Oct. 27, 2008

FAIRFIELD, CT - Freshman sabre fencer Marty Williams (Plainfield, NJ/St Benedicts HS) kicked off his international competition season with a third place finish at the Sabre Junior World Cup Competition in Montreal, Canada on Saturday.

In a field that included competitors from five countries and the top 12 US junior sabreists, Williams seeded 11th in a field of 38 following the preliminary seeding round of competition. He defeated Peter Saunders of the United States 15-7 in the round of 16 and Joseph Polossifakis of Canada 15-11 in the quarterfinals before losing to Barron Nydam of the USA 15-13 in the Semi-finals. With this result, Williams is now ranked 22nd in the world in junior mens sabre (fencers 19 and under). This was Williams' first competition since he won the US Junior National Sabre Championship in July.

"We are very pleased with Marty's performance in Montreal," commented head fencing Coach Dr. Thomas Vrabel. "Marty is a very hard worker and the conditioning and weight training regimen that he is doing in addition to his activity in practice has him in fantastic shape."

"He is one of the top young athletes in international fencing and I see this results as an indicator of what we can expect from him this season," Vrabel continued. "This performance is even more remarkable considering that Marty did not compete in the first Junior World Cup in Poland, so he was going up against a field that already had experience on the World Cup circuit this fall. He plans on catching up by competing at two World Cup events over the Intersession break."

Williams, who is currently ranked 18th in the US senior and 7th in US junior point standings, will see his Junior ranking rise noticeably after this result is added to the US ranking calculations.

"This is obviously the greatest competitive result for any Sacred Heart fencer," said Vrabel. "We are very fortunate to have Marty in the program not just for his athletic ability but for his leadership qualities. He is the first freshman squad captain ever appointed on the team and his leadership and experience are a great asset to the other fencers. We expect Marty to continue to improve during the season and he is a strong contender for both first team All American status and membership on the 2009 United States Junior World Championships sabre team."

In domestic action this past weekend, team captain sophomore Sean McGeveren (Brentwood, NY/Brentwood HS) placed seventh in a strong field of 42 epee fencers at the New York City Epee Grand Prix Tournament in Manhattan on Sunday.

At the Pumpkin Stab Open tournament in Danbury on Sunday, sophomore and foil squad captain Jim Roberts (North Haven, CT/North Haven HS) placed second and junior Nick Bentley (East Lyme, CT/East Lyme HS) placed fifth in the foil competition. In epee, freshmen Justin Dion (North Attleboro, MA/Bishop Feehan HS) placed second and sophomore Nate Quigley (Florence, MA - Northampton HS) took seventh.

"It was great to see so many fencers have success in USFA competitions this past weekend," said Vrabel. "This experience will put us great shape to be ready to start the season on Saturday."

Both the Mens and Womens Fencing Teams will be in action next Saturday at the "Big One" collegiate tournament at Smith College.