Results
 
CLEVELAND, Ohio (1/20/2014) -- The University of Detroit Mercy men's and women's fencing teams participated at the Cleveland State Duals on Saturday in the first meet of the season with six Titan fencers recording double-digit wins. Freshman Aaron Dittel of men's epee and junior Katie Lang of women's sabre led the way with 13 wins each.
 
Schools from Wayne State, Case Western, Vassar, Michigan, Florida, and the host Cleveland State were all in the competition. 
 
"This was a good competition for us. We can compete with these teams and we always want to build our confidence as we head towards the conference championship," said UDM men's and women's fencing head coach Todd Dressell.
 
Lang from the women's sabre squad led the women with 13 wins over three losses while senior Eva Berndt, also of women's sabre, had 12 victories and just two losses. Senior Paige Zmudczynski posted 10 wins for women's epee helping the women capture a pair of team wins.
 
Overall, the two team wins for the Detroit women came over Florida 15-12 and Case Western 19-8 but UDM fell to Vassar 17-10, Michigan 18-9, Wayne State 17-10, and a 14-13 decision to Cleveland State.
 
On the men's side, it was the freshman Dittel who had a strong showing with 13 wins over five losses in epee while senior Yaroslav Ivanov made his return to college fencing picking up 11 wins in foil. Sophomore Andrew Gibbons posted 10 wins in sabre while a trio of male fencers earned nine wins: Senior Elijah Robertson of foil, sophomore Zaahid Muhammad of sabre, and freshman Austin Carlisle of sabre all had nine wins and for each of them, it was their first collegiate team competition.
 
The men's team defeated Florida 22-5, Wayne State 16-11, Cleveland State 16-11, and Case Western 17-10 while falling to Vassar 17-10 and lost a close one to Michigan, 14-13.
 
The next event for Detroit fencing will be the annual home competition on Sat. Jan. 25 at Calihan Hall. Admission is FREE and the fencing starts at 9:00 a.m. ET.
 
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