Cornell University Athletics

* Read about Coach Dolgikh in Ezra Magazine

Iryna Dolgikh, a former world champion fencer, was named the head fencing coach at Cornell University by the Meakem*Smith Director of Athletics Andy Noel in June 2005. Dolgikh is the seventh Big Red fencing coach in the program’s storied history.

The 11-year Big Red head coach came to Cornell with a reputation as one of the top fencing minds in the country and proved to be no less in her first 10seasons working with her team. A well-respected coach on the international level, Dolgikh has been chosen to coach the U.S. Veteran's fencing team, traveling to the world championships in 2009, 2010 and 2011. She was also selected to travel and help with the U.S. Cadet and Junior fencing team at the world championships in the fall of 2009 and the spring of 2010, as well as the World University Games in 2015.

Last season, Cornell went 16-8 on the year and 2-4 in the Ivy League to finish in fifth place in the conference standings. The Big Red started the season with a bang, as three fencers – Victoria Wines, Olivia Weller and Angelica Gangemi – earned medals at the 35th annual Temple Open, the largest individual collegiate tournament in the nation. That was just the beginning of a stellar sophomore season for Wines, who went on to become the first Big Red fencer in the history of the women's program to earn back-to-back first-team All-Ivy accolades when she finished third overall in the epee at the 2015 Ivy League Round Robin with a record of 13-5. She then placed first among 58 epee fencers to earn the gold medal at the 2015 NCAA Northeast Regional, while   Weller (10th – epee) and Ediona Sera (10th – foil) also finished in the top 10. Based on their performance at the regionals, Wines, Gangemi and Sera were selected to participate in the NCAA Fencing Championships. Wines finished the competition tied for third place, the highest finish at the NCAA Fencing Championship in school history, to earn the bronze medal and become the Big Red's first All-American since Meghan Phair took fourth place and earned All-American honors in 2004. Additionally, in the foil competition, Sera and Gangemi finished in 22nd and 24th place, respectively, helping the Big Red to a 17th place team finish. 

During the 2013-14 campaign, Dolgikh picked up her 100th career victory as the Big Red went 16-8 overall and 2-4 in the Ivy League to rank fifth overall in the conference standings. Under her direction, Victoria Wines ’17 became just the third fencer in Big Red history to be named first-team All-Ivy after going 15-3 and placing third in the epee competition. Both Wines and Angelica Gangemi ’16 advanced to the NCAA tournament finishing 14th and 16th, respectively, as the Big Red placed 20th overall in the team standings. 

In 2012-13, Dolgikh led the Big Red to the best record in program history, going 18-7 overall. The team also finished fifth in the Ivy League with a mark of 2-4. Under her direction, half of Cornell's entries finished in the top 15 at the 2013 NCAA Northeast Regional, and Angelica Gangemi ’16 and April Whitney ’14 were selected to compete in the women's foil at the 2013 NCAA Fencing Championship. Gangemi finished 14th in the nation, while Whitney took 17th place, helping the Big Red to a 19th place team finish. Following the season, Christine McIntosh ’14 (foil) was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team.

In 2011-12, Cornell posted a 13-10 record overall. The Big Red went on to place 13th as a team at the 2012 NCAA championships. Cornell’s Whitney and McIntosh placed 14th and 18th, respectively, while McIntosh was honored with the NCAA Elite 89 Award, given to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average participating at the NCAA championship finals site. 

During the 2010-11 season, Dolgikh mentored a pair of freshmen – Christine McIntosh and April Whitney – as they advanced to the 2011 NCAA championship. The duo led the Big Red to a 17th place finish overall as McIntosh took 14th place, becoming Cornell's highest finisher at NCAAs since 2008, while Whitney finished 18th overall.

In the 2009-10 season Dolgikh helped to mentor Rebecca Hirschfeld to a second-team All-Ivy selection before sending 11 fencers to participate in the NCAA Regionals, a team-high during her tenure. Of those 11 fencers, five placed in the top 20 and three advanced to the NCAA tournament, where the Big Red finished 14th overall. Cornell's top finisher at the NCAA tournament was Beverly Yang '13, who took 17th in her first postseason outing.

