Team Rankings (CF360 Fencing Coaches Poll, w/ archive)

COLLEGE FENCING 360.com

(rankings updated below, as of March 20, 2018 – final poll of 4 for 2018 season)

CF360 is the official home for the national college fencing poll and serves as both the sponsor and administrator of the poll. The official name of the rankings is the CollegeFencing360.com Fencing Coaches Poll. There will be four polls released during the 2018 spring season. Links to poll historical archive are included below, as are assorted notes from the 2014-18 polls (scroll down). More archived polls from pre-2014 will be added, along with quick access to each of the all-time polls (dating back to 2001).

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Note: ONLY 10 TEAMS ARE RANKED (rest are receiving votes; can reference as "received 12th-most votes" etc. but not #12).

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-18): MEN | WOMEN

CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #4 – March 20, 2018
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

The Ohio State men's fencing team and the Columbia women held down the No. 1 rankings in the final 2018 CF360 College Fencing Coaches Polls, which were compiled prior to the 2018 NCAA Fencing Championships (March 22–25). The OSU men impressively won all three weapon titles at the Midwest Regional, highlighted by finishing 1–2–3 in epee. The Columbia women – who had been tied with Notre Dame in the previous poll – excelled in all three weapons at the challenging Northeast Regional, most notably finishing 1–2–3 in foil (plus a 6th-place finish), along with producing the Regional sabre runner-up and 3rd-place finisher. The Lions added three top-6 finishers (3rd-4th-6th) in epee to round out their strong Regional showing.

The Duke men – who qualified five fencers (out of a max. six) for the 2018 NCAA Championship – bumped up one spot to No. 6, the highest ranking ever for a Duke men's or women's team. The Duke men were ranked No. 7 in the final 2011 poll and again in the previous 2018 poll. The highest ranking for the Duke women has been No. 8, in both the 2006 final poll and the 2008 final poll.

The Penn men joined Columbia, Notre Dame and Ohio State as the only men's teams with the max. six NCAA qualifiers. The Quakers moved up to No. 4 in the final 2018 poll, their highest ranking of the season.

The Yale women (five 2018 NCAA qualifiers), who were No. 10 in the final 2017 poll, have returned to the top-10 at No. 9, their highest ranking in 15 years. After being 10th in the initial 2010 poll, the Yale women did not return to the top-10 until the final 2017 poll. Prior to 2010, they had not been ranked since being 9th in the initial 2003 poll. The last time a Yale women's team was ranked higher than 9th was in the final 2002 poll (6th).

Here's a rundown (see below) of the 2018 NCAA Fencing Champioonship entrants, with selection criteria including Regional finish (60%) and pre-Regional season strength factor (i.e. power ranking; 40%). For CF360's annual, in-depth analysis of the NCAA Fencing field, along with historical lists and notes, CLICK HERE.

2018 NCAA Fencing Championship Entrants:

12 – Columbia, Notre Dame & Ohio State (max. number of entrants; 2 per weapon)

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)
St. Johns (no w-foil & only 1 m-foil)

8 – Yale (2 ME, 1 MF … 2 WF, 2 WS, 1 WE)

7 – Duke (2 MF, 2 ME, 1 MS … 2 WF)
Stanford (2 MS, 1 MF, 1 ME … 1 WF, 1 WS)

6 – NYU (2 MF, 2 MS, 1 ME 1 ... WF)

5 – UC San Diego (1 MF, 1 ME … 2 WE, 1 WF)

4 – Air Force (1 MF, 1 MS … 1 WF, 1 WS)
Northwestern* (2 WF, 1 WE, 1 WS)

3 – NJIT (1 MF, 1 ME ... 1 WE) and Temple* (1 WF, 2 WS)

2 – Cornell* (2 WF), Incarnate Word (1 MF, 1 ME) and Wayne State (1 MS, 1 WS)

1 – Boston College (WE), Brown (WS), Fairleigh Dickinson* (WE), Johns Hopkins (ME), MIT (WE),
North Carolina (WE) & Sacred Heart (ME)

* – 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.

FENCING POLL #1 HISTORY – The Notre Dame men have been top- ranked 17 times in their history, matching longtime rival Penn State (17) for the most times ranked No. 1. Other men's programs to hold down the top ranking – among 63 total men’s team’s ranked No. 1 dating back to the 2001 season – include Ohio State (now with 12), Columbia (11; all since 2014), Harvard (2), St. John's (2), Stanford (1) and U-Penn (1). These totals include three polls in which there were co-#1s.

The Notre Dame women have been ranked No. 1 in nearly half (28 of 57) of the women’s college fencing polls dating back to 2002. The Penn State women are a distant second, having been top-ranked nine times, followed by Princeton (8), Columbia (8; all over past five seasons), Ohio State (3), and St. John’s (3). These totals include two polls with co-#1s.

The annual college fencing coaches polls currently are determined by vote from 10 collegiate men’s fencing coaches and 10 from the women’s side. The poll is sponsored by the United States Fencing Coaches Association (USFCA) and co-sponsored/administered by Pete LaFleur of CollegeFencing360.com (CF360). Updated polls will be released in late January/early February, late-Feb. and then finally in mid-March (prior to the 2018 NCAA Championships).

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-18): MEN | WOMEN

The updated 2018 CF360 Fencing Coaches Polls follow below (including all teams receiving votes). ...

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Polls #3 (March 20, 2018)

MEN (first-place votes – Ohio State (7), Columbia (2), Notre Dame (1)

(school (dual-meet record vs. varsity opp.) – voting points … prev. polls)

1. Ohio State (17–4) – 147 voting pts … (#1 … #3 ... t2 initial poll)
2. Columbia (20–5) – 136 … (3 ... 4 ... t2)
3. Notre Dame (19–7) – 133 … (4 ... 2 ... 1)
4. Pennsylvania (26–10) – 114 … (6 ... 7 ... 7)
5. Harvard (17–2) – 112 … (2 ... 1 ... 5)

6. Duke (21–4) – 92 … (7 ... 9 ... 9)
7. Princeton (16–7) – 86 … (8 ... 6 ... 6)
8. St. John’s (11–9) – 79 … (9 ... 8 ... 8)
9. Penn State (18–9) – 74 … (5 ... 5 ... 4)

10. NYU (22–8) – 63 … (10 ... 10 ... [11th-most votes])

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Stanford (50; #10 in first 2018 poll), Yale (40), UC San Diego (22),
NJIT (16), Air Force (13), North Carolina (10), Incarnate Word (5), Brandeis (4) and Wayne State (3).

WOMEN (first-place votes – Columbia 7, Notre Dame 3)
(school (dual-meet record vs. varsity opp.) – voting points … prev. poll)

1. Columbia (25–3) – 147 … (t-1 ... 2 ... 2)
2. Notre Dame (29–2) – 143 voting pts … (t-1 ... #1 ... #1 initial poll)

3. Ohio State (18–5) – 127 … (3 ... 4 ... 5)

4. Penn State (16–8) – 121 … (4 ... 3 ... 3)

5. Harvard (17–5) – 109 … (6 ... 6 ... 6)
6. Princeton (19–7) – 90 … (5 ... 5 ... 4)
7. Pennsylvania (27–9) – 79 … (7 ... 8 ... 9)

8. Northwestern (37–8) – 75 … (9 ... 9 ... 8)
9. Yale (16–7) – 67 ([13] … [13] … [13])
10. Temple (26–12) – 62 … (8 ... 7 ... 7)

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – St. John's (61; #10 in first 2018 poll), Duke (37; was 10th in 2018 polls #2 and #3), UC San Diego (30), Stanford (17), North Carolina (14), Cornell (10), Air Force (9), NJIT (1) and Wayne State (1).

Voting Panel – Michael Aufrichtig (Columbia), Alex Beguinet (Duke), Sydney Fadner (Boston College),
Nikki Franke (Temple; votes on women's poll only), Wes Glon (Penn State), Gia Kvaratskhelia (Notre Dame),
Andy Ma (Penn; votes on men’s poll only), Josh Runyan (UC San Diego), Zach Moss (Northwestern),
Bill Shipman (Brandeis) and Bruce Gilman (Vassar).

