The Ohio State fencing team placed fifth at the NCAA Championships Sunday, with two of its fencers earning medals at the event in Durham, N.C.
Team scores at the competition combine both the men’s and women’s events. OSU picked up 121 total victories to finish fifth behind national champion Notre Dame (188), Princeton (175), Columbia/Barnard (156) and Harvard (134).
Paul Veltrup achieved the highest individual accolades, fighting his way to second place in men’s epée. After winning 16 of his 23 round-robin bouts, Veltrup defeated Long Island’s Mohamed Elsayed Saleh — who paced the field in round robin play with 19 victories — by a 14-10 margin to advance to the championship match.
There, Harvard’s Jonas Hansen bested him 15-10, but he still took home a silver for the Buckeyes.
Men’s saber fencer Jack Price also advanced to the semifinals of his event, but St. John’s Fares Ferjani. Price and Veltrup earned first-team All-American status for their efforts.
The best women’s finishers were Julieta Toledo in saber and Dasha Myorniuk, who placed seventh in saber and foil, respectively, to be second-team All-Americans. All-American honorable mentions on the men’s side included Edriss Ndiaye and Diego Cervantes, with Yeva Mazur earning the same honor on the women’s side.
Wahlund Name Specialist Of The Week
Ohio State men’s lacrosse senior goaltender Skylar Wahlund took home Big Ten Specialist of the Week honors for his performance against No. 6 Rutgers Saturday.
His play in net proved critical to the No. 19 Buckeyes’ upset victory over the Scarlet Knights, as he stopped 17 of the 24 shots that flew his way for a save percentage of .708.
Senior attacker Colby Smith picked up four goals in the contest to help Ohio State’s offense ensure the efforts of its goalkeeper did not go to waste. Seven other players accounted for the team’s other seven goals.
Following a 2-2 start to the game, a streak of five consecutive goals going into halftime gave OSU a lead it never came close to relinquishing. It used that 7-2 advantage as the springboard to an 11-7 victory.
Softball Takes Two Of Three Off Michigan
After losing a 3-1 10-inning slobberknocker to kick off Big Ten play against Michigan Sunday, the Buckeyes took both remaining games in their weekend tilt with the Wolverines to capture a series victory.
The first win was one of the team’s more dominant performances of the season, an 11-2 victory by run-rule that took just five innings, game two of a double-header Sunday. Junior pitcher Emily Ruck tossed five innings and allowed two runs, only one of them earned, with two strikeouts. Senior outfielder Meggie Otte and senior extra hitter Sam Hackbracht each tossed a home run beyond the outfield fence in Columbus and collected three RBI.
Monday’s contest proved a little more contested, as OSU scratched out an 8-7 victory over U-M. The Buckeyes jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first three innings, thanks in part to a two-run home run from sophomore outfielder Melina Wilkinson but a combined four runs for the Wolverines in the fourth and fifth innings made the contest tight again at 8-4.
Ruck surrendered three runs through two outs in the sixth, and it looked as though Michigan might take control of the contest, now within a run at 8-7. A pop out ended the frame.
Ruck was able to lock down the Wolverines in the seventh, however. Following a single by the opposition she struck out the next two batters on three pitches each and drew a groundout to end the game victoriously.
