BELFAST – Four U.S. college fencers competed in Friday's women's epee competition at the Junior World Championships, led by a runner-up finish for Notre Dame sophomore Ewa Nelip (competing for her native Poland). Two members of the U.S. team – ND freshman Courtney Hurley (11th) and Princeton freshman Susannah Scanlan (16th) – also finished in the top-16, while Penn State freshman Nina Westman (Sweden) placed 36th.
The Notre Dame duo of Hurley and Nelip now are listed 2-3 on the FIE world under-20 women's epee rankings (Hurley entered the tournament #2, while Nelip was 14th). Westman was ranked 12th prior to the Junior Worlds (now 25th), while Scanlan moved up from 24th to 19th.
NELIP (Katowice, Poland) – who has reached the NCAA semifinals in each of the past two years – opened the '09 Junior Worlds by winning all five of her bouts in pool-13 (+11)., highlighted by a 5-2 bout with Sweden's Emma Vaggo (who entered the week ranked 20th among the world's u-20 women's epeeists). Her other opening bouts included a 5-3 victory over Latvia's Anastasija Trjasko, plus 5-1 wins over Croatia's Roberta Ilijasev, Canada's Gabrielle Lavoie Canada and the USA's Francesca Bassa.
During her run through the direct-elimination (in the 102-fencer field), Nelip turned in large victory margins against Japan's Mikako Fukuda (15-5) and Croatia's Toncica Topic (15-3), followed by an impressive 15-11 victory over the world's top-ranked u-20 women's epeeist (Russia's Violetta Kolobova). She then topped South Korea's Soon Hwa Lee in the quarterfinals (15-9) and beat Poland teammate Dominika Mosler by the same score, before losing the gold-medal bout to China's Yujie Sun (5-15).
HURLEY (San Antonio, Texas) – a 2009 NCAA semifinalist – lost only one of her pool-2 bouts (5-1/+13), dropping a one-touch bout to Switzerland's Laura Stahli. She also survived a 1-0 defensive battle with Ukraine's Kseniya Pantel Yeyeva (the eventual 15th-place finisher), adding a shutout win over the Netherlands' Amber Hoogendoorn, 5-2 victories over Israel's Avital Marniuk and Brazil's Rayssa Costa, and a 5-3 bout with Japan's Mikako Fukuda. She followed with DE wins over South Korea's Ji Seon Kim (15-5) and Germany's Cheryl Jahn (15-9), with her day ending in the round-of-16 with a one-point loss (14-15) to Estonia standout Julia Zuikova (ranked 5th in world; placed 8th).
SCANLAN (St. Paul, Minn.) split her six bout in pool-9 (even on indicators), with her top win coming 5-4 against Estonia's Erika Kirpu (ranked 10th in world; placed 13th). She also turned in early victories over Egypt's Sara Abd El Aziz (5-3) and Singapore's Cheryl Lim (5-2) – with her losses coming against Venezuela's Patrizia Piovesan Silva (4-5), Great Britain's Caitlin Chang (2-5) and Canada's Jannelle Mackoff (3-5; Mackoff placed 20th). Her DE bouts featured wins over China's Anqi Xu (15-14) and Slovakia's Dagmar Baranikova (15-7), before losing in the round-of-16 to the eventual champion Sun of China (9-15).
WESTMAN (Kalmar, Sweden) turned in a 5-1 record in pool-11 (+7), thanks to three different 5-4 wins: vs. Portugal's Ines Santos, the Czech Republic's Gabriela Vacinova and South Africa's Giselle Vicatos. She also posted a 5-2 win over Russia 's Yana Zvereva (the eventual 24th-place finisher) and topped Argentina's Melisa Lar Englert Urrutia (5-1), with her loss coming against Tunisia's Sarra Besbes Tunisia (19th-place finisher). Westman then suffered a one-touch loss in the DE, losing 14-15 to Finland's Catharina Kock.