McMaster Experience: 32 seasons (1980 - present)
Season by Season:
2011-12: Men's team won team bronze in the team sabre event at the OUA Championships and Mohammed Alshayeb earned OUA All-Star honours in the foil event.. Women's team finished ninth in the team foil event, eighth in the team epee event and sixth in the team sabre event.
2010-11: At the OUA Championships, women's best finisher was Kelly Campbell placing 11th in the individual foil...men earned a silver medal at the championships in the team sabre...team was made up of Michael Irvine, Samir Ksara, Liam Jackson, and Lucas Cheng beating out top schools RMC and Carleton...in the individual sabre Mike Nedelko finished 11th.. men finished third overall.
2009-10: Eleven fencers and all three women's teams advanced to the OUA Championship where the women placed sixth and the men placed eighth... The top individual fencer on the men's side was Lucas Cheng who placed ninth in the sabre competition...Elizabeth Vickers (foil) and Cassandra Julich-Trojan (sabre) were the top finishers on the women's side in eleventh place...women's foil was the top team as they placed fifth.
2008-09: Seven McMaster fencers and four teams qualified for the OUA Championships.
2007-08: Five athletes and one team qualified for the OUA Championships...Andrew Oussoren (Guelph, Ont.) captured third in the men's epee at the West Qualifier.
2006-07: McMaster's Ken Blonde (Chatham ON) won the OUA Men's Epee Individual Championship title and helped the McMaster Epee team earn a bronze medal finish at the 2007 OUA Fencing Championship...Overall the men's team finished sixth while the women's squad finished fifth at the Championship...Blonde took home the Desjarlais Trophy as the Individual Epee Champion and became only the fifth McMaster fencer in history to capture an individual championship title...In the women's competition, McMaster finished sixth in the team Epee, with Rebecca Burtney (Acton ON) finishing eighth overall in the individual competition...Illinca Nae (Mississauga ON) also finished eighth in the individual foil, as the team finished fifth.
2005-06: On the strength of bronze medal performances by both the women's sabre and epee teams the Marauder women secured the bronze in the team competition at the 2006 OUA Fencing Championship held at Queen's...Led by Amy Lillico's OUA All-star performance for scoring the most hits amongst all competitors in the sabre competition, the Marauders defeated teams from both the east and west division to secure the bronze...In the individual competition for the women, Ilinca Nae (foil) and Alecia Hemphill (sabre) each placed fifth...The men's team placed ninth overall with the men's epee team finishing in sixth spot. Ken Blonde was the top individual finisher for the men placing in the top eight.
2004-05: Margo Sloan captures bronze at OUA Championships in individual competition...Men's Epee bring home bronze as well.
2003-04: Women's sabre team won OUA gold...Kathryn Pierrynowski won an OUA individual gold medal in Sabre...The Women's Epee and Foil teams each won OUA Bronze...For the men, Stefan Muniak finished in fourth place.
Other Highlights:
Dave O'Donnell has been involved with the McMaster Varsity Fencing program since 1977, first as a fencer ('77-'79), then as a member of the coaching staff ('80-'85). In 1985, Dave was appointed head coach. He is a nationally certified coach and is currently completing level 4 of the National Coaching Certification Program, the master level. He has been nominated for Coach of the Year twice by the Ontario Fencing Association and last year Dave won both the the OUAA Coach of the Year Award and the OWIAA Coach of the Year Award for varsity fencing. Under his direction, the MAC varsity fencing team qualifies several teams for the OUAA and OWIAA finals every year and they usually bring back a few medals.
Dave's efforts in fencing are not confined to high-performance athletes, he also runs a beginner fencing program for McMaster students. Every year this program draws between 30 and 60 students, many of whom continue on into the varsity fencing program.Dave has also been very active in fencing outside of McMaster. He has been an assistant coach and the manager for the National Women's Epee Team, manager for the Ontario Canada Games team in 1991 and 1995, a Provincial Sport Organization representative to numerous Ontario Winter Games events and first Vice President of the Ontario Fencing Association. He was the President of the Organizing Committee for the Canadian National Fencing Championships in Hamilton and received a Convention Ambassador Award. As recently as April 1996, Dave was in England at a World Cup event with Olympic hopeful Tanya Tygesen.
