Members of the St. John’s fencing teams will compete at the 2007 NCAA Championships, Thursday, March 22 through Sunday, March 25, hosted by Drew University. The men’s rounds will conclude on Friday afternoon, while the women will finish on Sunday.

The Red Storm qualified the maximum amount of athletes, 12, permitted for the NCAA Championships during Regionals, March 11. St. John’s was one of only three programs to accomplish the feat and earned the right to take its best fencers from each weapon.

NCAA Championship seeding was based upon Regional performance and St. John’s earned five No. 1 spots between the men’s and women’s teams. Women’s captain and foil fencer Monika Golebiewski, sabre fencer Olya Ovtchinnikova and epee fencer Tanya Novakovska will all head into the NCAA Championships as No. 1 seeds, while both sophomore Stanley Vaksman and senior Henry Kennard locked up the No. 1 spot for the men.

Also competing for the women will be No. 2 seed Dagmara Wozniak, who is ranked as the No. 1 Junior Women’s Sabre fencer in the world, and No. 3 seed Reka Szele, who fences with the epee. Katia Larchanka earned All-America honors a year ago and is the No. 4 seed in the women’s foil.

The men’s team will be represented by senior co-captain Ben Bratton, newcomer Alexis Landerville and sabre fencers Luther Clement and Torian Brown. Bratton secured a No. 2 spot in the men’s epee while Landerville will be the No. 3 seed in the men’s foil. Clement and Brown own the No. 4 and No. 5 spots, respectively.

For the most up-to-date information from the NCAA Championships please visit www.ncaa.org or www.RedStormSports.com.