** ALL DATA ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CollegeFencing360.com – please credit accordingly.
THREE TEAMS RECEIVE MAXIMUM 12 SPOTS INTO
2018 NCAA FENCING CHAMPIONSHIP FIELD
Defending champs Notre Dame joins Columbia (2016 & ’17 NCAA champs) and Midwest Regional rival Ohio State with a dozen entries into 2018 NCAAs; no teams with 11 bids (Harvard, U-Penn & Penn State have nine).
RELEASE: March 21, 2018 Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(Note: Click Here for similar rundown for 2016 NCAA field … with much of the 2017 NCAAs data reference within the 2018 CF360 postings coming this week)
> 2018 NCAA “Live Results” (updated after each round)
** Note – scroll down on this page for assorted lists, notes and history pertaining to the NCAA Fencing Championship, and in particular the 2018 NCAAs. Shorter, specific details blog posts will be coming here on CF360 throughout the 2018 NCAAs, highlighting certain bonus notes. … Also note that various photos will be added to this page, time permitting. … And be sure to follow as well via Twitter, at @CF360updates.
2018 Postseason Portal
2018 NCAA Result Links (March 22–25; at Penn State):
NCAA Championships (HTML; updated several times daily, after each round)
NCAA Results (PDF), after: Day–1 | Day–2 | Day–3 | Day–4
Official NCAA Release (2018 NCAA qualifiers)
2018 NCAA Regional Results: Northeast | Mid-Atlantic/South | Midwest | West
Three teams – Columbia, Notre Dame, Princeton and St. John’s – received the maximum 12 individual qualifiers for the 2018 NCAA Combined Men’s and Women’s Fencing Championship, to be held March 22–25 at the Multi-Sport Facility in State College, Pa. (hosted by Penn State University). It’s a virtual certainty that one of those three 12-entrant teams will win the NCAA title, as no teams received 11 bids (three have 10: Harvard, U-Penn & Penn State).
In the 18 previous years of the NCAA Combined Men’s and Women’s Fencing Championship (since 2000), only once has a team has won the national title with fewer than 12 fencers: in 2005, when 11-fencer Notre Dame (and runner-up Ohio State, for that matter) both topped the lone 12-fencer team that year, third-place finisher St. John’s.
If one of the 10-bid teams (Harvard, Penn & Penn State) somehow manages to outscore all three of the 12-bid teams en route to the 2018 title, that team will have bucked significant mathematical odds. Harvard qualified only one men’s epeeist and one women’s foilist, while Penn is short one women’s epeeist and one women’s sabre entrant. Penn State qualified the max. six women’s fencers but only one men’s foilist and one men’s epeeist.
The 2018 NCAAs feature the extreme rarity of both Princeton and St. John’s qualifying no women’s foilists. Also of note: SJU is sending only one total foilist (men+women) to the 2018 NCAAs. Princeton also qualified only one NCAA entrant in men’s epee, easily the signature weapon in that program’s history.
Despite sitting outside the top-10 team rankings (for both men and women), Yale has qualified the 9th-most fencers into the 2018 NCAAs, with eight (three men; five women).
Duke and Stanford (7 each) are the only other schools that qualified more than six fencers for the 2018 NCAAs, among the 144-fencer field (24 each in men’s foil, men’s epee, men’s sabre, women's foil, women's epee and women's sabre). NYU features six qualifiers, on the strength of its men’s team that is sending five fencers to the NCAAs.
In addition to the three teams with 12 total entrants, Penn also features the full six men’s qualifiers while Penn State is the only other women’s program with six in the field. There are six teams with five men’s qualifiers – Duke, Harvard, NYU, Princeton St. John’s & Stanford – while two teams are sending five women’s fencers to the 2018 NCAAs: Harvard and Yale.
Among schools that sponsor only women’s fencing on the varsity level, two have qualified three-plus fencers into the 2018 NCAA field: Northwestern (4) and Temple (3).
This marks the fourth straight year that both Notre Dame and Columbia have earned the maximum 12 NCAA entrants. Coincidentally, those teams account for each of the three previous NCAA team champions: Columbia in 2015 and ’16, followed by Notre Dame in 2017. ND’s title in 2017 prevented Columbia from becoming the first program since 2000 to win three consecutive NCAA fencing championships. It also marked Notre Dame’s fourth NCAA title in a 15-year span (’03, ’05 and ’11, ’17).
• Competition Format –All fencers compete in a round-robin format of 23 five-touch bouts, spread out over two days (women on Thur.-Fri., March 22-23; followed by the men on the weekend). The team scoring is simple – with each individual victory counting as one point to the team total. The top-four finishers in each weapon will contend for individual titles (women on Friday afternoon, men Sunday), with 15-touch semifinals and title bouts. Those closing individual bouts do not factor into the team point totals.
2018 NCAA Fencing Championship Entrants:
12 – Columbia, Notre Dame & Ohio State
10 – Harvard (only 1 men’s epee & 1 women’s foil)
Univ. Of Pennsylvania (only 1 w-epee & 1 w-sabre)
Penn State (only 1 m-foil & 1 m-epee)
9 – Princeton (no w-foil & only 1 m-epee) and St. Johns (no w-foil & only 1 m-foil)
8 – Yale
7 – Duke and Stanford
6 – NYU
5 – UC San Diego
4 – Air Force and Northwestern*
3 – NJIT and Temple*
2 – Cornell*, Incarnate Word and Wayne State
1 – Boston College, Brown, Fairleigh Dickinson*, Johns Hopkins, MIT, North Carolina & Sacred Heart
* – these schools sponsor only women’s fencing varsity programs
notes: in addition to Columbia, ND & OSU, Penn also qualified 6 men’s fencers, as did Penn State women.
** ALL DATA ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CollegeFencing360.com – please credit accordingly.
• Most NCAA Championship Qualifiers Over Past 4 Years
(2015–18; max. 12
per year):
48 – Columbia & Notre Dame
44 – Ohio State (10-11-11-12)
43 – Princeton (11-12-11-9)
41 – Penn State (11-10-10-10)
40 – Harvard (10-9-11-10) and St. John’s (11-12-8-9)
37 – Penn (8-8-11-10)
29 – Stanford (6-7-9-7)
27 – Duke (7-6-7-7)
23 – Yale (3-4-8-8)
20 – NYU (2-5-7-6)
16 – NJIT (4-6-3-3) and Northwestern* (6–4–2–4)
13 – Wayne State (4-3-4-2)
12 – Air Force (6-1-1-4), UC San Diego (1-4-2-5) and Cornell* (3-4-3-2)
11 – Temple* (2-4-2-3)
8 – Brown (5-1-1-1) and Sacred Heart (4-3-0-1)
7 – Boston College (2-2-2-1)
5 – Incarnate Word (0-1-2-2) and North Carolina (1-2-1-1)
4 – MIT (2-0-1-1)
2 – Fairleigh Dickinson* (0-0-1-1)
1 – Stevens Tech (’15), Lawrence
(’16), Detroit (’17), Vassar (’17) and Johns Hopkins (’18)
* = schools that sponsor only women’s tennis
>> 31 of the 45 schools that currently sponsor varsity fencing have sent at least one fencer to the NCAAs during the past four seasons (2015-18), all but: Brandeis, Cal Tech, Cleveland St, Drew, Haverford, Hunter, Lafayette & Yeshiva, along with six that sponsor only women’s varsity fencing: CCNY, LIU Post, Queens, Tufts, Wagner & Wellesley.
… Here were the 2017
NCAA entrants: 12 – COL/ND … 11 – HARV/OSU/Penn/PRIN … 10 – PSU …
9 – Stanford … 8 –
SJU/Yale … 7–Duke/NYU … 4–Wayne St … 3 – Cornell/NJIT …
2 – BC/Incarnate Word/Northwestern/Temple/UCSD … 1
– AFA/Brown/Detroit/FDU/MIT/UNC/Vassar
>> Harvard had 1 ME, OSU 1 WS, Penn 1
WE, Princeton 1 WF & PSU no MF… in addition to Coumbia & ND, 4 others
(OSU–Penn–Prin.–Stan.) qualified 6 men’s fencers, as did Harvard
& PSU women.
