MFC Championship Central
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SOUTH BEND, Ind.  (3/4/2013) -- The Midwest Fencing Conference Championships took place at the Castellan Family Fencing Center at Notre Dame on Saturday and Sunday and the University of Detroit Mercy sent both its men's and women's varsity fencing teams to compete this weekend.
 
The two-day event consisted of individual fencing on Saturday followed by team fencing on Sunday.
 
On Saturday, the top individual finish for Detroit came from the women's sabre team as junior Eva Berndt finished 18th overall in her weapon. She started the day 4-1 in pool play and was seeded 15th headed into the first direct elimination (DE) in the round of 32. She would win a 15-5 decision before falling in the round of 16. The entire women's sabre team hovered around the top 30 as Shannon Canavan placed 24th overall and Katie Lang was 32nd of 59 sabre fencers.
 
Women's epee saw three Titan fencers finish within seven places as Paige Zmudczynski came in 38th while Kaylah Berndt was 41st and Lauren Snarski placed 44th.
 
The men's side featured freshman Andrew Gibbons of the men's sabre squad leading the way as he came in 20th overall out of 76 sabre fencers. Gibbons went 5-1 in the early pool rounds and won 15-2 in the round of 32 in the DE round but would not advance past the table of 16. Frank Adamini, also from the men's sabre team, placed 41st.
 
The men's epee team led by Clint Mikek performed well in a group of 84 epee fencers. Mikek came in 36th after a 4-2 pool round and fell in a narrow 15-9 decision in the round of 32. Jacob Theut tied for 39th and Brock Bendes was 42nd.
 
The second day of competition was the team portion and the UDM men's epee team performed extremely well for the Titans jumping from a 16th seed and finishing in the 10th spot. Detroit started with a 5-3 win over Chicago before falling to Ohio State. Back-to-back wins over Illinois and Bowling Green put the Titans in a position to fence for the 9th place position against Wayne State. The Detroit rival edged UDM with a 5-4 win to take 9th place and put the Titans in 10th. Senior Mikek was the second-best Titan men's epee fencer on day two with a 7-7 record as freshman Theut had a stellar 8-4 mark in competition. Fellow freshman Bendes also fenced well with a 4-6 record.
 
“Our men's epee team really did outstanding and they performed better than they have in the past for us,” said UDM men's and women's fencing head coach Todd Dressell. “I could not be more proud of those guys.”
 
The women's sabre team was a bright spot placing sixth overall. The women's epee team also had a good day led by Kaylah Berndt who finished with a 4-4 overall record as that squad placed 12th overall.
 
Overall, the men's fencing team finished 15th overall with 330 points while the women's team cracked the top 10 tying for 9th place and 440 points.
 
This meet ends the team portion of the 2013 season and a small group of UDM fencers will head to the NCAA Midwest Regionals March 9-10 that will also be hosted by Notre Dame.