet been determined.
