MEDFORD, Mass. — First year Phillip Winston Nunnink (Kansas City, Mo.) placed 20th at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championship today at the Gantcher Center on the campus of host Tufts University in Medford, Mass.
Nunnink was the Lyons' top finisher in the foil, while classmate Grant Smith (Oakland, Calif.) finished 38th in the foil. First year Oliver Smink (Rochester, N.Y.) placed 40th in the sabre for Wheaton.
Nunnink received a bye in the first round of pool competition as one of top 27 seeded competitors in the championship. He won three of six bouts to advance to the third round, where he went 1-5.
Nunnink dropped his opening bout in the second round to Boston College sophomore Elijah Onik (Glen Rock, N.J.), 5-1, and was edged 5-4 by first year Josh Shin (Seekonk, Mass.) of Yale University. The Lyon rookie needed to finish strong to advance to the next round and he responded by winning three of his final four bouts. Nunnink took down Sacred Heart University sophomore Chaissen Costello (Tiverton, R.I.), 5-2, before falling to sophomore Adam Wong (White Rock, B.C.) of New York University. Nunnink won his final two bouts, with a 5-3 victory over Columbia University senior Zachary Binder (Armonk, N.Y.) and finished the round by cruising to a 5-1 win over Brandeis University sophomore Jack Sullivan (Somerville, Mass.).
Binder avenged his loss to Nunnink to open the third round with a 5-3 decision. Nunnink fell to Saint John's University (N.Y.) sophomore Igor Wozniak, 5-1 in the following bout. He scored a 5-4 win over NYU first year Anup Banerjee (San Jose, Calif.), but was defeated in each of his final three bouts to close out his day. Nunnink was turned back by Onik, 5-0, and suffered a 5-2 decision at the hands of Yale sophomore Nicholas Kim (New York, N.Y.). Nunnink's final bout was a 5-1 loss to Harvard University first year Andrew Chen (Lexington, Ky.).
Smith won two out of four first round bouts in foil, but was unable to advance when tie-breaking measures were enacted. He was defeated in his first bout, 5-0, by Long Island University Brooklyn first year Brandon Wadley, 5-0. Smith downed Brandeis junior Michael Yerokhin (Paramus, N.J.), 5-3, for his first win, before bowing to Shin from Yale, 5-3. Smith rebounded to edge first year Alexander Gobbo (Santa Ana, Calif.) from Vassar College, 5-4.
Smink fell in his first sabre bout to Vassar first year Devan McCarthy (Dix Hills, N.Y.), 5-2. Smink suffered the same result by Sacred Heart first year Oliver Lindholm. He took LIU junior Eduardo Duarte (Lisbon, Portugal) to the limit, before being edged, 5-4. Smink's final bout of the day was a 5-3 loss to LIU's Dethie Diop, 5-3.
