March 26, 2007

Madison, New Jersey - The UNC fencing team finished the 2007 National Championship round in 13th place with a combined 31 victories. Penn State University won its 10th National title scoring 194 victories. The other top five teams included St. John's University with 176, Columbia/Barnard with 169, Notre Dame with 160 and Ohio State won 144.

For the Tar Heels, Robert Ziechmann, fencing in the sabre competition, finished 16th overall with nine victories. Epee fencer Courtney Krolikoski had six victories and finished 23rd; sabre fencer Jennifer Sawicki finished 15th with nine victories while foil fencer May-Lynne Chen-Contino finished 22nd overall with seven victories.

UNC assistant fencing coach Josh Webb states that "all in all, the four fencers met our expectations and they probably exceeded our expectations. We figured to finish somewhere around 15th realistically. We would have loved to have made the top ten obviously, yet, to have them finish 13th overall was great especially with four fencers. We could have not asked for much more out of our athletes than we got."

Highlights of the men's and women's fencing championships, as well as other winter sports championships, will be shown on CBS at 1 p.m. Eastern time, Saturday, May 5. For results for the entire four day event, click here and link to fencing.