… 2016 NCAA entrants: 12 – COL/ND/PRIN/SJU … 11 – OSU … 10 – PSU … 9 – HARV …
8 – Penn … 7 – Stanford … 6 – Duke/NJIT … 5 – NYU … 4
– Cornell/Northwestern/Temple/UCSD/Yale …
3 – Sacred Heart/Wayne St … 2 – BC/UNC … 1 – AFA/Brown/Incarnate Word/Lawrence
>> OSU had 1 WS, PSU no WF, Harvard no ME & 1 MS, Penn no WE, 1 WF
& 1 WS) … in addition to COL, ND,
Prin. & SJU, 3 others (OSU–Penn–PSU)
qualified the max. 6 men’s fencers, as did the Harvard women.
… 2015
NCAA entrants: 12 – COL/ND … 11 – PSU/Prin./SJU … 10–HARV/OSU … 8–Penn …
7–Duke … 6 –
AFA/Northwestern/Stanford … 5 – Brown … 4 –NJIT/Sacred Heart/Wayne St …
3 – Cornell/Yale … 2 –
BC/MIT/NYU/Temple … 1 – UCSD/UNC/Stevens Tech
> PSU had 1 WE, Prin. 1 MF, SJU 1 WS, Harv. 1 ME+1 WE, OSU 1 WE+1 WS, & Penn 1 WF+1 WE+no WS) … N'western joined COL/ND/Prin.as the only women’s teams that qualified 6 (the PSU & SJU men also had 6).
• Recent NCAA Team Bids History –A year ago at the 2017 NCAAs (in Indianapolis), Notre Dame and Columbia were the only 12-bid teams, following double that number in 2016 (when ND, Columbia, defending champ Princeton & St. John’s all were 12-bid teams, at Brandeis). Those four 12-bid teams in 2016 marked the most teams with the full complement of entries since five teams each qualified a dozen in 2012, with that group including eventual 2012 NCAA champion Penn State, plus runner-up SJU, ND, Harvard and Princeton.
Two years ago at Brandeis, in 2017, Columbia repeated as the NCAA combined men’s and women’s champion, after outscoring the three other teams (ND, Princeton and SJU) that also had received the maximum 12 bids. The 2017 NCAAs also featured four 11-bid teams – Harvard, Ohio State, Penn and Princeton – followed by Penn State with only 10.
Similar to 2017, the 2015 NCAAs (at OSU) saw ND and Columbia as the only teams that earned 12 entrants. In 2014, also at OSU, it was three teams – the defending champion at the time Princeton, perennial power and eventual 2014 champion Penn State, and the tournament host Buckeyes – who had received the maximum 12 entrants. And one year earlier, the soon-to-be 2013 champions Princeton and eventual runner-up ND were the only teams that qualified the maximum 12 fencers.
In nearly half (8 of 18) of the NCAA Championships contested during the six-weapon era (since 2000), a team with 11 entrants has finished as runner-up: St. John’s in 2000 and ’02; Penn State in ’01, ‘03’ 11 and ’15; and Ohio State in ’05 and ’16. There was an 11-entrant team in the runner-up spot during each of the first four years in the six-weapon era (2000-03) and four of the first five, but that’s happened only twice in the past six seasons (’15 and ’16).
** ALL DATA ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CollegeFencing360.com – please credit accordingly.
• DIRTY DOZEN – The 2015 NCAAs marked an end to Princeton’s streak of five straight years with the max. 12 NCAA entrants, but the Tigers were back to the full allotment of 12 for the 2016 NCAAs (but then 11 for 2017 and only nine now in 2018). Harvard had 12 NCAA qualifiers recently in 2010 and again in '12, with Columbia qualifying 12 each of the past four years (2015–18) after not reaching a dozen entrants since 2007 and '08. Penn State surprisingly has sent the max. 12 fencers to the NCAAs only five times during the past 14 years and only once in the past eight seasons: 2006, '07, '09, '10 and '14 ('07, ’09, '10 and ’14 all were title-winning years for PSU).
Starting in 2005, St. John’s has produced 12-fencer NCAA contingents five more times (also ’07, ’08, ’10, ’11 and ’15). Ohio State had a 12-fencer group at the 2008 NCAAs (OSU won that year), followed by a dozen entries in 2009, ’11, ’12, ’14 and now ‘18.
Notre
Dame – one year after stunningly qualifying only 10 fencers for the 2014 NCAAs
(its lowest number of NCAA entrants in the 18-year history of the six-weapon
format, since 2000) – returned back to its customary standard of the max.
qualification group of 12 in 2015, and again in ’16, ’17 and once again now in
‘18. The Irish had qualified 12 every year from 2008-13, the longest such
streak in college fencing at the time. Prior to 2014, Notre Dame had qualified
165 out of a possible 168 fencers (98.2%) in the six-weapon era from 2000-13 –
missing only in 2004 (men’s epee), 2005 (men’s foil, but ND won the title with
11 entrants) and 2007 (women’s epee) … before sending only one men’s epeeist
and one in women’s sabre to the 2014 NCAAs.
With 12 NCAA entrants in each of the past four seasons (2015-18), Notre Dame now has totaled 223 NCAA qualifiers (out of max. 228; 97.8%) during the six-weapon era, stretching back to 2000.
Recent teams qualifying the max. 12 NCAA entrants:
• 2018 – 3 …
Columbia, Notre Dame and Ohio State (winner TBD)
• 2017 – 2 … Columbia and Notre Dame
• 2016 – 4 … Columbia, Notre Dame, Princeton and St. John’s
• 2015 – 2 … Columbia and
Notre Dame
• 2014 – 3 … Ohio State, Penn State and Princeton
• 2013 – 2 … Notre Dame and Princeton
• 2012 – 5 … Harvard, Notre
Dame, Ohio State, Princeton and St. John’s
• 2011 – 3 … Notre Dame Ohio State and Princeton
• 2010 – 5 … Harvard, Notre Dame, Penn State, Princeton
and St. John’s
• 2009 – 3 … Penn State, Notre
Dame and Ohio State
• 2008 – 4 … Columbia, Ohio State, Notre Dame and
St. John’s
• 2007 – 3 … Columbia, Penn State and St. John’s
• 2006 – 3 … Harvard, Penn
State and Notre Dame
• 2005 – 1 … St. John’s (finished 3rd, behind 11-fencer teams ND & OSU)
• 2004 – 2 … Ohio State and Penn State
• 2003 – 2 … Notre Dame and
Ohio State
• 2002 – 2 … Notre Dame and Penn State
• 2001 – 2 … Notre Dame and St. John’s
• 2000 – 4 … Notre Dame, Penn State and Stanford
bold = won
NCAA title (ND won in 2005, with 11 fencers)
italics = runner-up (OSU was 2nd in
2005, with 11 fencers, and again in 2016 with only 11 … while Penn State
similarly has finished 2nd four times with only 11 fencers: 2001, ’03, ’11 and
’15 … and back in the first year of the six-weapon format, 2000, St. John’s
finished as runner-up with 11 fencers, a feat that SJU replicated in 2002).
• Rotating Champs – From 2011–15, there were five
different NCAA champions, followed by Columbia’s repeat title in 2016 and Notre
Dame’s 2017 championship (its second title in a seven-year span). The
5-champs-in-5-years included ND in 2011, Ohio State 2012, Princeton 2013, Penn
State 2014 and then Columbia in 2015 (PSU also had won the title in 2010). An Ohio State, Harvard or Penn championship in
2018 would yield five championship
schools over the past six years (Prin.–PSU–Col.–Col.–ND–tbd).
