After impressive performances at the regional championships at Boston College, two Brandeis fencers are up for at-large berths in the 2012 NCAA Collegiate Fencing Championships. Julian Cardillo ’14 is attempting to earn a second-straight appearance in men’s foil while Zoe Messinger ’13 is looking for her first appearance in women’s saber.
Cardillo, who placed 17th in foil competition at the 2011 championships, finished 10th at regionals this past weekend after entering competition as the seventh seed.
After going 3-3 in the opening pool, Cardillo qualified for the second round of play earning the last available spot. He finished the second round 4-2 moving on in ninth place, but posted a 3-7 record in the final round. Cardillo finished just ahead of Noah Berman ’15 who went 4-1 in the first round and 4-2 in the second round before struggling in the final round 2-8 to finish in 11th place.
Prior to last week’s competition, Messinger’s best performance at regionals was a 17th place finish last year. But this year, Messinger finished in 11th place. Messinger headed into regionals seeded 20th.
In the first round she went 4-2, advancing to the second round in the 16th spot where she went 3-3 edging two other fencers with the same record but with an even touch differential to claim the 12th and last spot in the final round.
In the final round, Messinger earned two points over fencers from St. John’s and Boston College to finish in 11th place.
Mike Zook ’13 had a sensational performance for the Judges in men’s epee. Zook replaced Alex Powell ’12 who was out with an illness. Zook competed in Powell’s place heading into tournament play as the 33rd seed. Zook went 3-1 in the first round and 3-3 in both the second and third rounds to claim the 19th out of 21 spots in the third round and the 11th out of 12 spots in the final round.
Zook went 4-7 in the final round with three of his wins coming against Ivy League competition from Harvard, Yale and Colombia to earn a 10th place finish. Unfortunately, Zook did not perform well enough in the regular season to merit consideration for an NCAA berth.
Two days after the regional tournament the at-large berths for the NCAA championships were announced. While Messinger was not selected, Cardillo will be headed to San Antonio, Texas, to compete in his second straight championship.
“I’m very pleased for Julian,” head coach Bill Shipman said in a Brandeis Athletics press release. “He didn’t necessarily fence his best at the regional championships, so I look forward to him returning to form at the NCAAs.”
The championships will take place March 23 to 26.