Poll Notes: coach Ma votes only on the men’s poll and coach Franke votes only on the women’s poll; there typically are 10 voters for each poll – four from the Northeast region, three from the Mid-Atlantic/South, two from the Midwest and one from the West; the amount of voters per region (4-3-2-1) is in approximate ratio to the amount of schools in each region that sponsor varsity fencing – 19 in the Northeast, 14 in the Mid-Atlantic/South, 7 in the Midwest and 5 in the West … 10 of these schools sponsor only a varsity women’s fencing team: CCNY, Cornell, Fairleigh Dickinson, LIU Post, Northwestern, Queens, Temple, Tufts, Wagner and Wellesley … the Wagner women began varsity fencing status in 2016-17.

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-18): MEN | WOMEN

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• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-18): MEN | WOMEN

CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #3 – March 9, 2018
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

The Ohio State men's fencing team (17–4) has returned to the No. 1 ranking for the third time over the past two seasons, following the early-March update to the CF360 College Fencing Coaches Polls. The OSU men narrowly edged No. 2 Harvard (141 voting points to 139, out of a max. 150), which held the top ranking in the previous poll during early-February. The Columbia men (131; 205) are No. 3, followed by Notre Dame (127; 19–7), which had been No. 1 in the season's initial poll during late-January.

The Notre Dame women (29–2) – after being a near-unanimous No. 1 in the first two polls of 2018 – now are tied with growing rival Columbia (25–3) atop the current rankings. Those teams split a pair of matchups on the weekend of Jan. 20-21, with the Irish winning 14–13 at the St. John's Invitational while the Lions beat ND 17–10 at the Philadelphia Invitational. One week earlier in mid-January, the Columbia women had suffered their only two other losses of the season: 9–18 vs. Penn State and 13–14 vs. North Carolina (at the PSU Invitational). The ND women carried a 27–1 record into the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships (early-March, at UNC), where they suffered a 12–15 loss to Duke.

The Duke men have risen to No. 7, matching the highest ranking ever for a Duke men's or women's team. The Duke men previously were ranked No. 7 in the final 2011 poll. The highest ranking for the Duke women has been No. 8, in both the 2006 final poll and the 2008 final poll.

The Notre Dame men have been top- ranked 17 times in their history, matching longtime rival Penn State (17) for the most times ranked No. 1. Other men's programs to hold down the top ranking – among 62 total men’s team’s ranked No. 1 dating back to the 2001 season – include Ohio State (11), Columbia (11; all since 2014), Harvard (2), St. John's (2), Stanford (1) and U-Penn (1). These totals include three polls in which there were co-#1s.

The Notre Dame women now have been ranked No. 1 in exactly half (28 of 56) of the women’s college fencing polls dating back to 2002. The Penn State women are a distant second, having been top-ranked nine times, followed by Princeton (8), Columbia (7; all over past five seasons), Ohio State (3), and St. John’s (3). These totals include two polls with co-#1s.

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-18): MEN | WOMEN

The updated 2018 CF360 Fencing Coaches Polls follow below (including all teams receiving votes). ...

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Polls #3 (March 9, 2018)

MEN (first-place votes – Ohio State (4), Harvard (3), Columbia (2), Notre Dame (1)

(school (dual-meet record vs. varsity opp.) – voting points … prev. polls)

1. Ohio State (17–4) – 141 voting pts … (#3 ... t2 initial poll)
2. Harvard (17–2) – 139 … (1 ... 5)

3. Columbia (20–5) – 131 … (4 ... t2)
4. Notre Dame (19–7) – 127 … (2 ... 1)

5. Penn State (18–9) – 101 … (5 ... 4)
6. Pennsylvania (26–10) – 93 … (7 ... 7)
7. Duke (21–4) – 92 … (9 ... 9)
8. Princeton (16–7) – 86 … (6 ... 6)

9. St. John’s (11–9) – 63 … (8 ... 8)

10. NYU (22–8) – 62 ... (10 ... [11th-most votes])

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Stanford (51; #10 in first 2018 poll), Yale (34), North Carolina (29), NJIT (24), Brandeis (12), UC San Diego (9), Johns Hopkins (3), Air Force (2) and Brown (1).

WOMEN (first-place votes – Notre Dame 5, Columbia 5)
(school (dual-meet record vs. varsity opp.) – voting points … prev. poll)

t-1. Notre Dame (29–2) – 144 voting pts … (#1 ... #1 initial poll)

t-1. Columbia (25–3) – 144 … (2 ... 2)

3. Ohio State (18–5) – 118 … (4 ... 5)

4. Penn State (16–8) – 116 … (3 ... 3)

5. Princeton (19–7) – 104 … (5 ... 4)

6. Harvard (17–5) – 95 … (6 ... 6)

7. Pennsylvania (27–9) – 92 … (8 ... 9)
8. Temple (26–12) – 82 … (7 ... 7)

9. Northwestern (37–8) – 79 ... (9 ... 8)

10. Duke (20–8) – 61 ... (10 ... [11th-most votes])

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – North Carolina (44), St. John's (36; #10 in first 2018 poll), Yale (24), Stanford (18), Cornell (15), UC San Diego (8), Stevens Tech (7), Boston College (5), NYU (3), Air Force (4) and Wellesley (1).

Poll Notes: coach Ma votes only on the men’s poll and coach Franke votes only on the women’s poll; there typically are 10 voters for each poll – four from the Northeast region, three from the Mid-Atlantic/South, two from the Midwest and one from the West; the amount of voters per region (4-3-2-1) is in approximate ratio to the amount of schools in each region that sponsor varsity fencing – 21 in the Northeast, 13 in the Mid-Atlantic/South, 7 in the Midwest and 5 in the West … 10 of these schools sponsor only a varsity women’s fencing team: CCNY, Cornell, Fairleigh Dickinson, LIU Post, Northwestern, Queens, Temple, Tufts, Wagner and Wellesley … the Wagner women began varsity fencing status in 2016-17.

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-18): MEN | WOMEN

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CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #2 – Feb. 9, 2018
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

The Harvard University men's fencing team – boosted by a 5–0 run through a top-10 gauntlet at the annual St. John's Invitational – has ascended to the nation's No. 1 ranking for the first time since 2007, and only the second time in the 17-year history of the coaches poll. The Crimson men (10–1 overall in 2017-18 dual meets) narrowly edged previous No. 1 Notre Dame, in the current update of the CF360 College Fencing Coaches Polls, which are administered and sponsored by College Fencing 360. The Notre Dame women, now 27–1, have maintained their near-unanimous No. 1 position in that CF360 Coaches Poll, receiving eight of 10 first-place votes and 148 of the maximum 150 voting points.

The top four teams in the current men's poll are separated by only eight voting points: Harvard (137, out of max. 150), Notre Dame (134), Ohio State (132) and Columbia (129). Harvard had been No. 5 in the initial/previous poll, while Columbia and OSU were tied in the No. 2 position.

The Harvard men – who will put their top ranking on the line this weekend at the Ivy League Championships – previously were No. 1 to open the 2007 season, on the heels of winning the 2006 NCAA Men's and Women's Combined Fencing Championship. That 2006 championship squad included NCAA men's epee champion Benji Ungar and sabre leader Tim Hagamen, who reached the 2006 NCAA semifinals (medal round). Foilist Kai Itameri-Kinter (6th) and epeeist Julian Rose (10th) also posted top-12 NCAA finishes to earn All-America honors in 2006.

During the 2017 fall semester, the Harvard men went 4–1 at the Vassar Tradition Tournament, with the lone loss coming by a single bout, 13–14 vs. NYU (which has risen to #10 in the current poll). The Crimson men also defeated current No. 5 Penn State and a quality NJIT squad at Vassar, both by 19–8 scores. At the SJU Invitational in mid-January, the Harvard men eked out victories vs. five fellow top-10 squads, including 14–13 decisions vs. Columbia, Ohio State, Penn State and St. John's, plus a 15–12 win over Notre Dame. At the time, ND was #1, Columbia and OSU were co-#2s, PSU 4th and SJU 8th in the initial poll.

