March 14, 2005

Three Tar Heel fencers have qualified for the 2005 NCAA championship round after competing in the Mid-Atlantic South Fencing regional. They include sophomore epee fencer Courtney Krolikoski from Stratham, N.H., Benton Heimsath, a freshman epee fencer from Austin, Texas, and senior sabre fencer Wesley Newkirk from Charlotte, N.C.

This will be Krolikoski's second consectutive trip to the finals and Newkirk's fourth consecutive visit which equals former Tar Heel epee fencer Melanie Byrd's four trips to the NCAA championships in the 90's.

Heimsath qualified for the NCAA Championship round by virtue of capturing first place in the men's epee competition.

Rice University and the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority will host the championships at the George R. Brown Convention Center, March 17-20, in Houston, Texas.

The National Collegiate Men's and Women's Fencing Championships include individual events in each of the six weapons (women's foil, women's epee, women's sabre, men's foil, men's epee, men's sabre).

Fencers will compete in a round-robin of 24 fencers in five-touch bouts. After the round-robin, the top four fencers in each event will fence direct elimination 15-touch bouts for first, second, third and fourth place. Absolute ties for the seeding will be broken as follows: for positions one through three, by a coin toss; for position four, by a fence-off.

An institution's place finish in the championships will be based on points earned by each individual. A team will be awarded one point for each victory by its student-athletes for the duration of the championships.

Highlights of the National Collegiate Men's and Women's Fencing Championships will be shown on CBS at 1 p.m. Eastern time, Saturday, April 23. The seasonal show will feature highlights of 15 different NCAA championships that took place during the winter.