Karol Kostka Class: Senior Hometown: Krakow, Poland High School: First L.O. Height / Weight: 5-9 / 160 Event: Epee Birthdate: 05/22/1986 Club: AZS-AWF Krakow Fencing Club

2007 All-American
Two-Time NCAA Participant

Tremendous epee talent who will be looking to turn in top season of his college career, after periods of inconsistency during his first two years ... has shown more confidence and overall improvements while training on a regular basis with first-year Notre Dame assistant coach Marek Stepien (a fellow Poland native) ... has very good footwork and an effective continuation of his lunge, producing valuable points on the fleche attack ... has strong all-around attacking techniques and a precise point on his touches ... a very relaxed fencer who is light on his feet, with elegant movement and steady control of the distance (a key factor in epee bouting) ... continues to make adjustments to college fencing and studies in the U.S., as he faces the challenging task of balancing academics and athletics with daily life in a foreign country ... one of five Polish fencers to join the Notre Dame program in recent years ... has tremendous physical potential and excellent technical preparation, which help overcome his disadvantage when fencing bigger opponents ... an intelligent fencer who knows what is needed to get consistent results on the strip ... previously was listed 20th in the world rankings for under-20 men's epeeists (Oct. 10, 2005) ... his arrival in the fall of 2005 helped fill the void of his departed club teammate Michal Sobieraj (a four-time All-American and the 2005 NCAA champ) ... a highly technical fencer with business-like approach ... a very attentive competitor who could emerge as an elite college fencer ... his top international results have included helping Poland's epee team win bronze at the 2003 World Championships (Plovdiv, Bulgaria) ... member of bronze-medal team at Junior European Championships (Porec, Croatia) ... won better than 75-percent of his regular-season bouts (91-28) in his first two years with the Irish ... joins two other current current Irish fencers - senior men's foilist Jakub Jedrkowiak (Leszno) and freshman women's epeeist Ewa Nelip (Katowice) - and two of his former teammates (Sobieraj and Alicja Kryczalo) as the only Poland natives ever to compete on a Notre Dame varsity team ... Kryczalo (Gdansk) - currently a volunteer assistant with the Irish - won the 2002-04 NCAA women's foil titles (also '05 runner-up) while Sobieraj (Leszno) similarly was a four-year All-American (he won the 2005 NCAA men's epee title and was the '03 runner-up, plus 3rd in -'04 and 10th in '02) ... posted 6th-place finish at the Penn State Open (fall '07), after topping Ohio State's Avi Somir (10-5) to reach the round-of-8.

AS A SOPHOMORE: Had strong 2007 regular season that saw him win nearly 75 percent of his bouts (48-18; .727) before placing third at both the Midwest Fencing Conference and Midwest Regional, followed by an All-America finish (11th) at the NCAAs ... his 18-6 day at the Notre Dame Duals included pair of 5-2 wins in 13-14 battle with Ohio State (vs. Mykhaylo Mazur and Christian Rivera) ... beat Phil Andrews (5-2) from the home team, as part of his 10-7 record at the NYU Duals ... won all three of his bouts at the Midwest Duals (held at ND) and then went 8-3 at the Duke Duals, highlighted by 5-4 win over North Carolina's Mike Burkhart and 5-2 victory over 5-2 over Dan Zieleinski (Johns Hopkins) ... closed regular season with 10-2 record at Northwestern Duals, including 5-4 wins over Penn State's Arthur Urman and James Moody ... advanced to MFC semifinals (after 15-10 win over ND teammate Patrick Gettings) but lost 10-15 semifinal versus Wayne State's Slava Zingerman ... posted 5-4 win over OSU's Rivera in MFC epee team semifinals ... entered Regional (at ND) as #7 seed but improved to #3 after his pool bouts ... went on to post big win over Zingerman in the Regional direct-elimination, adding another win over the WSU newcomer (15-14; round-of-8) but then losing to OSU's Mazur in semifinals (10-15) ... edged his ND teammate Howard in Regional 3rd-place bout (15-14) ... opened NCAAs (in Madison, N.J.) with 9-5 record that included key wins over OSU's Mazur (5-2), Wayne State's Marez Petraszek (5-4) Yale's Michael Pearce (5-4) and Air Force's Peter French (2-1) ... picked up three wins on day-2 of the NCAAs, after topping Harvard's Teddy Sherrill (5-4), PSU's Steffen Launer (5-4) and Columbia's Max Czapanskiy (5-4) ... rallied from 2-4 deficit to beat Czapanskiy in his final bout, securing All-America/top-12 status by the narrowest of margins (11th place; 12-11 record) ... he and Howard (14) combined for the 5th-most wins (25) in the NCAA men's epee field ... helped 2007 squad become third Irish team ever to produce the maximum six All-Americans (the 85 wins were the most by an ND men's team since 2003) ... went 7-4 in one-touch bouts at the 2007 NCAAs ... placed 14th at Penn State Open in the fall of 2006, improving one spot on his #15 seed ... his top wins at the PSU Open included a 5-4 bout with PSU's Dennis Kraft before ultimately losing in the round-of-16 to Yale's Pearce (10-15).

AS A FRESHMAN: Qualified for the NCAAs (placing 18th), after compiling a 43-11 record in the regular season and overcoming a subpar effort at the MFC meet (17th) to place third at the Midwest Regional ... his 15-1 opening record at the Northwestern Duals included noteworthy wins over Stanford's Martin Lee (5-3) and North Carolina's Benton Heimsath (5-3) ... added series of impressive wins at the NYU Duals (9-5) over OSU's Denis Tolkachev (5-1) and Jason Pryor (5-3), Columbia's Bill Verigan (5-3), NYU's Andrews (5-3) and Benjamin Bratton of St. John's (5-4) ... his pair of wins over OSU helped the Irish men's epee team post a 5-4 win over the Buckeyes ... beat his countryman Petraszek of Wayne State (5-3) as part of 10-1 record at the ND Duals ... closed regular season with 9-4 record at the UC San Diego Duals ... was top seed for the Regional (in Cleveland) but slipped to #7 going into direct-elimination ... posted another win over OSU All-American Tolkachev in Regional quarterfinals (15-13) but lost to Petraszek in a tight semifinal (13-14) before beating his ND teammate Howard in the 3rd-place bout ... his 18th-place finish (8-15) at the NCAAs (in Houston) included wins over Petraszek (5-1), OSU's Pryor (5-2) and PSU's Moody (5-3) ... earlier had posted 4th-place finish at Penn State Open in the fall of 2005, losing his final two bouts versus top Princeton fencers (Tommi Hurme and then Ben Solomon, 11-15, in the 3rd-place bout), after earlier beating Solomon in the pool bouts (5-1).

PREP & PERSONAL: Trained at the same club (AZS-AWF Krakow) and attended the same high school in Poland (First Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace Bartlomieja Nowodworskiego) as his former Notre Dame teammate Sobieraj ... son of Antoni and Marta Kostka ... full name is Karol Mateusz Kostka ... born May 22, 1986, in Krakow, Poland ... a mechanical engineering major, in the College of Engineering.