** ALL DATA ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CollegeFencing360.com – please credit accordingly.
• Elite of the Elite – There
are 20 fencers in the 2018 NCAA field who previously have reached the NCAA
individual top-4/medal round (a total of 25 times), led by a pair
of former two-time NCAA champions (Russo and Mackiewicz); three other
former champions (Dershwitz, Chastanet and Nemeth); and five more who have been
an NCAA runner-up (Chang, Elsissy, Blais, Yoo and Garcia) … with full list of
past medal-round fencers below:
• Notre Dame
sr. Francesca Russo (2015 & ’17 NCAA w-sabre champion; 6th in ‘16)
• Penn State sr. Andrew
Mackiewicz (2015 & ’16 NCAA m-sabre
champion; 7th in 2017)
• Harvard jr. Eli
Dershwitz (2017 NCAA m-sabre champion; ’15 semifinalist; ’16 Olympian/no college fencing)
• Ohio State sr. Max. Chastanet (2016 NCAA m-foil champion; ’17 semifinalist; 8th in ’15)
• St. John’s sr. Andras Nemeth (2017 NCAA m-foil
champion; 15th in ’15 and ’16)
• Penn St. jr. Karen Chang ('15
NCAA w-saber runner-up; 12th in ’17; Olympic bid in ’16/no college
fencing)
• Wayne St sr. Ziad Elsissy ('17
NCAA m-sabre runner-up; 7th in ’15; Olympic bid in ’16/opted out of NCAAs)
• Ohio State sr. Marc-Antoine Blais (2016 NCAA m-epee runner-up; 6th in ’15; 9th in ’17)
• Penn jr. Justin Yoo (2017 NCAA
m-epee runner-up; 7th in ’16)
• NJIT sr. Julia Garcia (2015 NCAA
w-epee runner-up; 19th in ’16 and ’17)
• Ohio State sr. Lewis Weiss (2015 and ’16 NCAA m-epee semifinalist; 5th in ’17)
• Notre Dame jr. Sabrina Massialas (2016 NCAA w-foil semifinalist; 5th in ’17)
• Notre Dame jr. Axel Kiefer (2016 NCAA m-foil
semifinalist; 8th in ’17)
• Air Force jr. Leeann Singleton-Comfort
(2016 NCAA w-sabre semifinalist/at UCSD; 14th in ’17/at AFA)
• Notre Dame jr. Amanda Sirico (2017
NCAA w-epee semifinalist; Olympic bid in ’16/no college fencing)
• Princeton sr. Edward Chin (2016 NCAA m-sabre
semifinalist; 8th in ’15)
• Princeton jr. Wesley Johnson (2017
NCAA m-epee semifinalist)
• St. John’s jr. Ben Natanzon (2017
NCAA m-sabre semifinalist)
• Notre Dame so. Ariel Simmons (2017 NCAA m-epee
semifinalist)
• Princeton so. Maia Chamberlain
(2017 NCAA w-sabre semifinalist)
In addition to Russo, Dershwitz and Nemeth, the other 2017 NCAA champions included three departed seniors: Notre Dame women’s foilist Lee Kiefer (Axel’s sister and a rare 4-time NCAA champion); Princeton women’s epeeist Anna Van Brummen; and St. John’s men’s epeeist Cooper Schumacher.
The 2018 NCAA men’s fencing field is bursting with past medal-round fencers (13), including five each in epee and sabre, plus three foilists. The 2018 NCAA women’s sabre field features four former medal-round competitors, plus a couple in epee but only one foilist (ND’s Massialas).
The 20 past medal-round fencers listed above include five total from Notre Dame (Russo, Massialas, Sirico, Kiefer, Simmons) and three Ohio State men’s fencers: Chastanet, Blais and Weiss. Despite having only nine 2018 NCAA entrants, Princeton’s contingent features three with medal-round experience (Chin, Johnson and Chamberlain). Others medal-round veterans include the St. John’s duo of Nemeth and Natanzon, along with the Penn State sabre standouts Mackiewicz and Chang, plus one each from Harvard, Wayne State, Penn, NJIT and Air Force.
… A year ago in 2017, one year removed from an Olympic year, a high number of past medal-round fencers (29) were among the 144 NCAA competitors. Those medal-round veterans included Russo, Mackiewicz, Chastanet, A. Kiefer, Weiss, Blais, Dershwitz, Chin, S. Massialas, Garcia, Chang and Singleton-Comfort … along with the likes of: eventual four-time NCAA w-foil champ L. Kiefer; Stanford’s two-time (’13 & ’15) NCAA m-foil champ Alex Massialas (brother of Sabrina); Harvard two-time NCAA w-sabre champ Adrienne Jarocki (’14 and ’16; also ’15 semifinalist); St. John’s m-epeeist Yevginiy Katyuchenko (2014 NCAA champ; ’16 semifinalist); Penn St. w-epeeist Jessie Radanovich ('16 champ; ’14 semifinalist); and Ohio St. w-foilist Eleanor Harvey ('16 champ).
The 2017 NCAA field also included a pair of former NCAA runner-up fencers: St. John’s three-time m-sabre runner-up Ferenc Valkai; and Columbia w-foilist Margaret Lu ('15 NCAA runner-up; ’16 Olympian). Finally, the 2017 NCAAs featured nine other fencers who previously had reached the NCAA semifinals: Princeton’s talented w-epee duo of Kat Holmes (’12; member of '16 Olympic team) and Van Brummen (’15); Ohio St. w-foilist Alanna Goldie (’15 and ’16); Penn St. w-sabre veteran Teodora Kakhiani (’14 and ’15); Columbia w-epeeist Mason Speta (’16); Ohio St. w-epeeist Eugenia Falqui (’16); Penn m-foilist John Vaiani (’15); St. John’s w-sabre fencer Mathilda Taharo (’15); and Cornell w-epeeist Victoria Wines (’15).
In addition to Chastanet, Mackiewicz, Harvey, Radanovich and Jarocki, the other 2016 NCAA champion was Columbia men’s epeeist Jake Hoyle (who also won in 2015).
… Two years ago in 2016, there were 22 fencers in the field with past medal-round experience, including six past champions: Russo, Mackiewicz, Karyuchenko, Jarocki, Hoyle and Penn State’s Kaito Streets ('14 m-sabre champ). Multi-year NCAA champions Kiefer and Massialas did not compete in the 2016 college fencing season, due to their Olympic team commitments.
The 2016 NCAAs also included eight former NCAA runner-up performers: Valkai, Garcia, Penn State m-foilist Nobuo Bravo (’15; also ’14 semifinalist), Princeton m-epeeist Jack Hudson (’15; also ’14 semifinalist), Penn’s Shaul Gordon (’13 m-sabre runner-up, while fencing for PSU; also ’14 semifinalist while at Penn), Harvard’s Aliya Itzkowitz (’14 w-sabre runner-up), Notre Dame m-epeeist Garrett McGrath (’14) and Columbia w-foilist Jackie Dubrovich (’13; also ’14 semifinalist).
Finally, the eight other fencers at the 2016 NCAAs with past medal-round experience (reached semifinals) included: Goldie, Radanovich, Wines, Kakhiani, Weiss, St. John’s w-foilist Marta Hausman (’15), Princeton w-sabre standout Gracie Stone (’13 & ’14) and St. John’s m-sabre veteran Roman Sydorenko (’14 & ‘15). Vaiani had to withdraw from the 2016 NCAAs due to illness.
… In 2015, SJU’s Karychenko did not have the chance to defend his NCAA title, after surprisingly finishing outside the final–21 at the 2015 NCAA Northeast Regional. One year earlier, there were two active former NCAA champions that never had the chance to defend their titles in 2014: Penn’s Michael Mills in men’s sabre, plus ND’s Ariel DeSmet in m-foil (both also failed to qualify for the NCAAs in 2015).
