Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Head to Columbus For NCAA Midwest Regional
3/6/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Fencing
March 6, 2009
EVANSTON, Ill. -- After a successful individual performance at the Midwest Conference Championships this past weekend, Northwestern heads to Columbus, Ohio, to compete in the NCAA Midwest Regionals in the North Gym of the RPAC on the Ohio State University campus. The Wildcats are sending 12 fencers to the regionals, with head coach Laurie Schiller looking to improve on last season's results.
"We had a good individual performance at the conference championships this past weekend at Notre Dame, and hopefully that trend will continue this weekend," Schiller said. "Our goal is to qualify five or six girls for the NCAA championships in a couple of weeks, which I think is very doable."
Seventh-ranked Northwestern is sending four fencers from each weapon, led by senior Sam Nemecek (Caledonia, Mich./Caledonia), the conference's foil individual champion. Nemecek finished fourth at the 2008 Regionals, en route to being named a second-team All-American for the third straight year. She will be joined by foil teammates Meredith Baskies (Lynnfield, Mass./Boston University Academy) and freshmen Devynn Patterson (Seattle, Wash./Roosevelt) and Camille Provencal (St. Paul, Minn./Central).
Junior Christa French (Southlake, Texas/Carroll) looks to build upon her second-place regional finish from last season, where she posted a 9-1 record. The most experienced weapon on the 'Cat roster, she will be joined by senior Megan Ross (Pittsburgh, Pa./Fox Chapel Area) and juniors Kayley French (Southlake, Texas/Carroll) and Joanna Niklinska (Granger, Ind./Penn), all of whom competed in last season's regionals.
After an impressive showing at the conference championships last season, the sabre team looks to continue its impressive late-season performance. Senior Adrienne Shon (San Diego, Calif./Bishops School) finished ninth at the 2008 regionals, and will be joined by juniors Allie Keller (Concord, Mass./Concord-Carlisle Regional) and Whitney White (Wyckoff, N.J./Ramapo), both of whom competed last year. Sophomore Jill Mahen (Chester, N.J./Mendham) will be making her first trip to the regionals.
The Wildcats will meet up with a handful of familiar teams, including Notre Dame, Ohio State, Lawrence, Detroit-Mercy, Wayne State and Cleveland State. Each team can qualify up to 12 athletes, as the top 5 finishers in sabre and epee and the top 4 finishers in foil will receive auto-bids. In addition to the automatic bids, several at-large bids will also be available. At-large selection to the NCAA finals is based on pre-regional "power ranking" (40 percent) and Regional placement (60 percent).
Competition gets underway at 8 a.m. Central time. The 2009 NCAA Championships will be held March 19-22 at University Park, Pa.
