Ivy League in Evanston lll: Fencing starts tomorrow
The Ivy League is due to be held in Evanston, lll, starting 4 February. This event includes a variety of sports events.
The men’s and women’s fencing teams are to reach the venue on 5 February for their participation. 13 teams are expected to participate in the fencing event, namely Princeton, Ohio State, Wayne State, Detroit, Lawrence, Cleveland
State, Cal Tech, North Caroline, University of California San Diego, Stanford, Notre Dame, Temple and Northwestern.
The fencers hope to rehearse well for the upcoming 2011 Ivy Championship title, which is due to be held on 12 February. They face a busy weekend ahead as they need to practice hard in order to prove their calibre for the next week's
Championship.
Both the male and female teams of Princeton had won the last season's league and will be defending their title this season. These fencers are quite optimistic about the Northwestern duals and hope that the event will help the team’s
preparation for the NCAA Championship qualifiers.
According to the NCAA Championship rankings, the women are ranked fourth and men are ranked sixth, if Northwestern Duals are put into consideration.
The Princeton fencers have been busy these past two months,competing at the national leve in December and January. The fencers who did not participate in the nationals were kept busy in an intense training session during a week
of Intersession.
The Irish team, Notre Dame, is ranked as the top fencing team in the country for both men's and women's events. They are planning to maintain their status in this event too. The competition will be tough this time due to the absence
of one of their male fencers,Gerek Meinhardt. This junior star will not be appearing any of the competitions this year due to an injury. This 2008 Olympian is the NCAA Champion who fences in the discipline of foil.
In spite of the absence of such a strong contender, the Irish coach, Janusz Bednarski, did not seem much worried. He commented:
"We certainly have other fencers who can step up. It will be good to see some younger fencers get an opportunity."
The women's team should be emphasized more as they missed the last Championship, but they seem enthusiastic about the next week's Ivy Championship. They expect to face a tough competition ahead.
The next week will decide if the Irish dream of attaining the top spot turns into a reality or not.
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