In addition to Hoyle, Mackiewicz, Russo, Massialas and Kiefer, the other 2015 NCAA champion was St. John’s women’s epeeist/graduate Isis Washington.
Beyond Kiefer, Jarocki, Streets and Karyuchenko, the other 2014 NCAA individual champions were Notre Dame men’s foilist Gerek Meinhardt and Stanford women’s epeeist Vivian Kong, who then took two years off from collegiate fencing to pursue a spot in the 2016 Olympic Games (with Hong Kong).
In addition to the aforementioned Karyuchenko, two other former NCAA medal-round fencers who were active in the 2014-15 college season did not reach the '15 NCAAs: Harvard m-epeeist Peregrine Badger ('13 semifinalist) and Penn w-foilist Luona Wang (2012 semifinalist). Columbia sr. m-epeeist Brian Ro failed to make the 2016 NCAA field, after finishing as a '15 semifinalist (where he lost a tight bout to teammate/eventual champ Hoyle).
** ALL DATA ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CollegeFencing360.com – please credit accordingly.
• 4-Time NCAA Qualifiers – Here are the 16 fencers (11 men; 5 women) making their fourth career appearances at the NCAAs, in 2018 (5 MS, 4 MF, 3 WE, 2 ME, 2 WS and no WF), led by four from Ohio State, three Notre Dame and two each from Columbia and St. John’s (plus one each from Penn State, Princeton, Duke, UCSD and NJIT) … note that seven of the below (Chastanet, Sudilovsky, Weiss, Blais, Mackiewicz, Zuikova and Russo) have the chance to become rare 4-year All-Americans, something achieved only 10 times during the past three seasons (see 4-time All-America lists below):
• men’s sabre
(5): Andrew Mackiewicz (Penn St), Edward Chin (Princeton), Pascual Di Tella
(Duke),
Jonah Shainberg & Jon. Fitzgerald (Notre Dame)
• men’s foil (4): Max Chastanet
& Stas Sudilovsky (Ohio St), Andras Nemeth (SJU) & David Hadler
(UCSD)
• women’s epee (3): Katie Angen (Columbia), Veronika
Zuikova (SJU) and Julia Garcia (NJIT)
• men’s epee (2): Lewis Weiss
& Marc-Antoine Blais (OSU)
• women’s sabre (2): Francesca
Russo (ND) and Lena Johnson (Columbia)
>> There also are 20 fencers in the 2018 NCAA field making their 3rd
career NCAA appearances:
… 5 in men’s epee (Porter Hesselgrave/Columbia; Justin Yoo/Penn; Bryn
Hammarberg/Duke;
Sean Strong/Stanford & Alex Sless/Incarnate Word)
… 5 in men’s sabre (Calvin Liang/Columbia; Eli Dershwitz/Harvard; Jeffrey
Dalli/Stanford; Ian Williams/NYU & Ziad Elsissy/Wayne State)
… 5 in women’s sabre (Tara Hassett/ND; Karen Chang/PSU; Carly
Weber-Levine/Stanford;
Leanne Singleton-Comfort/Air Force & Pati
Palczynska/Wayne St)
… 2 in men’s foil (Axel Kiefer/ND & Phillip Shin/NYU)
… 2 in women’s foil (Sabrina Massialas/ND & MacKenzie Lawrence/Harvard)
… and Ohio State women’s epeeist Emma von Dadelszen.
• Recent 4-Year Fencing All-Americans (top-12 NCAA finish):
2017 – Lee Kiefer (Notre Dame w-foil; NCAA champion in '13, '14, '15 & '17)
2017 – Alexander Massialas (Stanford m-foil; NCAA champion in '13, '15; semifinalist '14 & '17)
2017 – Ferenc Valkai (St. John's m-sabre; NCAA runner-up in '14, '15 & '16; 11th in '17)
2017 – Teodora Kakhiani (Penn State w-sabre; NCAA runner-up in '17; semifinalist '13 & '14; 7th in '16)
2017 – Kat Holmes (Princeton w-epee; NCAA runner-up in '17; semifinalist '12; 5th in '13; 7th in '14)
2016 – Jackie Dubrovich (Columbia w-foil; NCAA runner-up '13 & '16; semifinalist '14; 7th in '15)
2016 – Gracie Stone (Princeton w-sabre; NCAA runner-up '16; semifinalist '13 & '14; 8th in '15)
2016 – Marta Hausman (St. John's w-epee; NCAA semifinalist '15; 11th at '13 NCAAs, 8th in '14, 6th in '15)
2015 – Madi Zeiss (Notre Dame w-foil; NCAA runner-up '14; semifinalist '13; 8th at '12 NCAAs, 5th in '15)
2015 – Brian Kanishege (Harvard m-foil; 12th at '12 NCAAs, 7th in '13, 8th in '14, 10th in '15)
… Notes: the above 10 fencers include three in w-foil, two m-foil, two w-sabre, two w-epee and one m-sabre; none in m-epee … there are two each from Notre Dame, Princeton and St. John's … Kiefer, Massialas and Holmes all did not fence during the 2016 college season, while preparing for the Olympics (Holmes also took a college off-year in 2015) … seven fencers at the 2018 NCAAs will be aiming at their own 4rth All-America finish: the Ohio State quartet consisting of foilists Max. Chastanet and Stas Sudilovsky along with epeeists Lewis Weiss and Marc-Antoine Blais, plus Penn State m-sabre standout Andrew Mackiewicz, Notre Dame m-sabre veteran Jonah Shainberg, St. John's w-epeeist Veronika Zuikova and Notre Dame w-sage leader Francesca Russo).
• SAME OLD, SAME OLD
(fencers making 3rd or 4th career appearance at NCAAs, in 2018):
Notre Dame (6) – 4-timers Fitzgerald, Shainberg & Russo … 3-timers Kiefer, Massialas & Hassett
Ohio State (5) – 4-timers Chastanet, Sudilovsky, Blais & Weiss … 3-timer von Dadelszen
Columbia (4) – 4-timers Angen & Johnson … 3-timers Hesselgrave & Liang
Stanford (3) – 3-timers Strong, Dalli & Weber-Levine
Penn State (2) – 4-timer Mackiewicz … 3-timer Chang
Duke (2) – 4-timer Di Tella … 3-timer Hammarberg
St. John’s (2) – 4-timers Nemeth & Zuikova
Harvard (2) – 3-timers Dershwitz & Lawrence
NYU (2) – 3-timers Shin & Williams
Wayne State (2) – 3-timers Elsissy & Palczynska
Princeton (1) – 4-timer Chin
UC San Diego (1) – 4-timer
Hadler
NJIT (1) – 4-timer Garcia
Penn (1) – 3-timer Yew Incarnate Word (1) – 3-timer Sless
Air Force (1) – 3-timer Singleton-Comfort
>> the 36 fencers referenced above (3rd- and 4th-time entrants among the 2018 NCAA field) include 10 in m-sabre, plus 7 each in m-epee & w-sabre, 6 m-foil, 4 w-epee and a pair of w-foilists.
> 12 fencers (4 men; 8 women) made their 4th career appearances at the NCAAs, in 2017:
• w-epee (5): Eugenia Falqui (Ohio State), Kat Holmes (Princeton), Jessie
Radanovich (Penn State),
Mason Speta (Columbia) & Victoria Wines (Cornell)
• w-foil (2): Lee Kiefer (Notre Dame) and Zuzanna Sobczak (Wayne State)
• m-sabre (3): Fares Arfa (OSU), Peter Pak (Prin.) & Ferenc Valkai (St.
