Emmanuil Kaidanov (pictured below) – who just completed his 27th season as head fencing coach at Penn State – sat down with CF360 editor Pete LaFleur to reflect on his program's 11th NCAA combined team title, spanning the past 20 years.
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CF360: "How does this championship compare to the other 10?"
EK: "Every championship is unique. To win this championship is the same feeling as to win the very first one. It is a great feeling of accomplishment, happiness for the kids that achieved the pinnacle of their desire. And also, four individual champions – it's unbelievably great. Practically everybody that fenced in the final won gold medal. I don't think it's possible to repeat [that feat], at least not probably in my lifetime.
"It's a great, great feeling of achieving something really big. And, besides, the number of victories [195] is repetition of our best record. The second[-best] result was shared with Ohio State – 194 victories. But we repeated our victories with 195 at the championships.
"I thought we could do better this year, after the men finished with 98 victories. We were close to that – but, that's sport."
The 2009 NCAA champions (photo by Pete LaFleur/CF360)
CF360: "Discuss Nick Chinman winning the men's foil competition."
EK: "Nick generally is a very creative fencer. He would get some ideas in general how to build a bout, and he develops is very nicely. He has a mind of his own and is capable of executing a lot of technical things, so his victory is no surprise to me – but the way he got to this victory was difficult, probably. First, he was behind 11-15 [in the semifinals] to his teammate, Miles Chamley-Watson, and he pulled it through. Second, [in the final] he was 6-11 behind [Notre Dame's Gerek] Meinhardt, and to pull bout from Meinhardt like that – it's just great.
"With Nick, the most important thing is not to be in his way, try to help him with what he has, try to help him understand more about himself – and that's what I'm trying to do, to give him knowledge about who Nick Chinman is. And it helps."
Chinman (far left) and Chamley-Watson are set to return in 2010 (photo by Pete LaFleur/CF360)
CF360: "Your other men's weapon title came in sabre – and again you had a pair of fencers in that medal round, with Alek Ochocki and Daniel Bak."
EK: "Alek had a series of injuries throughout the season, including a broken bone in his shoulder. So he practically was not really trained for the championships and we were very much concerned about his ability to perform, considering how little ability he has left after the [shoulder] operation. However, he and Daniel have something which makes them so great. They have passion and passion owns the world. They are incredible competitors and that compensates a lot of things. Those guys are so strong – the sky's the limit."
The spirited sabre duo of Alek Ochocki (far left) and Daniel Bak (photo by Pete LaFleur/CF360)
CF360: "You will be losing a valuable leader in men's epeeist Jimmy Moody."
EK: "First of all, we are not 'losing' him. We have a kind of philosophy that you are with us forever. We will not have him in our ranks to compete, but he will be always with us. On his example, we can develop other fencers, young fencers. Jimmy is extremely valuable for the team, he is a team captain. He is a very important person. Someone will have to step in and replace him next year. We have a bunch of good fencers who are quite capable and who have the desire to become new starting members of our team. So we are looking forward to that."
CF360: "Doris Willette won the NCAA foil title as a freshman, fenced with the '08 Olympic team, and then came back to win again this year. But she had to overcome a rough start at the NCAs, correct?"
EK: "Doris's start was quite rocky and, for a moment, there was even doubts if she could make top-4. Second day, she fenced flawlessly, finishing 9-0, and she got through to the top-4. After she made top-4, her desire to win was so great. That really led her to a tremendous victory over Emily Cross, who is a terrific fencer, the best fencer in the women foil that we [the U.S.] has ever had – at least in my memory, the last 30 years. In the final, she had an opponent [ND's Hayley Reese] who beat her twice this year; however, it was kind of connected to knowledge for Doris – how to approach the bout, how to win it, and she did.
"Fencing is a fight not only of technique and athletic abilities, but also mind and smarts – and Doris is smart."
Willette (right) outdueled Cross in an 8-7, overtime thriller (photo by Pete LaFleur/CF360)
CF360: "Your final individual champion, epeeist Anastasia Ferdman, fenced with tremendous emotion and really seemed to feed off the home crowd."
EK: "The Notre Dame [women's epeeists] are extremely strong fencers, who have a number of titles. They maybe inside thought that to win this [epee] championship was kind of given. Well, in collegiate competition, nothing is for granted. Whoever has more desire, whoever has more passion is going to end up a winner. That happened this time.
"It's difficult to tell of [Ferdman's] victory from a certain strategy. It's a victory of desire, a victory of passion as I mention again – I like this word, because it puts together a lot of things."
Anastasia Ferdman (right) defeated fellow Israeli Noam Mills to claim the NCAA epee title (photo by Pete LaFleur/CF360)
CF360: "Finally, we know you want to thank all the tremendous people behind the scenes who helped make the 2009 NCAAs such a great event, for the athletes and spectators alike."
EK: "We had a superb crew here, which prepared the gym for the competition, who maintained the whole order for the four days of competition, who cleaned it up. Those guys are great. They are really dedicated people and they want to make sure that everybody who came here enjoyed the championships – and I believe they have achieved that goal. It was tremendously well-run, very well-organized and it becomes kind of an example for others to run the championships."