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Team USA Lineup Announced for Absolute Fencing Gear® Korfanty World Cup in Chicago, May 2-4

04/30/2014, 11:45pm CDT
By Nicole Jomantas

Daryl Homer placed in the top eight at the 2013 Absolute Fencing Gear Korfanty World Cup. Photo Credit: Ross Dettman

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – USA Fencing is pleased to announce the lineup of 59 U.S. athletes that will be competing at the Absolute Fencing Gear® Korfanty World Cup at the University of Illinois at Chicago from May 2-4.

Team USA is led by two-time Olympic Champion Mariel Zagunis (Beaverton, Ore.) and includes four members of the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team, five Senior World medalists and seven athletes who recently returned from the Junior World Championships where the United States won bronze in both the men’s and women’s saber events.

All events will be held at the UIC Flames Athletic Center and Physical Education Building, 839 W. Roosevelt Road. The tournament is free and open to the public with the competition schedule as follows (all times subject to change):

Friday, May 2
9 a.m.
Women’s Individual Pool Rounds and Preliminary Tables
1 p.m.
Men’s Individual Pool Rounds and Preliminary Tables

Saturday, May 3
9 a.m.
Women’s Individual Direct Elimination Table of 64 – Finals
1:30 p.m.
Men’s Individual Direct Elimination Table of 64 – Finals

Sunday, May 4
8:20 a.m.
Women’s Team Direct Elimination Table of 32 – Finals
Noon
Men’s Team Direct Elimination Table of 32 – Finals

Zagunis, who won silver at this event in 2012, has earned three individual medals on the World Cup circuit this season and is currently ranked No. 2 in the world. Among Zagunis’s teammates in Chicago are her three teammate who won bronze in the team competition at the 2013 Senior Worlds and gold at last year’s edition of the Absolute Fencing Gear® Korfanty World Cup. A Chicago native, Eliza Stone is ranked eighth in the world after winning bronze at the Moscow Grand Prix in March and the Dakar World Cup in February. London Olympian Dagmara Wozniak (Avenel, N.J.) has earned three top-eight results this season, including a bronze at the Gent World Cup in February while three-time Senior World Team member Ibtihaj Muhammad (Maplewood, N.J.) won bronze at the Moscow Grand Prix in March.

Three of the four members of the U.S. women’s saber team members that won bronze at the Junior Worlds earlier this month also will be fencing in Chicago. Sage Palmedo (Portland, Ore.), who won a silver in the individual event at Junior Worlds will be fencing in her seventh event this season and is looking to improve on her 16th place result at this tournament in 2013. Francesca Russo (Wayne, N.J.) had one of her best individual seasons this year with a silver medal at the Budapest Junior World Cup and her first top-16 result at the Gent Senior World Cup. Adrienne Jarocki (Middle Village, N.Y.), the reigning NCAA Champion, took most this season off from international competition, but the three-time Junior World medalist will be returning to her first individual event on the circuit in Chicago.

On the men’s side, 2012 Olympians Daryl Homer (Bronx, N.Y.) and Jeff Spear (Wynantskill, N.Y.) lead a 29-person U.S. squad. Homer placed sixth here in 2013 and is coming off a top-eight result in Athens last weekend while Spear has finished in the top 32 in three international events this season. Homer and Spear’s 2013 Senior World teammates, Aleksander Ochocki (Linden, N.J.) and Eli Dershwitz (Sherborn, Mass.) will be in action this weekend as well. Following knee surgery in the fall, this will be Ochocki’s first international tournament since Senior Worlds. Dershwitz hit a career high of No. 1 in the world in the junior rankings this season and anchored Team USA to a bronze medal at the Junior Worlds. All three of Dershwitz’s Junior World teammates will be fencing in Chicago as well, including Andrew Mackiewicz (Westwood, Mass.), Geoffrey Loss (Laguna Beach, Calif.) and Gabe Armijo (San Diego, Calif.)

The complete U.S. rosters are as follows:

Men’s Team
Vincent Argenzio (Revere, Mass.)
Gabriel Armijo (San Diego, Calif.)
Ameen Borojerdi (Plantation, Fla.)
Zackery Brown (Watchung, N.J.)
Eddie Chin (Livingston, N.J.)
Michael Costin (Culver City, Calif.)
Eli Dershwitz (Sherborn, Mass.)
Andrew Doddo (South Orange, N.J.)
Marcel Dolegiewicz (Park Ridge, Ill.)
Andrew Fischl (Huntington, N.Y.)
Jonathan Fitzgerald (East Brunswick, N.J.)
Rienzi Gokea (New York City, N.Y.)
Daryl Homer (New York, N.Y.)
Ben Igoe (Staten Island, N.Y.)
Thomas Kolasa (Princeton, N.J.)
Geoffrey Loss (Laguna Beach, Calif.)
Andrew Mackiewicz (Westwood, Mass.)
Benjamin Marcus (Overland Park, Kans.)
Christopher Monti (Cary, Ill.)
Benjamin Natanzon (Manalapan, N.J.)
Aleksander Ochocki (Linden, N.J.)
Evan Prochniak (Hudson, N.H.)
Bartosz Pukal (Natick, Mass.)
Jonah Shainberg (Rye, N.Y.)
Dawson Sieradzky (Wayne, N.J.)
Peter Souders (Silver Spring, Md.)
Jeff Spear (Wynantskill, N.Y.)
Will Spear (Wynantskill, N.Y.)
Marty Williams (Bridgepoint, Conn.)

Women’s Team
Rachel Aho (Wellesley, Mass.)
Monica Aksamit (Matawan, N.J.)
Mary Barnett (Lake Oswego, Ore.)
Maia Chamberlain (Menlo Park, Calif.)
Loweye Diedro (New York City, N.Y.)
Tara Hassett (Beaverton, Ore.)
Anastasia Ivanoff (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Adrienne Jarocki (Middle Village, N.J.)
Lena Johnson (Peachtree City, Ga.)
Emma Keehan (Chandler, Ariz.)
Sophie Keehan (Chandler, Ariz.)
Lauren Kim (Plano, Texas)
Claudia Kulmacz (Upper Saddle River, N.J.)
Marta Lasota (Silver Spring, Md.)
Celina Merza (Wayne, N.J.)
Sarah Merza (Wayne, N.J.)
Violet Michel (Cambridge, Mass.)
Faizah Muhammad (Maplewood, N.J.)
Ibtihaj Muhammad (Maplewood, N.J.)
Regina O’Brien (Wellesley Hills, Mass.)
Sage Palmedo (Portland, Ore.)
Francesca Russo (Wayne, N.J.)
Daria Schneider (New York City, N.Y.)
Eliza Stone (Chicago, Ill.)
Kamali Thompson (Teaneck, N.J.)
Arabella Uhry (New York City, N.Y.)
Jessica Whang (Westfield, N.J.)
Dagmara Wozniak (Avenel, N.J.)
Kimberly Young (Gilbert, Ariz.)
Avery Youngblood (Dallas, Texas)
Mariel Zagunis (Beaverton, Ore.)

Results will be updated live at www.usfencing.org

Tag(s): News  Eli Dershwitz  Daryl Homer  Ibtihaj Muhammad  Jeff Spear  Dagmara Wozniak  Mariel Zagunis  Eliza Stone  Andrew Mackiewicz