John’s)
• w-sabre (1): Teodora Kakhiani (Penn State)
• m-foil (1): Alex Massialas (Stanford)
… the above 12 include two each
from OSU, PSU & Princeton, plus one each from Columbia, Cornell, Harvard,
ND, SJU, Stanford & Wayne St. … 7 above – Holmes, Radanovich,
Kiefer, Pak, Valkai, Kakhiani & Massialas – had the chance to become 4-time
All-Americans, with 5 of them completing the rare 4th
All-America finish: Holmes (semifinalist–5th–7th from 2012-14, then 2017
runner-up after two years off for Olympics), Kiefer (4-time NCAA champ, '13-'15
& ’17), Valkai (runner-up ’14-’16, then 11th in ‘17), Kakhiani
(semifinalist–semifinalist–7th–runner-up from ’14-’17) & Massialas (’13
& ’15 champ; ’14 & ’17 semifinalist).
> 19 fencers (4 men; 5 women) made their 4th career appearances at the NCAAs, in 2016:
• w-foil (4): Jackie Dubrovich
(Col.), Marta Hausman (SJU), Mary McElwee (AFA), Angelia
Gangemi (Cornell)
• m-foil (2): Adam Mathieu
(Columbia) & Michele Caporizzi (SJU)
• m-epee (1): Garrett McGrath (Notre Dame)
• m-sabre (1): Shaul Gordon (Penn; spent ’13 at
PSU)
• w-sabre (1): Gracie
Stone (Princeton)
… the above 9 include two each
from Columbia and SJU, plus one each from Air Force, Cornell, ND, Penn &
Princeton … 3 of these fencers – Dubrovich, Hausman & Stone – had the
chance to become 4-time All-Americans, and each did so: Dubrovich was
runner-up–semifinalist–7th–runner-up at the 2013-16 NCAAs … Hausman
11th–8th–semifinalist–6th … and Stone semifinalist–semifinalist–8th–runner-up).
>
And back at the 2015 NCAAs, these 10 fencers (2 men; 8 women) were making their 4th appearance:
• w-foil (4): Alina Antokhina (Penn St.), Lauren Miller (Yale), Ambika Singh
(Princeton) & Madi Zeiss (ND)
• w-epee (2): Emma Vaggo (Harvard) & Sarah Collins (Duke)
• w-sabre (2): Gillian Litynski (North Carolina) & Christine Whalen (Brown)
• m-foil (1): Brian Kaneshige (Harvard)
• m-sabre (1): Will Spear (Columbia)
… the above 10 include two from
Harvard, plus one each from: Brown, Columbia, Duke, UNC, ND, PSU, Princeton
& Yale … 4 of the above (Zeiss, Singh, Kaneshige and Spear) were potential
4-time All-Americans, with Zeiss (8th–semifinalist–runner-up–5th at
2012-15 NCAAs) and Kaneshige (12th–7th–8th–10th) both achieving that rare
career feat.
... Interestingly enough, each of the past four seasons has included one weapon with no four-time participants: women’s foil in 2018, men’s epee in 2017, women’s epee in 2016, and men’s epee also back in 2015 (generally, epee success is the hardest to repeat year-to-year in college fencing).
• The sampling of the above four-year NCAA participants (47 total), spanning
2015–18 includes the following breakdown: 10 MS–10 WF–10 WE–8 MF–6 WS–3 ME.
…. and here is the school breakdown for those 47 four-year NCAA participants during the past four seasons:
•
Columbia: 6 (Spear/MS…Mathieu/MF…Dubrovich/WF…Speta/WE…Angen/WE…Johnson/WS)
• Notre Dame: 6 (Zeiss/WF…McGrath/ME…Kiefer/WF…Shainberg/MS…Fitzgerald/MS…Russo/WS)
• Ohio State: 6 (Arfa/MS…Falqui/WE…Chastanet/WF…Sudilovsky/WF…Blais/ME…Weiss/ME)
• Princeton: 5 (Singh/WF…G. Stone/WS…Pak/MS…Holmes/WE…Chin/MS)
• St. John’s: 5 (Caporizi/MF…Hausman/WF…Valkai/MS…Nemeth/MF…Zuikova/WE)
• Penn State: 4 (Antokina/WF…Radanovich/WE…Kakhiani/WS… Mackiewicz/MS)
• Harvard: 2 (Kaneshige/MF…Vaggo/WE)
• Cornell: 2 (Gangemi/WF…Vines/WE)
• Duke: 2 (Collins/WE…Di Tella/MS)
… one each: Air Force, Brown, UC San Diego, NJIT, North Carolina, U.-Penn,
Stanford, Wayne State & Yale
** ALL DATA ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CollegeFencing360.com – please credit accordingly.
• New Faces in Old Places – A quick breakdown of the 44 freshmen (excluding redshirts, when clearly noted) in the 2018 NCAA field (nearly one-third of the 144 NCAA entrants are freshmen: 20 men and 24 women): 13 women’s foilists … 11 men’s foilists … 7 women’s epeeists … 5 men’s epeeists … and a total of only 8 freshman sabre fencers in the 2018 NCAA field (4 men and 4 women).
> The 31 freshmen in the 2017 NCAA field included: 8 MF–7 WS–5 MS–4 WF–4 WE–3 ME … and in 2016, there were 37 freshman qualifiers: 8 MS–8 ME–6 WE–6 WF–5 WS–4 MF.
• Freshman Qualifiers in Recent NCAAs (2015–18):
2015 (42) … 9 MF–8 ME–8 MS–1 WF–6 WE–10
WS
2016 (37) … 4 MF–8 ME–8 MS–6 WF–6 WE–5 WS
2017 (31) … 8 MF–3 ME–5 MS–4 WF–4 WE–7 WS
2018 (44) … 11 MF–5 ME–4 MS–13 WF–7 WE–4
WS
4-Yr
Totals (154): 32 MF–24 ME–25 MS–24 WF–23 WE–26 WS
… the biggest freshman weapon
representation over the past four years has been: 13 women’s foilists in 2018 …
11 men’s foilists also in 2018 … 10 women’s sabre rookies in 2015 … and 9 men’s
foilists in 2015.
The 44 freshmen in the 2018 NCAA field include 6 who won Regional titles (out of 24 total weapon titles):
• Harvard m-foilist Geoffrey Tourette (as #1 initial seed at
Northeast Regional)
• Penn State
w-sabre newcomer Zara Moss (#1 intitial seed at Mid-Atl./So. Reg.)
• Stanford w-foilist Madeline Liao (#1
West Regional seed)
• UCSD w-epeeist Emma Zmurk (#1 West Regional seed)
• Harvard’s w-epeeist Saanchi KukadiaWong (#9 initial seed at Northeast Regional)
• Penn’s w-foilist Nicole Wong (#10
initial seed at Mid-Atlantic/South Regional)
… In addition to Tourette, Moss, Liao and Zmurk, 5 other freshmen entered their
respective Regionals as a #1 seed, based on the overall strength/results of
their 2007-18 season:
• Columbia w-foilist Sylvie Binder (runner-up at Northeast Regional)
• Stanford m-foilist Lucas Orts (runner-up
at West Regional)
• Air Force m-sabre newcomer Matthew Goode (runner-up at West Regional)
• Notre Dame m-foilist Nick Itkin (placed 3rd at Midwest Regional)
• Ohio State’s w-foilist Camilla Rivano (placed 5th at Midwest Regional)
… And 5 other freshmen were Regional #2 seed or runner-up (or both), along w/ Binder, Orts & Goode:
• Penn State w-foillst Lodovica Bicego (Mid-Atl./So. Reg. runner-up, as #3 seed)
• Ohio State w-epeeist Alexanne Verret (Midwest Reg. runner-up, as #3 seed)
• Air Force m-foilist Brian Swicegood (West Regional #2 seed; placed 3rd)
• Duke m-foilist Brycen Rushing
(Mid-Atl./So. Regional runner-up, as #4 seed)
• UCSD w-foilist Konami Masui (West Regional #2 seed;
placed 6th)
… Another 8 freshmen were either their
Regional #3 seed or placed 3rd (or both), also some above:
• Columbia m-foilist Sidarth Kumbla (3rd place at Northeast Reg., as #3 seed)
• Air Force w-foilist Mackensie Nechanicky 3rd place at West Reg., as #3 seed)
• Princeton w-epeeist Tatiana Stewart (3rd at Mid-Atl./South Reg.,
as #4 seed)
• UCSD w-epeeist Emily
Beihold (West Reg. #3 seed; placed
4th)
• Ohio State’s w-sabre newcomer Maddalena Bosettl (3rd at Midwest Reg., as #5 seed)
• Princeton m-sabre newcomer Daniel Kwak (Mid-Atl./So. #3 seed; placed 7th)
• St. John’s m-sabre newcomer ares Ferjani (3rd at Northeast Reg., as #7 seed)
• Penn m-epeeist Sean Wilson (3rd at Mid-Atlantic/So. Regional, as #20 seed)
A full rundown of the freshman entrants in the 2018 NCAAs will be included with the specific weapon overviews, to be posted this week on CollegeFencing360.com.