Most recently, the Harvard men avenged their lone loss by flipping the 14–13 score vs. visiting NYU, on Feb. 4

During the 2017–18 season, the Notre Dame women now own 13 wins over teams ranked in the current or initial top-10: current No. 2 Columbia (14–13), current #3 Penn State (14–13), current #4 Ohio State (20–7; 15–12), current #5 Princeton (20–7; 17–10), current #6 Harvard (18–9), current #7 Temple (15–12), current #8 U-Penn (21–6; 15–12), current #9 Northwestern (17–10; 15–12) and St. John's (17–10; was #10 in initial poll). The lone loss for the Irish women came on Jan. 21 at the Philadelphia Invitational, 10–17 vs. growing rival Columbia.

First-place votes for the men were evenly distributed between Harvard, ND and OSU (with three each), plus one 1st-place vote for the Columbia men. The Columbia women received two 1st-place votes.

The Harvard men are led by veteran sabre standout Eli Dershwitz, the 2017 NCAA champion and a 2016 U.S. Olympian who went14–1 at the recent SJU Invitational (his lone loss came vs. friend/Zeta Fencing Club teammate Andrew Mackiewicz of PSU, the '15 & '16 NCAA champ). Foil appears to be the deepest weapon currently for the Harvard men, led by sophomore George Haglund, a 2017 All-American (7th at NCAAs) who went 9–6 at the 2017 SJU Invitational. Fellow sophomore foilist Duncan Rheingans-Yoo delivered an 11–4 record vs. the top-10 foes at SJU, while yet another member of that sophomore foil group, Matt Branman, was a 2017 NCAA participant (placed 17th).

Current Harvard sophomore Erwin Cal collected sabre All-America honors in 2017, after placing 12th at the NCAAs. Current junior epeeist Albert Chien also was a 2017 All-American, after an impressive 7th-place NCAA showing.

The Notre Dame men have been top- ranked 17 times in their history, matching longtime rival Penn State (17) for the most times ranked No. 1. Other men's programs to hold down the top ranking – among 61 total men’s team’s ranked No. 1 dating back to the 2001 season – include Columbia (11), Ohio State (10), Harvard (2), St. John's (2), Stanford (1) and U-Penn (1). These totals include three polls in which there were co-#1s.

The Notre Dame women have been ranked No. 1 in nearly half (27 of 55) of the women’s college fencing polls dating back to 2002. The Penn State women are a distant second, having been top-ranked nine times, followed by Princeton (8), Columbia (6; all over past four seasons), Ohio State (3), and St. John’s (3).

The 2018 CF360 Fencing Coaches Polls follow below (including all teams receiving votes).

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Polls #2 (Feb. 9, 2018)

MEN (first-place votes – Harvard (3), Notre Dame (3), Ohio State 3, Columbia 1)

(school (dual-meet record vs. varsity opp.) – voting points … prev. poll)

1. Harvard (10–1) – 137 voting pts … (#5)

2. Notre Dame (17–6) – 134 … (1)

3. Ohio State (16–3) – 132 … (t2)
4. Columbia (14–5) – 129 … (t2)

5. Penn State (12–6) – 113 … (4)
6. Princeton (9–4) – 96 … (6)
7. Pennsylvania (22–8) – 90 … (7)

8. St. John’s (9–7) – 77 … (8)

9. Duke (16–4) – 70 … (9)

10. NYU (18–9) – 57 ... [11th-most votes]

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Stanford (56; #10 in first 2018 poll), Yale (30), NJIT (27), North Carolina (25), Brandeis (12), UC San Diego (11), Stevens Tech (2), Air Force and Brown (1).

WOMEN (first-place votes – Notre Dame 8, Columbia 2)
(school (dual-meet record vs. varsity opp.) – voting points … prev. poll)

1. Notre Dame (27–1) – 148 voting pts … (#1)

2. Columbia (17–3) – 139 … (2)

3. Penn State (12–6) – 116 … (3)

4. Ohio State (18–5) – 115 … (5)

5. Princeton (10–5) – 111 … (4)

6. Harvard (9–4) – 103 … (6)

7. Temple (22–8) – 90 … (7)

8. Pennsylvania (22–8) – 84 … (9)

9. Northwestern (38–9) – 79 ... (8)

10. Duke (15–6) – 49 ... [11th-most votes]

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – St. John's (42; #10 in first 2018 poll), North Carolina (39), Yale (35), Cornell and Stanford (15), Air Force (6), Boston College, UC San Diego and Stevens Tech (3), Brown (1).

Poll Notes: coach Ma votes only on the men’s poll and coach Franke votes only on the women’s poll; there typically are 10 voters for each poll – four from the Northeast region, three from the Mid-Atlantic/South, two from the Midwest and one from the West; the amount of voters per region (4-3-2-1) is in approximate ratio to the amount of schools in each region that sponsor varsity fencing – 21 in the Northeast, 13 in the Mid-Atlantic/South, 7 in the Midwest and 5 in the West … 10 of these schools sponsor only a varsity women’s fencing team: CCNY, Cornell, Fairleigh Dickinson, LIU Post, Northwestern, Queens, Temple, Tufts, Wagner and Wellesley … the Wagner women began varsity fencing status in 2016-17.

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CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #1 – Jan. 19, 2018
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

Defending NCAA champion Notre Dame has earned the No. 1 spot in both the men’s and women’s polls, in the first 2018 release of the CollegeFencing360 National Coaches Polls, as teams prepare to enter into the bulk of the 2017-18 season. The ND women are a near-unanimous No. 1 (147 voting points, out of 150 maximum), while the Irish men (138), narrowly edged Columbia and Ohio State (both with 136) in possibly the closest three-team balloting for the top spot in the coaches’ poll history.

The Ohio State men actually received the most first-place votes (4), followed by three each for Notre Dame and Columbia. The ND women garnered eight of the 10 first-place votes, with one each going to #3 Penn State and #4 Princeton. The Columbia women sit second in the poll, only two voting points ahead of PSU (128-126).

(Note: there are several notable college fencing tournaments on the weekend of Jan. 20-21; look for details soon on CF360 and also on Twitter via @CF360updates).

The 2018 opening polls mark the 11th time in the 18-year history of the college fencing coaches polls that one school has been No. 1 in both the men's and women's initial rankings for that season. In the 10 previous times, that school went on to win the NCAA Combined Men's and Women's Fencing Championship only three times, in successive years from 2009–11 (Penn State twice, and then Notre Dame in 2011).

Penn State has been #1 in both initial polls during four different seasons, followed by three times for Notre Dame, two for Ohio State and one each for St. John's and Columbia. The 10 previous times that a school has been #1 in both initial polls have seen those schools go on to win the NCAA title three times while finishing runner-up three other times and third place three times as well. Penn State's 2012 men's and women's teams both were initial #1s, but the Nittany Lions ultimately finished fifth in the 2012 NCAAs.

• Schools ranked #1 in both men's and women's fencing (initial coaches polls):
2002 – St. John's (ultimately finished 2nd ... Penn State won NCAA title)

2003 – Penn State (finished 2nd ... Notre Dame won title)

2004 – Notre Dame (finished 3rd ... Ohio State won title)

2005 – Ohio State (finished 2nd ... ND won title)

2006 – Ohio State (finished 3rd ... Harvard won title)

2009 – Penn State (PSU won title)

2010 – Penn State (PSU won title)

2011 – Notre Dame (ND won title)

2012 – Penn State (finished 5th ... OSU won title)

2017 –Columbia (finished 3rd ... ND won title)

The Notre Dame men have ended a six-year drought of not being ranked No. 1 (dating back to the final 2011 poll) and the Irish men now have been rank atop the the poll 17 times in their history, matching longtime rival Penn State (17) for the most times ranked No. 1. Other men's programs to hold down the top ranking – among 60 total men’s team’s ranked No. 1 dating back to the 2001 season – include Columbia (11), Ohio State (10), St. John's (2), Stanford (1), Harvard (1) and U-Penn (1). These totals include three polls in which there were co-#1s.

