INDIANAPOLIS (3/24/2017) -- University of Detroit Mercy sophomore
Algird Szumlas (Glendora, Calif.) finished competition at the 2017 NCAA Fencing National Championship on Friday, placing 23rd in the men's foil. Szumlas fenced in his final eight bouts, earning two more wins, during the final two rounds of competition from the Indiana Farmers Coliseum on Friday.
Szumlas earned his second victory in the finals -- a 5-0 triumph -- over NJIT's Simon Rivell before closing out his championship with a 3-2 win over Aiden Ahn of Yale. Szumlas earned a 5-1 victory on Thursday over Stanford's Darren Mei.
Overall, he finished with a record of 3-20 during the national finals, going head-to-head with the top collegiate men's foilists across the nation. He scored 51 touches while receiving 102 touches during the tournament for a -51 indicator.
"I had about three or four bouts that I could have easily switched and they could have gone the other way." Szumlas said following Friday's bouts. "With those, I would have had seven or eight wins instead of three. The margin of error at these finals was really small. I knew it was going to be a daunting.
"I was right about where I expected. I knew I wasn't going to shine. During the season, I'm at a 75 or 80-percent win rate and I come here and I'm about 5 or 10-percent, but it was a lot of fun. Even though I was losing, everything I'm doing, it felt right. Every single touch was hard fought."
Detroit Mercy was one of 20 schools across the nation to field a men's fencer at the NCAA Championship.
"We are happy with his fencing, he fenced hard the whole time," Titan head coach
Todd Dressell said. "We are glad to be here, it was a great experience."
Szumlas was the first Titan to compete in the national finals since former Titan Michael Purdy-Sachs represented the red, white and blue in 2011.
On the season, the sophomore foilist finished with a record of 61-34. He medaled at the Midwest Fencing Conference Championship individually and also helped lead the Titans to a third-place finish, their best finish in program history at the conference championship.
Stay tuned to a journal of the NCAA Championship experience, penned by Szumlas during his NCAA Championship run.
