Health

Sport Stars

She Makes The Point

MIKE ROSENBAUM

Special to the Jewish News

A

nna Vinnikov was born in
Belarus and currently lives
in the U.S. But the Wayne
State University fencer
considers Israel her home. "I grew up
there ... I love Israel. It's just the great-
est country ever."
As an athlete, Vinnikov resembles
Israel. Although she's small for a fencer
(5'3"), she's a tough and successful
fighter. She recently finished 16th at
the NCAA championships.
Vinnikov calls fencing, "an intellectu-
al sport. When you're fencing. you need
to have strategy for a bout. You need to
trick your oppo-
nent, not let them
know what you're
going to do."
A businness
major, she earned
a4.0 GPA the
last three semes-
ters. It was
Vinnikov's intelli-
gence that led her
into fencing.
Shortly after she
and her parents emigrated to Israel, she
caught the eye of a fencing coach who
observed that she played games intelli-
gently. She accepted his offer to learn
fencing and, at age 12, won Israel's 13-
and-under national championship. She
later won cadet- and junior-level cham-
pionships and spent more than five
years on the national team.
At 19, Vinnikov accepted a scholar-
ship offer from Detroit-based Wayne
State. "I came here by myself," she
recalls. "It was hard at the beginning,
but people in Michigan are extremely
nice. Then I went to Hillel, the Jewish
organization on campus, and they
helped me to meet a few Israelis and a
few guys that became my very good
friends."
Vinnikov has also overcome obsta-
cles as an athlete.
"I'm not very tall, which is impor-
tant for fencing," Vinnikov explains.
She compensates for her lack of height
"by thinking ahead and using lots of
strategy during my bouts ... I fence
more defensively because I'm not too
tall and it's harder for me to attack. I
wait for my opponents to make a mis-
take and take advantage of it."
Vinnikov's fencing highlights
include a 13th-place finish in women's

epee in the NCAA championships as a
freshman. Last season, she won the
Midwest Fencing Championships
(MFC) and placed eighth in the
NCAA to earn second team All-
America honors. This year, she fin-
ished second at the MFC and fifth in
the NCAA Midwest Regional.
Vinnikov returns to Israel each sum-
mer but, for the moment, plans to live
in the U.S., and to stay active in fenc-
ing, after completing college.
Steve Weinberg employed three differ-
ent strokes to earn top-10 finishes in the
state Division 1 swim championships.
Weinberg, from Ann Arbor Huron,
placed fourth in the 100 butterfly
(53.04) and the 100 backstroke (53.19)
and swam on Huron's tenth-place 400
freestyle relay squad (3:16.67).
Teammate Jay Markovitz, a freshman,
competed in the 50 and 100 freestyle
events and the medley relay this season.
Bloomfield Hills Andover's Ryan
Cohn placed fifth in one-meter div-
ing at the Oakland Activities
Association meet with 3,11 points.
Michigan State freshman Dana
Rosenblatt, from Highland Park
(Ill.), was 1-for-4 in early-season
action as a pinch hitter. Rosenblatt
was a two-year volleyball and softball
captain in high school.
Kalamazoo College third baseman
Jill Sakolove started the Hornets' first
seven games, hitting .348 with a home
run and five RBIs. She earned All-
MIAA Honorable Mention notice as a
sophomore, starting 29 games and hit-
ting .269 with 12 RBIs. She hit .132
in 19 games last
season.
South Lyon
senior Josh
Haron won one
of three heavy-
weight matches
at the Division 1
individual state
wrestling meet.
Haron finished
Haron
the year with a
41-11 record.
Haron's season highlights included a
fourth-place finish at his individual
regional and the championship of the
14-team South Lyon invitational. ❑

To submit items to the Jewish Stars
column, e-mail:
sports@thejewishnews.com

Beverly Price, registered dietician, will
join Barbara Beznos at Integrated
Nutrition LLC in Farmington Hills to
provide comprehensive nutrition and
wellness service.

Dr. Steven E. Newman of Southfield
has completed training at the second
annual Donald M. Palatucci Advocacy
Leadership Forum in California. Dr.
Newman is an attending neurologist at
William Beaumont Hospital in Royal
Oak.

Dr. Ronald M. Coburn of Bloomfield
Hills and Dr. Nate Kleinfeldt of
Southfield, ophthalmologists, have
opened a sec-
ond office at
Six Mile and
Farmington
roads in
Livonia. They
specialize in
eye surgery for
patients with
cataracts, glau-
Drs. Kleinfeldt
coma and dia-
and Coburn
betic eye dis-
ease.

Dr. Scott E Goldberg of Bloomfield
Hills was elected vice chair of the
Michigan Board of Medicine. He is a
specialist in internal medicine in Warren
and on the medical staff at St. John
Macomb Hospital. He is the only mem-
ber from Macomb County and the only
primary care physician on the board.

Dr. Brian S. Seifman of West
Bloomfield has joined the Southfield-
based Preferred Urology Consultants
PC. He completed his fellowship train-
ing in advanced
laproscopy and mini-
mally invasive sur
gery at the University
of Michigan. Dr.
Seifman is experi-
enced in kidney sur-
gery, laproscopic
prostatectomy and
robotic surgery.

Dr. Julius M. Gardin of West Bloom-
field has been named to the Best Doctors
in America 2003-2004
list. He has been divi-
sion chief of cardiolo-
gy and distinguished
chair in cardiovascular
diseases at Detroit-
based St. John Hospi-
tal and Medical
Center since 2000.
Gardin

HEALTH on page 62

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