The Notre Dame women have been ranked No. 1 in nearly half (26 of 54) of the women’s college fencing polls dating back to 2002. The Penn State women are a distant second, having been top-ranked nine times, followed by Princeton (8), Columbia (6; all over the past four seasons), Ohio State (3), and St. John’s (3).

The annual college fencing coaches polls currently are determined by vote from 10 collegiate men’s fencing coaches and 10 from the women’s side. The poll is sponsored by the United States Fencing Coaches Association (USFCA) and co-sponsored/administered by Pete LaFleur of CollegeFencing360.com (CF360). Updated polls will be released in late early February, early March and then finally in mid-March (prior to the 2018 NCAA Championships).

The full initial 2018 CF360 Fencing Coaches Polls follow below (including all teams receiving votes).

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Polls #1 (Jan. 19, 2018)

MEN (first-place votes – Ohio State 4, Notre Dame 3, Columbia 3)

(school (dual-meet record vs. varsity opp./to be added) – voting points … final 2017 ranking)

1. Notre Dame – 138 voting pts … (t2)
2. Ohio State – 136 … (t2)
2. Columbia – 136 … (1)

4. Penn State – 108 … (6)
5. Harvard – 106 … (8)
6. Princeton – 103 … (5)
7. Pennsylvania – 93 … (4)

8. St. John’s – 85 … (7)

9. Duke – 68 … (t9)

10. Stanford – 51 ... [11]

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – NYU (50; t-9th in final 2017 poll), North Carolina and UC San Diego (28), Yale (27), NJIT (20), Brandeis (9) Air Force (5), Boston College (3), Wayne State (3), Brown (2) and Johns Hopkins (1).

WOMEN (first-place votes – Notre Dame 8, Penn State 1, Princeton 1)
(school (dual-meet record vs. varsity opp./to be added) – voting points … final 2017 ranking)

1. Notre Dame – 147 voting pts … (t1)

2. Columbia – 128 … (t1)
3. Penn State – 126 … (4)
4. Princeton – 117 … (3)

5. Ohio State – 115 … (5)

6. Harvard – 93 … (7)

7. Temple – 86 … (t8)

8. Northwestern – 80 ... [11]

9. Pennsylvania – 75 … (6)

10. St. John's – 51 ... (t8)

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Duke (45), North Carolina (37), Yale (32; #10 in final 2017 poll), Cornell, Stanford and UC San Diego (18), Air Force (8), NYU (4) and Boston College (2).

Poll Notes: coach Ma votes only on the men’s poll and coach Franke votes only on the women’s poll; there typically are 10 voters for each poll – four from the Northeast region, three from the Mid-Atlantic/South, two from the Midwest and one from the West; the amount of voters per region (4-3-2-1) is in approximate ratio to the amount of schools in each region that sponsor varsity fencing – 21 in the Northeast, 13 in the Mid-Atlantic/South, 7 in the Midwest and 5 in the West … 10 of these schools sponsor only a varsity women’s fencing team: CCNY, Cornell, Fairleigh Dickinson, LIU Post, Northwestern, Queens, Temple, Tufts, Wagner and Wellesley … McKendree began varsity fencing status in 2016-17 (sponsoring men’s and women’s teams), as did Wagner for women only.

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CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #4 – March 22, 2017
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

note – poll notes, including historical, will be added later … note that the Yale women being #10 is the first top-10 ranking for either Yale fencing team since the men were #10 mid-2012 (the women previously were top-10 to open the 2010 season, also at #10).

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Polls #4/final (March 22, 2017)

MEN (first-place votes – Ohio State 5, Columbia 3, Notre Dame 2)

(school (dual-meet record vs. varsity opp.) – voting points … previous rankings)

1. Columbia (25-6) – 141 voting pts … (3) ... (2) … (#1 in first poll)

2. Ohio State (17-3) – 135 … (1) ... (1) … (2)

2. Notre Dame (24-8) – 135 … (4) ... (4) … (4)

4. Pennsylvania (26-5) – 113 … (4) ... (5) … (5)
5. Princeton (23-7) – 111 … (6) ... (6) … (5)

6. Penn State (26-5) – 100 … (2) ... (3) … (3)

7. St. John’s (11-8) – 93 … (7) ... (7) … (8)
8. Harvard (10-9) – 82 … (8) ... (8) … (7)

t9. Duke (18-6) – 62 … (9) ... (9) … (10)
t9. NYU (17-8) – 62 … (10) ... (10) … [nr/11]

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Stanford (58; 9th in poll #1), Yale (44), NJIT (24), North Carolina (15), Boston College (8),
Brandeis (6), UC San Diego (5), Brown (3) & Wayne State (2).

WOMEN (first-place votes – Notre Dame 5, Columbia 3, Princeton 2)
(school (dual-meet record vs. varsity opp.) – voting points … previous rankings)

t1. Notre Dame (29-4) – 143 voting pts … (3) ... (3) … (#3 in first poll)

t1. Columbia (32-2) – 143 … (2) ... (2) … (1)
3. Princeton (32-2) – 130 … (1) ... (1) … (2

4. Penn State (27-8) – 113 … (4) ... (5) … (5)

5. Ohio State (6-12) – 105 … (7) ... (6) … (4)

6. Pennsylvania (26-8) – 99 … (5) ... (4) … (6)

7. Harvard (14-8) – 98 … (9) ... (9) … (7)

t8. Temple (34-9) – 67 … (6) ... (7) … (8)

t8 St. John's (6-13) – 67 ... [nr/14] ... [NR] ... 10

10. Yale (12-13) – 54 … [nr/12] ... [NR] … (NR)

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Northwestern (51; 8th in polls #2 & #3; 9th in poll #1), Duke (44; 10th in polls #2 and #3), Cornell (29), Stanford (26), Wayne State (15), North Carolina (6), NYU (5) Boston College (2) & UC San Diego (1).

Poll Notes: coach Ma typically votes only on the men’s poll and coach Franke votes only on the women’s poll (although, for this poll only, coach Ma voted in both polls and Vassar’s Bruce Gilman voted only in the men’s poll); there typically are 10 voters for each poll – four from the Northeast region, three from the Mid-Atlantic/South, two from the Midwest and one from the West; the amount of voters per region (4-3-2-1) is in approximate ratio to the amount of schools in each region that sponsor varsity fencing – 21 in the Northeast, 13 in the Mid-Atlantic/South, 7 in the Midwest and 5 in the West … 10 of these schools sponsor only a varsity women’s fencing team: CCNY, Cornell, Fairleigh Dickinson, LIU Post, Northwestern, Queens, Temple, Tufts, Wagner and Wellesley … McKendree has begun varsity fencing status in 2016-17 (sponsoring men’s and women’s teams), as has Wagner for women only.

_______________________________________________

• • • •

CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #3 – March 9, 2017
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

note – poll notes, including historical, will be added later, while the final 2017 poll will be released in late March.

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Poll #3 (March 9, 2017)

MEN (first-place votes – Ohio State 8, Penn State 2)

(school (dual-meet record vs. varsity opp.) – voting points … previous rankings)

1. Ohio State (17-3) – 146 voting pts … (1) … (#2 in first poll)
2. Penn State (26-5) – 137 … (3) … (3)
3. Columbia (25-6) – 132 … (2) … (1)

4. Notre Dame (24-8) – 113 … (4) … (4)

4. Pennsylvania (26-5) – 113 … (5) … (5)
6. Princeton (23-7) – 104 … (6) … (5)

7. St. John’s (11-8) – 88 … (7) … (8)
8. Harvard (10-9) – 76 … (8) … (7)

9. Duke (18-6) – 64 … (9) … (10)
9. NYU (17-8) – 64 … (10) … [nr/11]

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Stanford (51; 9th in poll #1), Yale (4), North Carolina (24), NJIT (19),
UC San Diego (7), Brandeis (6), Boston College (5), Air Force (3), Brown (2) & Johns Hopkins (2).