• Recent Team Title History– Princeton in 2013 captured the
program's first NCAA combined team title, dating back to when the men's and
women's championships merged in 1990. Spanning the 11 seasons prior to the
Tigers’ historic title (2003-12), three different schools each had collected
three NCAA titles: Notre Dame (2003, ’05 and ’11), Ohio State (’04, ’08
and ’12) and Penn State (’07, ’09 and ’00, also again
in ’14), with the other in that span won by Harvard in 2006. The Irish
also won in 1994, the fifth year of the combined men's and women's
championship, and have been the NCAA runner-up eight times over the past 22
seasons (1996, '97, '98, '99, 2000, '08, '09 and '13).
Columbia won the NCAA title in 1992
and ’93 (the third and fourth years under the combined format), but the
Lions had not returned to the top spot (or runner-up position) in more
than two
decades – until claiming the title in 2015, and again in ’16. Harvard was
somewhat of a surprise winner of the 2006 NCAA team title, held in Houston.
It has been 17 years since St. John’s won the NCAA
team fencing title (’01), but the Red Storm have been close five other times
during the combined format – finishing as runner-up during that 28-year stretch
in 1995, 2000, ’02, ’07 and ’10 (SJU was among the top
contenders for the 2016 title, with 12 qualifiers, but finished 4th).
During the 28-year history of previous men’s and women’s
combined NCAA championships, Penn State has either won the title (13 – 1990, ’91, ’95, ’96, ’97, ’98, ’99,
2000, ’02, ’07, ’09, ’10 and ’14) or finished as
runner-up (9 – 1992, ’93, ’94, 2001, ’03, ’04, ’06,
’11 and ’ 5) in 22 of those years, all but six: 2005 (when ND won,
OSU 2nd), 2008 (OSU won, ND 2nd), 2012 (OSU won, Princeton 2nd), 2013
(Princeton was the champs, ND the runner-up), 2016 (Columbia/OSU) and 2017
(ND/Columbia) … it looks likely that 2018 also will be a rare year
with PSU not among the top-two finishers, since the Nittany Lions qualified
only 10.
** ALL DATA ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CollegeFencing360.com – please credit accordingly.
• Who’s Back for More? – Here’s a breakdown of each 2018 NCAA weapon field, in terms of fencers returning from the 2017 NCAA entrants:
• 15 (of 24) men’s sabre fencers (plus three w/ NCAA experience pre-’17)
• 14 (of 24) women’s sabre fencers (plus one w/ NCAA experience pre-’17)
• 12 (of 24) men’s foilists
• 12 (of 24) men’s epeeists (plus three w/ NCAA experience pre-’17)
• 9 (of 24) women’s epeeists
• 5 (of 24) women’s foilists (plus one w/ NCAA experience pre-’17)
>> total returners from 2017
NCAAs: 67 of 144 (47%), also 8 others w/ NCAA exp. pre-'17 (75 of 144 is 52%)
… And here’s how many former All-Americans (based on previous NCAA top-12 finishes) are in the 2018 NCAA Championship field:
• 14 men’s sabre fencers (5 w/ medal-round exp. … 2 former champs; 1 runner-up)
• 10 men’s foilists (3 w/ medal-round exp. … 2 former champions)
• 10 men’s epeeists (5 w/ medal-round exp. … 2 former runner-ups)
• 12 women’s sabre fencers (4 w/ medal-round exp. … 1 former champ; 1 r-up)
• 5 women’s epeeists (2 w/ medal-round exp. … 1 former runner-up)
• 3 women’s foilists (1 w/ medal-round experince)
>> totals: 54 former All-Americans, 20 with medal-round experience – led by five former champions, plus five others who have been an NCAA runner-up)
Four-Year Sample of NCAA Field (2015–18):
NCAA Year…..Prev. Yr Return (total)…Past All-Am..Past Medal Rd (Champ+Runner-Up)
2018 NCAAs…67 (75)…54…20…5…5
2017 NCAAs…65 (78)…46…26…8…5
2016 NCAAs…71 (76)…55…22…6…8
2015 NCAAs…66 (68)…45…20…5…6
TOTALS…....269 (297)..200..88…24...24
>> Over the past four years (2015-18),
the 144-fencer NCAA field has included an avg. of 74.8 fencers (52%) who had
competed previously in the NCAAs (avg. of 67.3 in the previous year’s NCAAs),
plus an avg. of 50 past All-Americans, 22 former medal-round fencers, and six
past NCAA champions along with six former NCAA runner-ups … meaning that the
2018 NCAA field is in line with the avg. NCAA Championship experience, above
the avg. in former All-Americans (54, vs. 50) and just a tad below the avg.
past medal-round fencers (20, vs. 22), with the five former champions and five
former runner-ups off by only one each.
• Former All-Americans in Recent NCAA Fields
(2015–18):
NCAA Year…..M-Foil...M-Epee...M-Sabre...W-Foil…W-Epee…W-Sabre...Total
2018 NCAAs……10….….10…….…14……...…3……….5……….…12….…...54
2017 NCAAs…… 4…..…. 5…….......6…………8…..….12……….…11……....46
2016 NCAAs……10….….10…….…11……...…7……….8………...…9……….55
2015 NCAAs…… 7….….
7……..…10……..…10…...….5………...…6…........45
4-Yr. Totals…..…31….….32…….…41……..…28….….30….………38……..200
>> Over the past four years (2015-18), the NCAA 144-fencer field has included an average of 50 former All-Americans – led by both men’s (41; avg. 10.3) and women’s (37; 9.5) sabre.
• Former NCAA Tournament Fencers in Recent NCAA Fields (2015–18):
NCAA Year…..M-Foil...M-Epee...M-Sabre...W-Foil…W-Epee…W-Sabre...Total
2018 NCAAs……12….….15…….…18……..….6……..…9………...15….…...75
2017 NCAAs……11……..12…….…14…….….11………18……......12…..…..78
2016 NCAAs……14….….11…….…13…….….11………14……......13…..…..76
2015 NCAAs……12….….10…….…11……......16…….…9…….......10….…...68
4-Yr. Totals…..…49….….48…….…56…….….44………50………...50….….297
>> Over the past four years (2015-18), the NCAA fencing field has included the most returning All-Americans in men’s sabre (56, or an avg. of 14 per year), followed by 50 in both women’s epee and women’s sabre, 49 men’s foil, 48 men’s epee and only 44 in women’s foil (avg. of 11 per year, clearly due to the 2018 total of only six w-foilists with past NCAA Championship experience). Four of the weapons have virtually the same 4-year total (48-50) of returning NCAA fencers. … The number of NCAA-veteran m-sabre fencers in the 2017 NCAA field (18) equals the most by any weapon over the past four years (also 2017 w-epee), while the current m-epee total (15) is the highest for that weapon in the four-year sample. In addition to the very low total of NCAA-experienced w-foilists in the 2018 field, the w-epee total of nine NCAA veterans if half of what it was (18) at the 2017 NCAAs, while w-sabre (15) is that weapon’s highest mark over the past four years, in terms of NCAA-experienced fencers.
