At the Elite Northwestern Duals over the weekend, the No. 3 Irish women went 10-1 and the No. 4 Irish men went 7-4 overall after two days of competition at Castellan Family Fencing Center.
The women finished with a 5-1 record on Saturday behind key performances from sophomore foilist Elyssa Kleiner, who posted an 11-1 record for Notre Dame on the day — including key wins over Princeton, Penn State and Temple — and sophomore epeeist and ACC Women’s Fencer of the Week Amanda Sirico, who posted a 10-2 record.
The men, meanwhile, lost to the four ranked teams they faced Saturday for a 2-4 record. Senior foilist Kristjan Archer had the best record of the Notre Dame men, going 6-2 on the day.
During Sunday’s competitions both teams hit their full stride, each going undefeated with matching 5-0 records. Sunday’s wins put the Irish women at 33-4 on the season, defending their No. 3 ranking with victories against Stanford, UC-San Diego and eighth-ranked Northwestern. The Irish men’s squad recovered from tough losses on Saturday to defeat No. 8 Stanford, 17-10, North Carolina, 23-4, and UC-San Diego, 18-9.
Kleiner outpaced her remarkable performance the day before with a 9-0 record Sunday, winning 3-0 against Northwestern. In sabre, junior Claudia Kulmacz also went undefeated on the day with five wins and no losses. Junior foilist Erin Dietsche’s 7-2 record Sunday also included her 100th career win.
On the men’s side in sabre, junior Jonah Shainberg finished with a 12-1 record, which included a 3-0 win over Stanford to lead the team. On the epee squad, sophomore Dylan French led the Irish with a 7-1 record, while fellow sophomore Darius Zacharakis went 5-0, including a 2-0 win versus Stanford. In foil, junior Virgile Collineau led with a 6-0 record.
The meet ended the team’s regular season and gave them momentum heading into their next competition, the ACC championships, at the end of February.