WOMEN (first-place votes – Princeton 8, Columbia 1, Notre Dame 1)
(school (dual-meet record vs. varsity opp.) – voting points … previous rankings)

1. Princeton (32-2) – 144 voting pts … (1) … (#2 in first poll)
2. Columbia (32-2) – 141 … (2) … (1)
3. Notre Dame (29-4) – 131 … (3) … (3)

4. Penn State (27-8) – 104 … (5) … (5)
5. Pennsylvania (26-8) – 105 … (4) … (6)
6. Temple (34-9) – 94 … (7) … (8)
7. Ohio State (6-12) – 98 … (6) … (4)

8. Northwestern (31-14) – 83 … (8) … (9)
9. Harvard (14-8) – 76 … (9) … (7)
10. Duke (17-8) – 46 … (10) … [nr/11]

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Cornell (39), Yale (38), Stanford (28), St, John’s (27; 10th in poll #1),
North Carolina (20), Boston College (4), UC San Diego (2) & Brown (1).

_______________________________________________

• • • •

CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #2 – Feb. 10, 2017
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

Men (top–10) – Ohio State, Columbia, Penn State, Notre Dame, Pennsylvania
Princeton, St. John’s, Harvard, Duke and NYU

Women (top–10) – Princeton, Columbia, Notre Dame, Pennsylvania, Penn State,
Ohio State, Temple, Northwestern, Harvard and Duke

(scroll down for full release/notes & complete rankings, including all other teams receiving votes … )
• Schedule/Result Links for all teams (some links still to be updated for 2016–17)

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-16): MEN | WOMEN

There are new No. 1 teams atop both the men’s and women’s polls, in the mid-February update to the CollegeFencing360 National Coaches Polls, following a flurry of key intecollegiate tournaments spanning the past three weeks. The Ohio State men have ascended to the top position for the first time since the first poll of the 2013 season, while the Princeton women are back in their familiar No. 1 spot, for the first time since being top-ranked throughout the 2014 campaign.

Columbia – the two-time defending NCAA Men’s and Women’s Combined champion – had occupied both of the No. 1 spots in the previous polls (Jan. 20). In fact, the Lions teams had been top-ranked for much of the past three seasons. The Columbia men (19–4 won-loss record in dual meets vs. varsity competition) ended their run of seven straight polls being ranked No. 1, stretching back to the middle of the 2015 season, but the now-No. 2 Lions trail Ohio State (14–3) by only four voting points, 142–138. OSU received seven of the 10 first-place votes, followed by two for current No. 3 Penn State (21–5; 135 pts) and one for Columbia.

Ohio State’s surge back to the top of the men’s rankings has featured an 8–2 record vs. fellow top–10 teams over the past three weeks, with top wins over Columbia, Penn State, Notre Dame and Penn (plus Princeton, St. John’s, Harvard and Stanford). OSU’s only losses in that stretch came by a couple touches: 12–15 vs. Penn State and 13–14 vs. ND.

The unbeaten Princeton women (23–0) also hold a narrow lead, 144–141 over one-loss Columbia (24–1), while Notre Dame (26–4; 131) remains No.3 in the women’s poll. Princeton collected six of the 10 first-place votes, with Columbia and ND each garnering two. The Columbia women impressively have been ranked 1st or 2nd in each of the past 10 CF360 Coaches Polls, since the initial poll in 2014.

The Princeton and Columbia women – who were separated by only one voting point in the initial 2017 coaches poll – will provide the marquee matchup at this weekend’s Ivy League Championships (for both men’s and women’s teams), to be held Feb. 11-12 at the University of Pennsylvania. The Ivy League field also includes the host Quakers, plus Harvard, Yale, Brown and the Cornell women.

Princeton and Columbia’s combined 47–1 record in women’s dual meets this season (2016–17) includes a head-to-head matchup back on Nov. 5, a 16–11 win by the Tigers at the Penn Elite Invitational. The Princeton women also won a key 15–12 showdown vs. Notre Dame this past weekend at the Northwestern Duals (which actually were held at ND).

The balance of the women’s poll (4th–10th) includes: Penn (19-4; 105) … Penn State (23-6; 104) … Ohio State (6-11; 98) … Temple (25-8; 94) … Northwestern (28-12; 83) … Harvard (8-5; 76) … and Duke (10-7; 46). The No. 4 position is the highest for the U-Penn women in the 16-year documented history of the College Fencing Coaches Poll (per CF360’s research archives), besting a No. 5 ranking from midway through the 2004 season and thus ending a 13-year drought outside the top-5 for the Quakers women. Temple’s No. 7 position is its highest since also being ranked 7th in mid-2014.

The ascension of the crosstown rival Penn and Temple women’s programs corresponds with perennial top–5 teams Harvard (9th) and St. John’s (11th-most votes) both finding themselves outside that upper half of the top-10. St. John’s has slipped outside the top-10 of the women’s poll for the first time since the start of the 2010 season, while the Harvard women own their lowest ranking since similarly being 9th in mid-2009.

The Notre Dame men (20–8; 115) have maintained their No. 4 position from mid-January, while the Penn men (17–4; 109) have matched the Quakers women’s team with a No. 5 ranking. Three fencing programs currently hold top-5 rankings for both their men’s and women’s programs: Columbia (#2 in both); Notre Dame (#4 men; #3 women) and Penn (#5 men; #4 women).

The bottom half of the men’s top–10 (5th–10th) is as follows: Princeton (16-4; 96) … St. John’s (10-5; 88) … Harvard (5-5; 82) … Duke (11-5; 58) … and NYU (14-8; 57). The Violets bumped up a spot from the previous poll, dropping Stanford outside the top–10. This marks the first top–10 ranking for NYU fencing, men or women, since the Violets men’s squad was No. 8 in the final 2005 poll.

Based on combined voting points (men+women), Columbia has 283 of the maximum 300, followed by Notre Dame (246), Ohio State (240), Princeton (240), Penn State (239), Penn (214), Harvard (158), St. John’s (116), Duke (104), Stanford (83) and Yale (78).

The Ohio State men now have been ranked No. 1 nine times in their history: also twice in 2005; in all three 2006 polls; twice again in 2012; and most previously in the initial 2013 poll. The Penn State (17) and Notre Dame men (16) are nearly equal in terms of most times ranked No. 1 (among 61 total men’s team’s ranked No. 1 dating back to the 2001 season), followed by Columbia (9), OSU (9), St. John’s (2), Stanford (1) and Harvard (1). These totals include two polls in which there were co-#1s.

This marks the seventh No. 1 ranking for the Princeton women, all spanning the past six seasons: starting with the final poll of 2012, then the first rankings of 2013 plus all four polls in 2014. The Notre Dame women have been ranked No. 1 in nearly half (24 of 53) of the women’s college fencing polls dating back to 2002. The Penn State women are a distant second, having been top-ranked nine times, followed by Columbia (7, all over the past three seasons), Princeton (7), Ohio State (3), and St. John’s (3).

>>> Notable recent men’s results (Jan. 21–Feb. 5):
• Penn State 15, Ohio State 12
• Notre Dame 14, Ohio State 13
• Ohio State 14, Columbia 13
• Ohio State 15, Harvard 12
• Ohio State 16, St. John’s 11
• Ohio State 18, Penn State 9
• Ohio State 18, Notre Dame 9
• Ohio State 19, Penn 8
• Ohio State 16, Princeton 11
• Ohio State 20, Stanford 7
• Penn State 14, Columbia 13
• St. John’s 15, Columbia 12
• Columbia 14, Notre Dame 13
• Columbia 14, Harvard 13
• Columbia 15, Notre Dame 12
• Columbia 19, St. John’s 8
• Harvard 16, Penn State 11
• Notre Dame 18, Penn State 9
• Penn State 16, Notre Dame 11
• Penn State 14, St. John’s 13
• Penn State 18, Stanford 9
• Penn 17, Notre Dame 10
• Princeton 14, Notre Dame 13
• St. John’s 15, Notre Dame 12
• Notre Dame 17, St. John’s 10
• Notre Dame 15, Harvard 12
• Notre Dame 17, NYU 10
• Notre Dame 16, Stanford 11
• Stanford 14, Penn 13
• Penn 17, Duke 10
• Penn 14, NYU 13
• Princeton 15, Stanford 12
• St. John’s 14, Harvard 13
• St. John’s 14, NYU 13
• Harvard 16, NYU 11
• NYU 14, Duke 13

