(Full Results)

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Junior Michael Purdy-Sachs (Port Huron, MI/Port Huron Northern & Ind. Studies) and freshman Yaroslav Ivanov (Louisville, KY/Ballard) both earned All-Conference accolades as the men's and women's fencing teams were at Notre Dame for the Midwest Conference Fencing Championships this weekend.

Purdy-Sachs was named to the Midwest Conference's second team finishing fifth overall individually and Ivanov finished 10th taking home honorable mention honors as both helped the men's foil squad to a third place team finish.

The two-day event saw Detroit's men's foil team fence their way to some hardware in preparation for NCAA Regional Qualifier March 12-13. Yesterday featured individual bouts while today's contest featured the team bouts.

Purdy-Sachs went down 4-9 after the first round of individual action and fell behind 6-12 after the second round. In the third round, he made a run scoring seven straight touches to go ahead 13-12 but would lose a tough draw, 15-13 to finish in his fifth place position out of 73 total participants.

The men's foil team as a whole walked away with a third place trophy in today's competition after being seeded in fourth after yesterday's individual bouts. The team beat both Cleveland State and Michigan State 5-4, was swept by Notre Dame 5-0, and finished off the day topping Northwestern 5-2 en route to that third place finish and some hardware for the trophy case.

“Two years ago we also had a third place finish but this was definitely a tougher road. Notre Dame is unbelievably strong and Northwestern has a tricky foil squad, but we went in there and won what we needed to do,” said Titan fencing head coach Todd Dressell.

Other men's foil action saw Ivanov saw senior Brad Coon (Jenison, MI/Hudsonville) place 33rd and freshman Kyle Cisco (Brownstown Twp., MI/Oscar Carlson) finish in a tie for 70th.

Detroit's men's epee squad of senior Tim Nelson (Riverview, MI/Gabriel Richard), junior Elliott Trombley (Pleasant Ridge, MI/Ferndale), freshman Cole Goike (Ray Twp., MI/Romeo), and sophomore Clint Mikek (St. Louis. MI/St. Louis) saw Goike finish with the best individual results from yesterday. He placed 41st place followed closely by Nelson (43rd), Trombley (69th), and Mikek (71st).

In team competition today, men's epee was seeded 18th and began with an “extraordinarily tough” 5-3 loss against an Xavier team the Titans felt they had the upper hand against prior to the match-up. The loss pushed Detroit to a match with Minnesota which Detroit won 5-3 before finishing the day dropping a 5-4 decision to Iowa and a 17th place finish.

The men's sabre team of senior Tom Lorenzo (Avon, OH/St. Ignatius) and freshmen Logan Clements (Swartz Creek, MI/Swartz Creek) and Maxwell Trombly (Pearl Beach, MI/Algonac) finished in 11th place in team competition after beginning the day seeded in 15th position. The sabre team started out with a 5-0 loss against Ohio State before beating Chicago 5-4. A 5-2 loss to Wisconsin brought the day's final match-up against Minnesota and Detroit arose victorious and with a 5-1 decision.

Lorenzo topped the Sabre squad with a 23rd place finish followed by Trombly at 43rd and Clements at 47th in yesterday's individual match-ups.

“The men's sabre team did a good job today and they fenced well for us,” commented Dressell.

The women's sabre team saw freshmen Eva Berndt (Fremont, MI/Providence Christian) and Ariel Skellet (Flint, MI/Powers Catholic) battle to a 9th place finish after being seeded 11th to start the day. The sabre squad finished the day with three straight wins after an opening round loss topping Indiana 5-3, Case Western 5-4, and finally Purdue by a 5-2 margin to earn that 9th place result. Berndt had the best individual total among all the Titan women with a 38th place finish and Skellet placed 53rd.

The women's foil squad of freshmen Sarah Armitage (Canton, MI/Plymouth) and Shannon Canavan (Lake Orion, MI/Lake Orion) placed 50th and 52nd respectively in individual bouts and women's epee, consisting of Paige Zmudczynski (Fraser, MI/Dakota) and Mary Takle (Sterling Heights, MI/Henry Ford II), finished 50th and 52nd respectively. In team competition, each team registered one win with foil beating Oberlin by a 4-3 score and epee topping Bowling Green 5-1.

“We have a busy week getting ahead of us getting ready for regional qualifier. I hope that our team will use the time to get ready. I'm hoping today was a good spring board for everyone to fence well at the qualifier,” added Dressell.

Next up for the Titans will be the NCAA Regional Qualifier on March 12-13 to be held at Wayne State. Results from yesterday and today's conference championships will determine who will advance to next week qualifiers. Keep checking DetroitTitans.com to see who on Detroit's fencing teams will be headed to the qualifiers.