North Carolina
Penn State Open (Men)
UNC's Le Guillou Takes Men's Epee At Garrett Open
November 23, 2009 | Fencing
Nov. 23, 2009
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - North Carolina's Thomas Le Guillou, a junior exchange student from France, won the men's epee competition Sunday at the Garrett Open, providing the highlight of what proved to be a successful weekend for the UNC fencing team.
"Thomas Le Guillou's number one finish in epee gives us much to celebrate," Carolina coach Ron Miller said. "His consistency and focus were extraordinary. This was a tough field and his road was not easy - he competed exceptionally well and showed a lot of class."
Le Guillou's first-place finish was best for UNC at the Garrett Open since Craig Peterson won the same event in the late 1990s and marked Carolina's fifth individual championship overall. Held at Penn State's White Building, the 2009 Garrett Open included a strong field with fencers from Notre Dame, Ohio State, Princeton, Yale, Temple, Northwestern, Harvard, Duke, Fairleigh Dickinson, Drew, UNC and host Penn State. The women competed on Saturday and men on Sunday.
ehind Le Guillou's first-place finish, Eric Hsieh took 19th, Jarrett Rodrigues 38th and Jay Goss 49th in the epee field of 58, 62 percent of which was A" level or above.
In men's sabre, UNC Kevin Ziechmann was 19th, David Winer 22nd, Seth Crabtree 37th and Mark Waddle 40th of 42 competitors.
In men's foil, Joseph Alter was 30th, David Skwerer 33rd, Caleb Pardue 42nd, Kevin Nadeau 43rd and Andrew Wright 45th.
"The team performance from the men's perspective was slightly better than expected," Miller said. "All returning starters had finishes at or above their seeds in the competitions, with the exception of one fencer in foil."
In the women's competition on Saturday, Melissa Litschi took 36th, Annie Moran 49th and Brittany Bennett 50th overall in the women's epee field of 54.
In women's foil, May-Lynne Chen-Contino was 28th and Kaitlin Williamson was 47th of 56.
In women's sabre, senior Jennifer Sawicki finished 17th, with Sara Leung 35th and Lily Fu 40th in a field of 45.
"On the women's side, Jen Sawicki's finish was the highlight," Miller said. "She missed advancing to the DE round by one touch. May-Lynne Chen-Contino missed advancing to the third round of competition also by mere indicators. The women's team performed at or near their seeds."
The early-season event gave all the UNC fencers, especially the younger and less-experienced ones, the chance to test themselves against a highly-competitive field. "In both men's and women's weapons we had several walk-on athletes that had an opportunity for their first high-level experience," Miller said. "I was pleased with their performance.
"All in all, this was a good competition at this point in our season, and a good jumping-off point for a more difficult dual meet competition coming in the next two weekends."
UNC has two dual meets before the end of 2009. The Tar Heels will travel to the Harvard Dual Meets in Cambridge, Mass., on Nov. 29 and to the New England Dual Meets in Waltham, Mass., on Dec. 6.
Players Mentioned