>>> Notable recent women’s results (Jan. 21–Feb. 5):

• Princeton 15, Notre Dame 12
• Princeton 21, Ohio State 6
• Princeton 14, Northwestern 13
• Columbia 14, Notre Dame 13
• Columbia 14, Ohio State 13
• Columbia 18, Penn State 9
• Columbia 16, Harvard 11
• Columbia 16, Notre Dame 11
• Columbia 21, St. John’s 6
• Columbia 21, St. John’s 6
• Notre Dame 23, Ohio State 4
• Notre Dame 17, Penn State 10
• Notre Dame 18, Harvard 9
• Notre Dame 20, St. John’s 7
• Notre Dame 21, St. John’s 6

• Notre Dame 14, Northwestern 13
• Notre Dame 15, Penn 12
• Notre Dame 17, Penn State 10
• Notre Dame 16, Temple 11
• Notre Dame 17, Northwestern 10
• Penn State 14, Ohio State 13
• Northwestern 19, Ohio State 8
• Penn 17, Ohio State 10
• Penn State 20, Ohio State 7
• Temple 21, Ohio State 6
• Northwestern 19, Ohio State 8
• Stanford 16, Ohio State 11
• Ohio State 16, Harvard 11
• Ohio State 20, St. John’s 7

• Penn 17, Duke 10
• Penn 16, Northwestern 11

• Penn 15, Northwestern 12
• Harvard 16, Penn State 11

• Penn State19, St. John’s 8
• Penn State 21, Northwestern 6

• Northwestern 16, Temple 11

• Temple 15, Northwestern 12

• Temple 14, Duke 13
• Harvard 19, St. John’s 8

• Cornell 17, Duke 10

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-16): MEN | WOMEN

2016 result links:
from NCAA Championships | from Northeast Regional

from Mid-Atlantic/South Regional | from Midwest Regional | from West Regional

CLICK HERE for CF360’s annual in-depth look at the 2015 NCAA Fencing Championship field

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams (some links still being updated for 2016)

The full updated 2017 CF360 Fencing Coaches Polls follow below (including all teams receiving votes).

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Poll #2 (Feb. 10, 2017)

MEN (first-place votes – Ohio State 7, Penn State 2, Columbia 1)

(school (dual-meet record vs. varsity opp.) – voting points … previous ranking)

1. Ohio State (14-3) – 142 voting pts … (2)
2. Columbia (19-4) – 138 … (1)

3. Penn State (21-5) – 135 … (3)
4. Notre Dame (20-8) – 115 … (4)

5. Pennsylvania (17-4) – 109 … (6)
6. Princeton (16-4) – 96 … (5)

7. St. John’s (10-5) – 88 … (8)
8. Harvard (5-5) – 82 … (7)

9. Duke (11-5) – 58 … (10)
10. NYU (14-8) – 57 … [11]

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Stanford (53; 9th in prev. poll), Yale (39), NJIT (27), North Carolina (25), UC San Diego (13), Brown (8), Boston College & Brandeis (5), Air Force & Johns Hopkins (2), Wayne State (1).

WOMEN (first-place votes – Princeton 6, Columbia 2, Notre Dame 2)
(school (dual-meet record vs. varsity opp.) – voting points … previous ranking)

1. Princeton (23-0) – 144 voting pts … (2)
2. Columbia (24-1) – 141 … (1)
3. Notre Dame (26-4) – 131 … (3)

4. Pennsylvania (19-4) – 105 … (6)
5. Penn State (23-6) – 104 … (5)
6. Ohio State (6-12) – 98 … (4)
7. Temple (25-8) – 94 … (8)

8. Northwestern (28-12) – 83 … (9)
9. Harvard (8-5) – 76 … (7)
10. Duke (10-7) – 46 … [11]

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Yale (39), Cornell (36), Stanford (30), St, John’s (28; 10th in prev. poll),
North Carolina (18), Air Force (10), Boston College (7), UC San Diego & Wayne State (4), Brown & NYU (1).

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-16): MEN | WOMEN

2016 result links:
from NCAA Championships | from Northeast Regional

from Mid-Atlantic/South Regional | from Midwest Regional | from West Regional

CLICK HERE for CF360’s annual in-depth look at the 2015 NCAA Fencing Championship field

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams (some links being updated)

_______________________________________________

CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #1 – Jan. 20, 2017
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

Men (top–10) – Columbia, Ohio State, Penn State, Notre Dame, Princeton
Pennsylvania, Harvard, St. John’s, Stanford and Duke

Women – Columbia, Princeton, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State
Pennsylvania, Harvard, Northwestern, Temple and St. John’s

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-16): MEN | WOMEN

(Note that plenty of additional early-season notes, results summaries, etc., are forthcoming on CF360.)

Two-time defending NCAA champion Columbia sits atop both the men’s and women’s rankings in the initial CollegeFencing360 National Coaches Polls, as we head into the bulk of the 2016-17 season. Columbia will be seeking to become the first college fencing program to win three straight NCAA tittles since Penn State’s six-year run from 1995-2000. The Columbia women edged Ivy League rival Princeton by a single voting point in the initial 2017 polling.

(Note: there are several notable college fencing tournaments on the weekend of Jan. 21-22; look for details soon on CF360 main page and sidebar schedule, also on Twitter via @CF360updates).

The Columbia men (14-1; 140 voting points with six of 10 first-place votes) now have been ranked No. 1 in seven straight polls, stretching back to the 2015 season. Ohio State (5–1; 131 pts) has been building its men’s program over the past few seasons and sits solidly in the No. 2 position, followed by perennial power Penn State (9–2; 134). PSU received three 1st-place votes, with one cast for OSU.

The rest of the men’s top-10 (4th–10th) includes: Notre Dame (4-1; 120), Princeton (6-3; 112), Pennsylvania (8-2; 110), Harvard (4-1; 92), St. John’s (5-1; 83), Stanford (5-0; 58) and Duke (1-4; 55).

The Princeton women (10–0; 139 voting pts) actually received six of the 10 first-place votes but Columbia (14–1) collected 140 voting points, despite only one 1st-place vote (the other three went to Notre Dame, 4–1; 131). Princeton is buoyed by the return of epee stars Kat Holmes and Anna Van Brummen, both past NCAA semifinalists who took two years off from college competition to pursue their Olympic dreams. Columbia foilist Margaret Lu, the 2015 NCAA runner-up, also has returned after fencing in the 2016 Olympics (she did not fence for Columbia in 2014-15).

The balance of the women’s top–10 (4th-10th): Ohio State (4-2; 123), Penn State (10-2; 104), Pennsylvania (7-4; 94), Harvard (4-2; 93), Temple (12-4; 82), Northwestern (15-4; 59) and St. John’s (4-2; 50).

Based on combined voting points (men+women), Columbia has 280 of the maximum 300, followed by Ohio State (254), Notre Dame and Princeton (251 each), Penn State (228), Penn (204), Harvard (185), St. John’s (133), Duke (100) and Stanford (97).

The Columbia men now have been ranked No. 1 nine times in their history (all over the past four seasons, including an active streak of seven straight polls in the #1 position). The Penn State (17) and Notre Dame men (16) are nearly equal in terms of most times ranked No. 1 (among 60 total men’s team’s ranked No. 1 dating back to the 2001 season), followed by Ohio State (8), St. John’s (2), Stanford (1) and Harvard (1). These totals include two polls in which there were co-#1s.

The Notre Dame women have been ranked No. 1 in nearly half (24 of 52) of the women’s college fencing polls dating back to 2002. The Penn State women are a distant second, having been top-ranked nine times, followed by Columbia (now with 7, all over the past three seasons), Princeton (6), Ohio State (3), and St. John’s (3).