** ALL DATA ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CollegeFencing360.com – please credit accordingly.
• At-Large Entries – The 144-fencer field for the 2018 NCAAs was rounded out by two at-large entries for each weapon, with the bulk of the competitors (132) advancing directly from the four regions (Northeast, Mid-Atlantic/South, Midwest and West) based on pre-determined allotments. The West Region received a big boost via the at-large qualification, adding four spots (one in each men’s weapon, plus women’s foil). The Mid-Atlantic/South Region also features four at-large qualifiers in the 2018 NCAAs, in men’s foil and sabre, and women’s foil and epee.
The other four at-large entrants in the 2018 NCAAs include a pair from the Northeast Region (in men’s and women’s epee), plus a pair of women’s sabre entrants from the Midwest Regional.
(Note: the exact at-large qualifiers are not formally announced by the NCAA, but team websites often note the at-large status, while other at-large competitors can be surmised by educated guess, as noted below … ).
Based on the Midwest Regional seeds and finishes, it appears that the most notable at-large addition into the 2018 NCAAs is Ohio State sophomore Sarah Merza … producing the maximum 12 qualifiers for the Buckeyes, with OSU’s chances at a national title possibly hinging on quality production from Merza (who had been the Midwest Regional top seed but placed 7th).
The addition of Merza and another apparent at-large fencer, Wayne State junior Pati Palczynska, gives the Midwest Region one-fourth of the women’s sabre competitors at the 2018 NCAAs (6-of-24). Palczynska and Merza are strong medal-round contenders, having each finished 5th in previous NCAAs (Merza in ’17 and Palczynska in ’16, before placing 7th in ’17).
It appears highly probable that Ohio State was the only 12-fencer contender that needed any at-large entrants to reach the maximum, as Columbia and Notre Dame both likely qualified 12 automatically by virtue of their pre-Regional strength factors and Regional finishes. It also appears that two other top teams bumped up to 10 qualifiers, with apparent at-large entrants earned by Penn’s Julian Merchant (men’s sabre) and Penn State’s Sebastiano Bicego (men’s foil).
The West Region’s four at-large qualifiers appear to be the following: Incarnate Word’s Renars Blumentals (men’s foil), UC San Diego’s Zachary Kravitz (men’s epee), Stanford’s Jeffrey Dalli (men’s sabre) and Air Force’s Konami Masui (women’s foil). In addition to the Penn and PSU additions, the other two Mid-Atlantic/South Region at-large qualifiers appear to be Temple’s Kennedy Lovelace (women’s foil) and North Carolina’s Justine DeGrasse (women’s epee), yielding UNC’s only 2018 NCAA entrant.
Both of the Northeast Region’s apparent at-large entrants come from non-contending teams and produced their school’s only qualifiers: Sacred Heart’s Dante Centeno (men’s epee) and Boston College’s Ella Morgan, the latest in BC’s recent run of quality women’s epee fencers.
• Apparent NCAA At-Large Entrants (during past three seasons; 2016–18):
3 – North Carolina, Northwestern,
Stanford & Wayne State
2 – Boston College, Duke,
Incarnate Word, Ohio State, Penn, Penn State, Sacred Heart & Temple
1 – Air Force, UC San Diego, Columbia, Harvard, NYU,
NJIT, Notre Dame & Yale
One year ago in 2017, the 12 NCAA at-large entrants included four from the Northeast, three each from Mid-Atlantic/South and Midwest, and only two out of the West. Columbia appeared to earn its 12th qualifier in 2017 via the at-large process (Calvin Liang/sabre) but the Lions still finished second to Notre Dame, the only other 12-entrant team in 2017.
The other apparent at-large qualifiers in 2017 included fencers from: Duke (Lindsay Sapienza/w-sabre), Harvard (Shawn Wallace/w-epee), Incarnate Word (Alexander Sless/m-epee), NJIT (Julia Garcia/w-epee), NYU (Hans Engel/m-epee), North Carolina (Meredith Bozentka/w-sabre), Northwestern (Stephanie Chan/w-foil), Ohio State (Fredrick Koch/m-sabre), Stanford (Darren Mei/m-foil), Wayne State (Kasia Lachman/w-foil) and Yale (Aiden Ahn/m-foil).
In both 2015 and ’16, it appeared that Notre Dame bumped up from 11 to 12 qualifiers via the at-large process (Jon. Fitzgerald/m-sabre in ’15 and then w-epeeist Madeline Antekeier in ’16) … with Columbia still winning the NCAA title in both of those seasons. One other contending team looked to have received an at-large bump in 2016, with the addition of Ohio State’s Hector Florencia (in sabre).
Other 2016 at-large enrtants appeared to come from the following teams: Penn State (Howie Chan/m-foil), Stanford, Boston College, Sacred Heart, North Carolina, Penn, Duke, Wayne State, Northwestern with two, and Temple.
** ALL DATA ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CollegeFencing360.com – please credit accordingly.
• Team Replacement Options – There were 16 fencers across the nation who fell within the NCAA qualification standards (in addition to two of their higher-ranked teammates) and thus were “team options” for the NCAAs. Eight teams had some options in terms of which two fencers from certain weapons to send to the 2018 NCAAs, but in nearly every case those teams went strictly by the core numbers (as determined by the NCAA qualification formula that is 40% season strength factor leading into the Regional weekend and then 60% based on Regional finish).
Only two of these fencers were selected by their schools to compete in the 2018 NCAAs: Ohio State veterans Marc-Antoine Blais (men’s epee) and Fredrick Koch (men’s sabre), replacing junior Oliver Shindler and senior Hector Florencia, respectively.
The Columbia women had four optional fencers: foilists Ester Schreiber and Quinn Crum, epeeist Audrey Yun, and sabre veteran Ilana Solomon. Penn had three fencer options: men’s foilist Raymond Chen, men’s epeeist Zsombor Garzo and women’s foilist Danielle Ferdon.
Penn State’s deep men’s sabre tradition yielded a pair of 2018 NCAA options: Matthew Lewicki and Marcel Dolegiewicz. St. John’s had a pair of options in men’s epee: Omari Smoak and Ivan Zagoruiko. The following three fencers rounded out the 2018 team options: Harvard’s Shawn Wallace (women’s sabre), Princeton women’s epeeist Farrah Lee-Elabd and Yale women’s foilist Camille Pham.
… A year ago in 2017, team options were utilized by each of the top contenders: Notre Dame sophomore men’s foilist Axel Kiefer replaced junior Virgile Collineau, and Columbia senior women’s epeeist Mason Speta rotated in for freshman Giana Vierheller (Kiefer and Speta both had been 2016 NCAA semifinalists). St. John’s similarly opted for senior men’s epeeist Cooper Schumacher over junior Curtis McDowald for the 2017 NCAAs, while Duke women’s epeeist Camille Esnault was a late injury replacement for Penn’s Alejandra Trumble.
… Back in 2016, three
team options were utilized, including a couple Columbia switches that helped
the Lions repeat NCAA title:
> Columbia sr. men’s foilist/All-American Harry Bergman
replaced fr. Nolen Scruggs
> Columbia jr. women’s foilist/NCAA veteran Sara Taffel replaced
fr. Iman Blow
> St. John’s so. women’s epeeist Ally Ryf replaced
fellow veteran Alex Tannous
A further move was made official shortly before the 2016 NCAAs, as Penn had to replace sophomore men’s foilist John Vaiani due to illness. Vaiani – who was a 2015 NCAA semifinalist (lost 12–15 to PSU’s Nobuo Bravo) – was the No. 2 seed heading into the Mid-Atlantic/South Regional and secured his spot in the NCAA Championship field by placing 8th. Since Penn had another men’s foilist who fell within the qualification standards, freshman Aaron Ahn (Los Angeles, Calif.) filled Vaiani’s spot. Ahn was the Regional #9 seed in 2016 before reaching the final pool-of-12, where he finished 10th.
