The NCAA Midwest Regionals were rocky for Northwestern
Fencing was in action again at the Midwest Regionals: the penultimate meet of the NCAA circuit. Notre Dame, Ohio State, Wayne State, Denison, Cleveland State, Detroit Mercy and Lawrence University all had fencers in attendance Saturday.
Northwestern had defeated all of these opponents in head-to-head competition this season with the exception of Notre Dame. The ‘Cats were 0-2 against the Fighting Irish with Ohio State also taking a match against the ‘Cats for a 1-1 season series.
The Midwest Regionals, however, grouped all fencers together as they competed in pool play against one another. There would be no single-elimination tableau bracket, either. The épée and sabre contained two separate pool rounds, the first with three groups of seven. From there, 12 fencers moved on and duked it out in one final pool. The foil was simply one round-robin pool with all 16 competitors.
The sabre finished up first and all four ‘Cats moved on to the second round of pool play. First-year Natalie Shearer had Northwestern’s highest finish on the weekend, ending in fourth. She barely qualified for the second round of pool play, with an indicator of 0, good for fourth in her pool and 11th overall. She took off in the second round of pool play,
Shearer won eight of her 11 bouts, finishing with a plus-14 indicator, good for fourth overall. Her only losses came to teammate Megumi Oishi as well as Notre Dame’s Siobhan Sullivan and Ohio State’s Natalia Botello. Sullivan went on to win with Botello finishing second.
Fellow first-year Nisha Hild suffered the opposite fate to Shearer in the sabre, dominating in the first pool only to disappoint in the second. The Massachusetts native went a perfect 6-0 in the first pool, including wins against Shearer and Notre Dame’s Magda Skarbonkiewicz, an Olympian and two-time Junior World Champion. Hild struggled in the second round of pool play, however, finishing 5-6 with a -6 indicator, good for seventh.
Alex Chen one-upped Hild with a sixth-place finish, going 6-5 with a plus-5 indicator. Junior Megumi Oishi wrapped up NU’s squad with a ninth-place finish.
The women’s foil finished up next, with Notre Dame’s Ariadna Tucker Alarcon leading the way. NU fielded four fencers in this weapon, finishing from fifth to 11th.
First-year Yukari Takamizawa ended in fifth, going 10-5 in pool play. She did finish with an indicator of plus-28 however, higher than Ohio State’s Alina Lee, who finished third and went 11-4.
Northwestern had two other fencers make the top eight, with Daphne Chan Nok Sze in seventh and Juliana Hung in eighth. While Notre Dame’s three foilists were able to take three of the top four spots, both Chan and Takamizawa defeated fourth-place Rebeca Candescu, which could prove to be a crucial confidence booster as they are bound to encounter much more of Notre Dame in the matches to come.
Finally, senior Rowan Park rounded out the ‘Cats in 11th. Her performance, however, was no afterthought, as she nearly ran the gauntlet of a strong Ohio State squad, who were ranked No. 5 in the nation in the USFCA Midseason Coaches’ Poll. She defeated third-place Alina Lee 5-4 and defeated Ohio State’s Claire Teresa Galavotti. She also lost a narrow 5-4 ’bout to the Buckeyes’ Raiyan Moradi-Bidhendi.
The épée group was the last to finish Saturday, with Northwestern’s squad of four finishing from sixth to 13th. Leading the way was the veteran junior, Karen Wang. She went 4-2 in the first round of pool play, only losing 4-5 to both teammate Amanda Pirkowski and Notre Dame’s Felicity Sebastian. Wang went 6-5 in the next pool, notably losing to all three Notre Dame épéeists. Despite the positive overall record, her indicator was minus-3, the same as Pirkowski, who finished in seventh.
Pirkowski had a very similar day to Wang, with her only loss in the initial pool round also coming at the hands of Sebastian. The graduate student, who spent four years at Notre Dame, also fell to all three Fighting Irish competitors en route to a 5-6 overall finish.
Senior Hanna Lipthay was also in action in Granville, ending up in ninth after a 3-8 performance in pool play. Senior Athina Kwon ended just a few spots later in 13th. She was the first to miss qualifying for the second round of pool play after a couple of tough matchups left her at 2-4, on the outside looking in.
While there weren’t any dominating performances in the final standings, Northwestern still showed signs of greatness at times. Hild once again showed signs of dominance that fans had seen plenty of this season, especially during large NAC competitions, while Shearer and Chen both took down one of the nation’s best in Skarbonkiewicz.
Northwestern will undoubtedly need to build on its performance Saturday if it wants a shot at a deep run in the NCAA Championships March 22-23, but there have certainly been points of hope throughout a long season. After all, the ‘Cats were ranked No. 3 in the midseason poll, two spots up from their preseason spot. At their best, the ‘Cats can contend with nearly anyone. It’ll be up to them to see how far of a run fans will see from Zach Moss’ group.