Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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ND SPORTS which claimed another top-five finish nationally thanks in large part to the individual titles won by Meinhardt and Kiefer. For Kiefer, a sophomore, the win was her second in as many chances in the women's foil competition. The Kentucky native defeated her own teammate, Madison Zeiss, to claim this year 's title. Kiefer out-touched Zeiss 13-10 in her closest bout of the tourna- ment. That duo faces off against one another on a daily basis at practice, which made the championship duel a bittersweet moment for both. Kiefer said defending her title was tougher than winning the first one. It wasn't as smooth as a trip through the championship brackets for Kiefer, and knowing what to expect caused her to overthink some of her bouts. "It was almost more of an achieve- ment because it felt like a lot more of a battle," she said. Meinhardt, a graduate student in his final year of eligibility, was also very familiar with his final competitor. He won his second title with a comeback win over Penn State's David Willette. Meinhardt trains with Willette at the same club in San Francisco. Both rank among the top five foilists in the coun- try and travel with the national team to competitions around the world. Mein- hardt also topped Willette to win his first title as a sophomore in 2011. Willette changed the style Meinhardt was used to seeing him utilize and jumped out to leads of 4-0 and 9-5 be- fore the veteran battled back for a 15-12 victory. Meinhardt returned for a final year at Notre Dame with the goal of winning a national championship. While the Irish fell short as a team, Meinhardt said winning the individual title was a good consolation prize. "We knew going into it that it was going to be a very long shot since we didn't qualify the full amount of fenc- ers in the tournament," he said. "I'm glad that I didn't let it get to me too much, and I was able to still compete and do well individually." All three Irish champions will try to spin their collegiate success into wins on the international stage this summer. Gerek Meinhardt, a graduate student in his final year of eligibility for the Irish, took home is sec- ond national title with a 15-12, comeback victory over Penn State's David Willette in the men's foil competition. PHOTO BY JEFF MILLS/WALT MIDDLETON PHOTOGRAPHY.