(more detailed content below, with more to be added)

Notable 2016 fall semester/early Jan. men’s results included:
• Penn State 14, Columbia 13
• Columbia 15, Ohio State 12
• Columbia 14, Princeton 13
• Columbia 17, Penn 10
• Columbia 14, Duke 13
• Ohio State 17, Princeton 10
• Ohio State 15, Penn 12
• Princeton 18, Penn State 9
• Harvard 15, Penn State 12
• Penn State 16, Penn 11
• Penn State 17, Duke 10
• Penn 14, Notre Dame 13
• Notre Dame 17, Princeton 10
• Penn 15, Duke 12
• NYU 14, Harvard 13

Notable 2017 fall semester/early Jan. women’s results included:

• Princeton 16, Columbia 11
• Columbia 16, Penn State 11
• Columbia 15, Ohio State 12
• Columbia 15, Penn 12
• Columbia 14, Temple 13
• Columbia 16, Temple 11
• Columbia 15, Northwestern 12
• Princeton 17, Ohio State 10
• Princeton 19, Penn State 8
• Princeton 18, Notre Dame 9
• Princeton 19, Northwestern 8
• Notre Dame 14, Temple 13
• Notre Dame 15, Penn 12
• Penn State 14, Harvard 13
• Penn State 14, Temple 13
• Penn State 15, Penn 12
• Ohio State 18, Penn 9
• Ohio State 16, Northwestern 11

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-16): MEN | WOMEN

2016 result links:
from NCAA Championships | from Northeast Regional

from Mid-Atlantic/South Regional | from Midwest Regional | from West Regional

CLICK HERE for CF360’s annual in-depth look at the 2015 NCAA Fencing Championship field

QUICK TEAM SUMMARIES

(to be added)

• More Quick Team/Fencer Notes (in most cases, these notes are beyond the obvious top returners):
(to be added)

IMPACT NEWCOMERS: (to be added)

> And yet some more individual notes …

(to be added)

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams (some links still being updated for 2016)

The full initial 2017 CF360 Fencing Coaches Polls follow below (including all teams receiving votes).
Note that plenty of additional early-season notes, results summaries, etc. to be fortcoming on CF360 ...

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Poll #1 (Jan. 20, 2017)

MEN (first-place votes – Columbia 6, Penn State 3, Ohio State 1)

(school (varsity dual-meet record) – voting points … final 2016 ranking)

1. Columbia (14-1) – 140 voting pts … (1)

2. Ohio State (5-1) – 131 … (6)
3. Penn State (9-2) – 124… (5)
4. Notre Dame (4-1) – 120 … (2)

5. Princeton (6-3) – 112 … (7)
6. Pennsylvania (8-2) – 110 … (3)

7. Harvard (4-1) – 92 … (8)

8. St. John’s (5-1) – 83 … (4)

9. Stanford (5-0) – 58 … (9)

10. Duke (1-4) – 55 … (10)

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – NYU and Yale (47), NJIT (28), UC San Diego (20),
North Carolina (10), Brown (9), Brandeis (5), Boston College (4), Air Force (2), Johns Hopkins (2), Sacred Heart (1).

WOMEN (first-place votes – Princeton 6, Notre Dame 3, Columbia 1)
(school (varsity dual-meet record) – voting points ... final 2015 ranking)

1. Columbia (14-1) – 140 voting pts … (2)
2. Princeton (10-0) – 139 … (3)
3. Notre Dame (4-1) – 131 … (1)

4. Ohio State (4-2) – 123 … (6)

5. Penn State (10-2) – 104 … (8)
6. Pennsylvania (7-4) – 94 … (X)

7. Harvard (4-2) – 93 … (4)

8. Temple (12-4) – 82 … (9)
9. Northwestern (15-4) – 59 … (7)

10. St. John’s (4-2) – 50 … (5)

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Duke (45), Stanford (39), Cornell (33), Yale (21),
North Carolina (13), Wayne State (11), UC San Diego (7), Brown (6), NJIT (5), Air Force (4) and Boston College (1)
… note that Cornell was #10 in the final 2016 poll.

Voting Panel – Michael Aufrichtig (Columbia), Alex Beguinet (Duke), Sydney Fadner (Boston College),
Nikki Franke (Temple; votes on women's poll only), Wes Glon (Penn State), Gia Kvaratskhelia (Notre Dame),
Andy Ma (Penn; typically votes on men’s poll only), Josh Runyan (UC San Diego), Zach Moss (Northwestern),
Bill Shipman (Brandeis) and Bruce Gilman (Vassar; voted on men’s poll only, but full voter in future).

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-16): MEN | WOMEN

2016 result links:
from NCAA Championships | from Northeast Regional

from Mid-Atlantic/South Regional | from Midwest Regional | from West Regional

CLICK HERE for CF360’s annual in-depth look at the 2015 NCAA Fencing Championship field

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams (some links being updated)

_______________________________________________

• • • •

CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #4 (final) – March 22, 2016
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

Men – Columbia, Notre Dame, Pennsylvania, St. John’s, Penn State
Ohio State, Princeton, Harvard, Stanford and Duke

Women – Notre Dame, Columbia, Princeton, Harvard, St. John’s

Ohio State, Northwestern, Penn State, Temple and Cornell

(scroll down for full release, including all other teams receiving votes … )
• Schedule/Result Links for all teams

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-16): MEN | WOMEN

The final 2016 CollegeFencing360.com Coaches Polls are included below, reflecting votes collected after the NCAA Regional competitions and prior to the NCAA Championships in late March.

Additional summary notes, etc., may be aded to this release later.

The Columbia men now have been ranked No. 1 nine times in their history (all over the past three seasons, including an active streak of six straight polls). Penn State (17) and Notre Dame (16) are nearly equal in terms of most times ranked No. 1 (among 52 total men’s team’s ranked No. 1 dating back to the 2001 season), followed by Ohio State (8), Columbia (6), St. John’s (2), Stanford (1), Harvard (1) and Penn (1). These totals include two polls in which there were co-#1s.

The Notre Dame women now have been ranked No. 1 in nearly half (24 of 49) of the women’s college fencing polls dating back to 2002. The Penn State women are a distant second, having been top-ranked nine times, followed by Princeton (6), Columbia (4; all in 2015 or ’16), Ohio State (3) and St. John’s (3).

The annual college fencing coaches polls are determined by vote from 10 collegiate men’s fencing coaches and 10 from the women’s side. The poll is sponsored by the United States Fencing Coaches Association (USFCA) and co-sponsored/administered by Pete LaFleur of CollegeFencing360.com (CF360). Updated polls will be released in late January/early February, late-Feb./early March and then finally in mid-March (prior to the 2016 NCAA Championships, to be held March 24-27 at Brandeis in Waltham, Mass.).

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-16): MEN | WOMEN

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams

The full updated 2016 CF360 Fencing Coaches Polls follow below (including all teams receiving votes).

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Poll #4 (March 22, 2016)

MEN (first-place votes – Columbia 3.5, U-Penn 3.5, Notre Dame 1, Penn State 1, St. John’s 1)

(school (varsity dual-meet record/to be added) – voting points … previous poll #3 … poll #2 … poll #1)

1. Columbia ( ) – 137.5 voting pts … (t-1) … (1) … (1)
2. Notre Dame ( ) – 133 … (3) … (2) … (2)
3. Pennsylvania ( ) – 123.5 voting pts … (t-1) …( 3) … (3)

4. St. John’s ( ) – 119 … (5) … (6) … (6)
5. Penn State ( ) – 114 … (4) … (4) … (5)
6. Ohio State ( ) – 103 … (8) … (7) … (7)
7. Princeton ( ) – 100 … (7) … (8) … (8)
8. Harvard ( ) – 79 … (6) … (5) … (4)

9. Stanford ( ) – 64 … (10) … (10) … (10)
10. Duke ( ) – 59 … (9) … (9) … (9)

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – NYU (49), NJIT (45), UC San Diego (34), Yale (16),

Brown (12), Sacred Heart (5), North Carolina (14), Boston College (2) and Incarnate Word (1).