Dolgikh led the 2008-09 Big Red team to an eighth place finish at the Intercollegiate Fencing Association Championships, thanks largely to the epee squad’s bronze medal. The team went on to have four fencers - sabre Alex Heiss ’09, foil Jessica Tranquada ’11, and epeeists Tasha Hall ’10 and Sallie Dietrich ’10 – advance to the final round of the NCAA regionals and advance to the NCAA Championships. Hall was the Big Red’s top finisher at NCAAs, ranking 19th overall in epee, while Heiss and Tranquada each took 20th place. Rounding out the field for Cornell Dietrich, who finished in 24th place. Although she didn’t participate in the NCAAs, epeeist Katherine Thompson ’10 also had an outstanding season as the only Big Red fencer to be named All-Ivy with a second-team selection.

The 2007-08 season proved to be the most successful under Dolgikh as the squad finished fourth among women’s teams at the IFAs, its best finish under Coach Dolgikh. The team then had five top-ten finishes at the NCAA Northeast Regionals, as Tranquada (foil), Dietrich (epee), Hall (epee) and Heiss (saber) all qualified for the NCAA Championships. Those four fencers went on to give Cornell an 11th place finish at the 2008 NCAA championship despite fielding only a woman’s team (the NCAA fencing championship is scored as a dual men’s and women’s event). Individually, Heiss became just the third women’s fencer in school history to earn All-Ivy honors, as she picked up second-team accolades after leading the Big Red sabre squad in Ivy League competition. Likewise, four members of the Big Red squad - Thompson, Dietrich, and Christine Wilkinson ’11 (epee), as well as sabre Katie Halpin ‘11 – participated in the Junior Olympics. All four fencers did extremely well at the prestigious competition, led by a 16th place finish from Thompson.

In her second year, Dolgikh led the team to a dual meet record of 13-6, including victories over Brown and Yale, as the Big Red narrowly missed out on a .500 conference record after falling to Penn, 14-13. The team took a seventh place finish at the 2007 IFA championships and Dolgikh coached Heiss to a 13th place finish int the 2007 NCAA tournament.

Cornell’s improvement under Dolgikh was evident from day one. Her 2005-06 squad finished 14th as a team at the 2006 NCAA championship meet. She helped both Meghan Phair ’06 and Alex Heiss ’09 finish in the top 20 at the meet. Cornell finished fifth as a team at the 2006 IFA championships, an improvement over a 10th-place finish at the event the year before Dolgikh arrived. The biggest monkey off the team’s back was also lifted, as it earned its first Ivy League win in 14 years (a span of 65 league matches) when it defeated Brown in Newman Arena as host of the first-ever Ivy League championship.

A native of Kyiv, Dolgikh brings a long line of credentials and plenty of coaching and fencing experience into her first collegiate head coaching job. Dolgikh was the World Champion in women’s foil in 1976, a gold medalist in the World Cup in 1977 and a bronze medalist in the USSR Spartakiad in 1975. Dolgikh was a member of the Soviet Union’s Junior World Team in the mid-1970s. She has a master’s degree in physical education and fencing from the Kyiv Academy of Physical Culture, one of the best physical education institutions in the world.

Prior to Cornell, Dolgikh spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Penn State, helping the Nittany Lions to a pair of national runner-up finishes and silver medal finishes from 2002 to 2005. In 2003, her epee fencers swept the top three places at the NCAA championships.

Prior to arriving at Penn State, Dolgikh spent two years as a private coach in Dallas. She was a prominent coach and competitor in Russia and brings more than 20 years of teaching experience in the Ukraine, Moscow, Bratislava and the United States.

Dolgikh is married to Sasha Gutor and the couple has two children. Their daughter Olena serves as the administrative assistant for the Big Red fencing squad. Their son Alex was a standout member of the Penn State men’s volleyball team and currently plays professionally overseas.

* Updated July 2014