March 2, 2006

Durham, NC -

Regional qualifiers from the UNC fencing team will travel to Duke University on Saturday as the Blue Devils will host the NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regionals for men's and women's fencing at the Sheffield Indoor Tennis Center.

There will be competitors from 14 schools who will be competing for a spot in the NCAA Championships. The competition will begin at 7:40 a.m. on Saturday, March 4, with the men's preliminary round. The men will compete first with the final round of direct elimination to begin at 2:20 p.m. The women will begin competition at 12:20 p.m. with the preliminary round and will finish competition with the final round of direct elimination beginning at 8 p.m.

Following the day's events there will be an awards ceremony for all weapons.

Directions to the event can be found on www.goduke.com under facilities and directions. Parking for the event will be available on Frank Bassett Drive.

UNC NCAA Qualifiers

Women's Foil

Kate Rebich, Meghan Morris, Detra Euland, Jessica Wacker

Women's Epee

Courtney Krolikoski , Sallie Lampron, Rachel Eschenbach , Ayca Guralp

Women's Sabre

Jennifer Clark, Jennifer Kling, Jennifer Ritchey

Men's Foil

Steve Piantadosi, Jamie Lawrence, Jamaal Green, Micah Prendergast

Men's Sabre

Travis Wherry, Will Randolph, Bobby Ziechmann

Men's Epee

Benton Heimsath , Alex Ferrer, Mike Burkhart , Benjamin Gellis

Coach Miller Comments on NCAA Regional:

"This is the sixth or seventh year we have worked under this format. The difference this year than last year is that there was a seat index which you earned through your entire season based on the strength of your schedule, the number of quality of fencers you fenced, the total number of bouts you fenced, etc. and the NCAA developed something called a seat index. Our fencers did very well in that because we fenced 14 or the top 15 teams and we ended up with four top seeds out of six weapons. In men's epee we had the top three and in men's sabre we had the top two. It was very good for us in terms of the seed; 40% of the decision for selection is based on this index so this gives us a very good chance.

On epectations:

"We have nine fencers based on the seeds that are in position that as long as they make the round of 16 and then do well following that they have a significant chance to be selected. Those that make the round of eight, especially if they are in those top seeds, are definitly in. So essentially they either have to win two or three direct elimination matches to be sure of qualifing, but even if they just make the round of 16 and don't fence maybe as well as they could they still have a chance for the national at large because their seat index is so high. So generally speaking, this is best position we have been in since this tournament format has been selected. The field sizes range from 30 to 37, then what's to happen is, to get to an even number of pools of six there will be a lead in round with some of the weapons. So it just kind of depends on the weapon as to how the lead-in rounds are going to work."

In the first round of pools the teams will be protected against each other. Once in the direct elimination it is very possible team members could be fencing each other. An average seven fencers per weapon and in some cases six. The NCAA at large births will be the next two fencers on points in the region after a combination of seed and the tournament.