WOMEN (first-place votes – Notre Dame 7, Columbia 3)
(school (varsity dual-meet record/to be added) – voting points … previous poll #2 … poll #1)

1. Notre Dame ( ) – 147 voting pts … (1) … (2) … (1)
2. Columbia ( ) – 142 … (2) … (1) … (2)

3. Princeton ( ) – 127 … (4) … (3) … (3)
4. Harvard ( ) – 118 … (3) … (4) … (4)

5. St. John’s ( ) – 106 … (t-7) … (7) … (7)
6. Ohio State ( ) – 104 … (6) … (6) … (6)
7. Northwestern ( ) – 89 … (5) … (5) … (5)

8. Penn State ( ) – 73 … (t-7) … (9) … (8)
9. Temple ( ) – 71 … (10) … (10) … (10)
10. Cornell – 52 … (–) … (–) … (–)

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Duke (44), Stanford (36), *U–Penn (29), Wayne State (26),

UC San Diego (16), NJIT (8), North Carolina (5), Yale (3), Boston College (2), Brandeis (2) and Stevens Tech (1).

* – note: the Penn women were #9 in the initial 2016 poll, then #8 and #9 again in the third poll.

Voting Panel – Michael Aufrichtig (Columbia), Alex Beguinet (Duke), Sydney Fadner (Boston College),
Nikki Franke (Temple; votes on women's poll only), Wes Glon (Penn State), Gia Kvaratskhelia (Notre Dame),
Andy Ma (Penn; votes on men’s poll only), Josh Runyan (UC San Diego), Laurie Schiller (Northwestern),
Bill Shipman (Brandeis) and Tom Vrabel (Sacred Heart).

Poll Notes: coach Ma votes only on the men’s poll and coach Franke votes only on the women’s poll; there are 10 voters for each poll – four from the Northeast region, three from the Mid-Atlantic/South, two from the Midwest and one from the West; the amount of voters per region (4-3-2-1) is in approximate ratio to the amount of schools in each region that sponsor varsity fencing – 19 in the Northeast, 13 in the Mid-Atlantic/South, 7 in the Midwest and 5 in the West … eight of these schools sponsor only a varsity women’s fencing team: CCNY, Cornell, Fairleigh Dickinson, LIU Post, Northwestern, Queens, Temple, Tufts and Wellesley … McKendree will begin varsity fencing status in 2016-17 (sponsoring men’s and women’s teams), as will Wagner for women only.

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-16): MEN | WOMEN

2016 result links:
from NCAA Championships | from Northeast Regional | from Mid-Atlantic/South Regional
from Midwest Regional | from West Regional (also click here for West pre-regional seeds)

CLICK HERE for CF360’s annual in-depth look at the 2016 NCAA Fencing Championship field

Headshot Photo Galleries (with info. & notes) of 2015 NCAA Field: M-Foil | M-Epee | M-Sabre

• CF360 2015 Fencer Focus (Q&A): Men's Foil | Men’s Epee | Men’s Sabre

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams

• • • •

CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #3 – March 11, 2016
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

Men – Columbia/Pennsylvania, Notre Dame, Penn State, St. John’s
Harvard, Princeton, Ohio State, Duke and Stanford

Women – Notre Dame, Columbia, Princeton, Harvard, Northwestern

Ohio State, Penn State/St. John’s, Pennsylvania and Temple

(scroll down for full release, including all other teams receiving votes … )
• Schedule/Result Links for all teams (some links still to be updated for 2015–16)

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-16/to be updated to include current polls): MEN | WOMEN

The early-March update to the CollegeFencing360.com Coaches Polls has produced a historic moment for the University of Pennsylvania men’s program, as the Quakers have risen to earning the No. 1 position – technically tied at #1 – for the first time in the 16-year history of the coaches poll (dating back to 2001). On the women’s side, Notre Dame has edged back in front of growing rival Columbia to reclaim the top position Columbia (ND was #1 in the initial poll, before Columbia moved to No. 1 in early Feb.).

The top-three teams in the men’s poll are separated by only two voting points: previous #1 Columbia and current co-#1 Penn (133) and Notre Dame (131). ND received four 1st-place votes and Penn three, plus two for 5th-place St. John’s (up from 6th) and one for 4th-place Penn State. The Harvard men have slipped from 5th to 6th, while current No. 7 Princeton and [8] Ohio State have flipped spots from the previous poll. Duke and Stanford continue to round out the men’s top–10.

The Notre Dame women’s 147–143 edge in voting points over Columbia includes a 7–3 margin in 1st-place votes. The #3-#6 teams remain unchanged: Princeton, Harvard, Northwestern and Ohio State. Current No. 7 Penn State has moved up two spots, now tied with St. John’s, while the Penn women have dropped from #8 to #9. Temple remains the No. 10 team in the women’s poll.

The Columbia men have been ranked No. 1 eight times in their history (all over the past three seasons, including an active streak of five straight polls). Penn State (17) and Notre Dame (16) are nearly equal in terms of most times ranked No. 1 (among 51 total men’s team’s ranked No. 1 dating back to the 2001 season), followed by Ohio State (8), Columbia (6), St. John’s (2), Stanford (1), Harvard (1) and now Penn (1). These totals include two polls in which there were co-#1s.

The Notre Dame women now have been ranked No. 1 in nearly half (23 of 48) of the women’s college fencing polls dating back to 2002. The Penn State women are a distant second, having been top-ranked nine times, followed by Princeton (6), Columbia (4; all in 2015 or ’16), Ohio State (3) and St. John’s (3).

The annual college fencing coaches polls currently are determined by vote from 10 collegiate men’s fencing coaches and 10 from the women’s side. The poll is sponsored by the United States Fencing Coaches Association (USFCA) and co-sponsored/administered by Pete LaFleur of CollegeFencing360.com (CF360). Updated polls will be released in late January/early February, late-Feb./early March and then finally in mid-March (prior to the 2016 NCAA Championships, to be held March 24-27 at Brandeis in Waltham, Mass.).

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-16/to be updated to include current polls): MEN | WOMEN

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams (some links still being updated for 2016)

The full updated 2016 CF360 Fencing Coaches Polls follow below (including all teams receiving votes).

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Poll #3 (March 11, 2016)

MEN (first-place votes – Notre Dame 3, U-Penn 3, St. John’s 2, Penn State 1)

(school (varsity dual-meet record/to be added) – voting points … previous poll #2 … poll #1)

co-1. Columbia ( ) – 133 voting pts … (1) … (1)
co-1. Pennsylvania ( ) – 133 voting pts … (3) … (3)

3. Notre Dame ( ) – 131 … (2) … (2)

4. Penn State ( ) – 116 … (4) … (5)
5. St. John’s ( ) – 114 … (6) … (6)
6. Harvard ( ) – 104 … (5) … (4)

7. Princeton ( ) – 95 … (8) … (8)
8. Ohio State ( ) – 93 … (7) … (7)

9. Duke ( ) – 69 … (9) … (9)

10. Stanford ( ) – 47 … (10) … (10)

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – UC San Diego (38), NYU (33), Brown (29), NJIT (27), Yale (17),
North Carolina (10), Johns Hopkins (4), Brandeis (3), Sacred Heart (2), Air Force & Boston College (1).

WOMEN (first-place votes – Notre Dame 7, Columbia 3)
(school (varsity dual-meet record/to be added) – voting points … previous poll #2 … poll #1)

1. Notre Dame ( ) – 147 voting pts … (2) … (1)
2. Columbia ( ) – 143 … (1) … (2)

3. Harvard ( ) – 117 … (4) … (4)
4. Princeton ( ) – 116 … (3) … (3)

5. Northwestern ( ) – 107 … (5) … (5)

6. Ohio State ( ) – 101 … (6) … (6)

7. Penn State ( ) – 82 … (9) … (8)
7. St. John’s ( ) – 82 … (7) … (7)

9. Pennsylvania ( ) – 72 … (8) … (9)

10. Temple ( ) – 71 … (10) … (10)
Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Duke (55), Cornell (36), Stanford & UC San Diego (20),
North Carolina (9), Sacred Heart & Stevens Tech (6), Brandeis & Boston College (3), