The Ohio State fencing team opened collegiate play this past weekend at the Notre Dame Duals, and battled to a 16-1 record and first-place tie with the host, the Fighting Irish. Two back-and-forth bouts between OSU and Notre Dame highlighted the weekend, with the men’s team winning 14-13. The Note Dame women topped OSU, 14-13.
“As a team we fenced very well,” said sophomore Mikhail Momtselidze, who led the No. 2 ranked men’s team to a perfect 9-0 record.
Momtselidze won all three of his matches against No. 5 Notre Dame in men’s sabre. Fellow sophomore Andras Horanyi also swept his bouts against the Irish, going 3-0 in men’s foil. But the match with the Irish wasn’t decided until the 27th and final bout, when sophomore Jason Pryor defeated Notre Dame’s Karol Kostka 5-4 to clinch the 14-13 victory.
“Notre Dame is our main rival because they are the strongest in our division,” Momtselidze said. “It’s always exciting fencing against them.”
The rivalry between the Buckeyes and the Irish has only intensified throughout the past few years, after Notre Dame erased a 24-point deficit to post a 173-171 victory against the Buckeyes, claiming the 2005 NCAA combined team championship.
The men faced only one other ranked opponent in the 10-team field, downing No. 8 Stanford, 20-7. They also posted shutout victories against Cal State Fullerton and Lawrence, 27-0. The men’s team finished at the top of the leaderboard with a 9-0 record, followed by Notre Dame (8-1) and Stanford (6-2).
The No. 6-ranked women’s team posted a 7-1 record against the nine-team field, placing them as runner-up behind the No. 4 Irish (8-0). The Buckeyes posted 26-1 victories over Cal State Fullerton, Cleveland State and Lawrence, as well as a 19-8 victory against No. 10 Stanford.
Against Notre Dame, the team was led by freshman Julia Tikhonova, who posted a 3-0 record in women’s foil. Juniors Eileen Grench and Siobhan Byrne, and senior Syvenna Siebert, all competing in women’s sabre, posted 2-1 records against the Irish.
“A lot of people stepped up to the plate and performed well, especially our younger fencers,” Grench said. “The Notre Dame bout was back-and-forth with a lot of emotion and pressure. Every year people say, ‘Who’s it going to be – Notre Dame or Ohio State?’ We both look strong.”
The performance was especially impressive, given the Buckeyes are without some of last year’s top fencers because of injury.
The team heads to New York this weekend to compete in the New York University Duals.
“We proved that we have a strong team,” Horanyi said. “We showed that if we fence well we have the ability to win NCAAs.”
Kevin Homan can be reached at [email protected].