… Three years ago, in 2015, Penn State installed sophomore Teodora Kakiani (2014 NCAA runner-up; then returned to medal round in ’15) as their second women’s sabre competitor for the NCAAs (PSU had three of the top-5 women’s sabre finishers in the 2015 Mid-Atlantic/South Regional).
There also was a late change to the 2015 Columbia lineup, as the Lions had an option at men’s foil and opted to go with junior Adam Mathieu over sophomore Drew Johnston. Mathieu had been a two-time NCAA participant and nearly earned All-America honors in 2014 (13th at NCAAs, after 16th in ’13) … he then placed 12th to help the Lions capture the 2015 NCAA title. Johnston would have been making his NCAA debut.
• No-Return Trip ... – While many fencers are making their return to the NCAAs in 2018, there are several notable fencers (from 39 total) who competed in the 2017 NCAAs but came up short in their bid for a spot in the 2018 final weekend (the other 105 competitors from the 2017 NCAAS are either back in the field or graduated/moved on).
There were 16 returning All-Americans from the 2017 NCAAs that failed to return to the NCAAs in 2018 – most notably, a pair of foil standouts in Columbia junior Nolen Scruggs (the 2017 NCAA runner-up) and Penn senior John Vaiani, who reached the NCAA semifinals as a freshman in 2015 and later placed 9th at the 2017 NCAAs). Scruggs finished well outside of the final pool-of-12 at the 2018 Northeast Regional, ultimately placing 18th despite his #5 intitial seed. Vaiani similarly the 15th-place finisher at the 2018 Mid-Atlantic/South Regional to counteract his high initial seeding (#3).
Others of note who are not in the 2018 NCAA field include three who previously earned second team All-America honors (5th-8th place at NCAAs): UC San Diego so. women’s epeeist Taly Yukelson (UCSD; 6th in ’17); Harvard jr. men’s epeeist Albert Chien (7th in ’17); and Princeton jr. Michael Popovici (8th in ’17).
And the following 11 fencers are past third team All-Americans (9th-12th place at NCAAs) who failed to qualify for the 2018 NCAAs:
• Temple sr. women’s epeeist Safa Ibrahim (9th in ’17; 17th in ’16; 16th in ’15)
• Princeton sr. men’s epeeist Thomas Dudey (9th in ’15 and ’16; 16th in ‘17)
• Harvard jr. women’s epeeist Shawn Wallace (9th in’16; 20th in ’17)
• Penn so. Sara Papp (women’s sabre; 9th in ’17)
• Penn sr. men’s epeeist Zsombor Garzo (10th in ’15, 11th in ’16; 17th in ‘17)
• NJIT sr. men’s foilist Simon Rizell (18th in ’15; 10th in ’16; 22nd in ‘17)
• Penn so. women’s foilist Danielle Ferdon (10th in ’17)
• Princeton jr. Sage Palmedo (women’s sabre; 10th in ’17)
• North Carolina senior Meredith Bozentka (w-sabre; 11th in ’16; 18th in ’17)
• Penn State so. women’s foilist Jade Rowland (12th in ’17)
• Duke jr. women’s epeeist Camille Esnault (12th in ’17)
It should be noted that three of the above fencers – Wallace, Garzo and Ferdon – fell within the NCAA qualification standards but were not selected to represent their team (due to the max. limit of two per team per weapon). Columbia jr. Ilana Solomon (20th at the 2017 NCAAs) also was a team optional for the 2018 NCAAs, due to her qualification standards, but she was not selected.
** ALL DATA ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CollegeFencing360.com – please credit accordingly.
• ALL-TIME NCAA TEAM CHAMPIONS:
>> During Combined Men’s/Women’s Championship era (1990–2017):
13 – Penn State (90-91-95-96-97-98-99-00-02-07-09-10-14)
5 – Notre Dame (94-03-05-11-17)
4 – Columbia (92-93-15-16)
3 – Ohio State (04-08-12)
1 – St. Johns (2001), Harvard (2006) and Princeton (2013)
… from 1994-2003, PSU or ND won the title
every year not 2001 (SJU) … prior to Harvard in 2006, only five schools had won
titles in the combined era (PSU, Columbia, ND, SJU and OSU), with Princeton in
2013 then becoming only the seventh team on this list.
>> All Eras NCAA Fencing Team
Titles
(men ’41-’42 & ’47-’89; women ’82-’89; combined ’90-’17):
15 – Columbia (men: 51-52-54*-55-63-65-68-71*-87-88-89; combined: 92-93-15-16)
14 – Penn State (women: 83; combined: 90-91-95-96-97-98-99-00-02-07-09-10-14)
12 – NYU (men’s titles: 47-54*-57-60-61-66-67-70-71*-73-74-76)
10 – Wayne State (men: 75-79-80-82-83-84-85; women: 82-88-89)
9 – Notre Dame (men: 77-78-86; women 87; combined: 94-03-05-11-17)
4 – Ohio State (men 42; combined 04-08-12)
4 – Penn (men 53-69-81; women 86)
3 – Navy# (men’s titles: 50-59-62)
2 – Princeton (men 64; combined 2013)
2 – Yale (women 84-85)
2 – Illinois# (men 56-58)
1 – Harvard (combined 2006)
1 – St. Johns (combined 2001)
1 – Detroit (men 1972)
1 – Army# (men 1949*)
1 – Rutgers# (men 1949*)
1 – CCNY# (men 1948)
1 – Northwestern# (men 1941)
# = no longer sponsor varsity men’s fencing
>> the 84 total titles listed above include three shared men’s titles: Columbia and NYU in both 1954 and ’71, plus Army and Rutgers in ’49)
** ALL DATA ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CollegeFencing360.com – please credit accordingly. **
• WINNING WITH FEWER THAN 12 (yes, the following point is moot
for 2018, with no 11-bid teams) – It is not unprecedented, but it is rare,
for a team with 11 entrants to win the NCAA Fencing title over a
team with the full 12 … and it’s certainly more conceivable when
there’s only two teams with 12 (as opposed to four or five with the max.
entrants, as there have been in recent years).
Most notably, such an “underdog title" happened in 2005 when Notre Dame's 11-fencer contingent rallied to beat another 11-fencer team, Ohio State, in a 173-171 thriller that played out in Houston (St. John's had been the only team to qualify 12 but faded and finished third, at 162). That 2005 NCAA format closed with two days of the women’s bouts, as Notre Dame surged past OSU (which had only 5 women’s entrants) – with the ND six-fencer contingent comprised entirely of fencers who competed in at least one NCAA individual final during their respective careers (foil–Alicja Kryczalo and Andrea Ament; epee–Kerry Walton and Amy Orlando; sabre–Mariel Zagunis and Valerie Providenza).
Over the past 13 seasons (2006–18), there has been an average of 3.2 teams with the maximum 12 entrants at the NCAA Championships – including five in 2010 and ’12 (four in ’08 and ’16; three in ’06, ’07, ’09, ’11, ’14 and ’18; and a low of two in 2013, ‘15 and ’17).
In the 19 years of six-weapon competition at the NCAAs
(2000-18), an average of 2.9 teams have received the maximum 12 NCAA
qualifiers. There have been two years with five 12-entrant teams (2010 and ’12)
… three others with four 12-qualifier squads (2000, ’08 and ’16) … six
different yes with three 12-entrant teams (2006-07-09-11-14-18) … seven with a
pair of 12-bid teams (2001-02-03-04-13-15-17) … and
only one year with a single 12-entrant team, in 2005.
• Home Facility Advantage – Ohio State won the NCAA title at its home facility, in 2008 and '12. Penn State also owns a recent NCAA title while fencing at home, in 2010 … and Notre Dame technically was the host school (in Indianapolis) when it won the 2017 NCAA title.
** ALL DATA ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF CollegeFencing360.com – please credit accordingly.