Temple University Athletics
FENCING COACH NIKKI FRANKE CAPTURES CAREER WIN #500
1.21.06 | Women's Fencing
PHILADELPHIA - There's no better way to kick off the beginning of the collegiate dual-meet season than with a win. That is, unless that win is career #500. Saturday's 27-0 win against the New Jersey Institute of Techonology was just that for head coach Nikki Franke.
The milestone, which came at the Philadelphia Invitational Multi-Meet, was 34 years in the making. Franke has been Director of Fencing and the women's foil coach at Temple University since the program emerged in 1972.
"Win #500 feels great," Franke said. "It speaks a lot about the quality of our program and I take great pride in that." She said she looks to continually improve the program and to win another National Championship.
Temple finished today's meet 3-2, picking up wins against NJIT (27-0), Cornell (19-8) and Drew (15-12), while dropping the second and fourth matches of the day to 7th ranked Northwestern (9-18) and 9th ranked Penn (10-17).
The meet was the first collegiate dual-meet for the freshmen class. Individually, sabre coach Brad Baker said he was very pleased with the squad's strong performance against nationally ranked competition. Freshman sabre fencer Ashlee Phillips finished 7-7, sophomore Kristine Jones finished 8-6 and squad captain Keri Ecker split even at 7-7.
Epee squad leader Marla Nacey led with a 6-5 finish. Freshman Melissa Forsythe finished 5-4, sophomore Brianna Ferrara finished 4-7 and freshman Kaitlyn Uckert ended the day 2-3.
Leading the way for the foil squad was sophomore Samantha Myles and freshman Nina Gernes who finished 6-3 and 6-1 respectively. Senior Jenna Remmert finished 5-2, senior Maryanne Forsythe was 3-8 and freshman Sabrina Shapiro was 3-2 on the day.
Under Franke's direction, Temple was the NCAA Women's Foil Champions in 1991-92 and finished runners-up in 1987 and 1993. She was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2002, the United States Fencing Association Hall of Fame in 1998, and the Temple University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1995. As the Director of Fencing at Temple, her program has produced 10 All-Americans.
Franke was a member of the 1976 and 1980 U.S. Olympic Teams and was the United States Fencing Association's (USFA) National Foil Champion in 1975 and 1980. She also competed in the 1975 and 1979 Pan American Games, both on behalf of the United States and individually.
A New York City native, Franke graduated with honors from Brooklyn College in 1972 where she was a four-year letterwinner, placing third at the 1972 NIWFA National Championships. While at BC she was named an NIWFA All-American.
She received a master's degree in Health Education from Temple in 1975, completed the doctoral program in 1988 and is currently an Associate Professor in Temple's Department of Public Health.
Franke will be honored during halftime at the Temple men's basketball game Wednesday, January 25 versus Xavier at the Liacouras Center.
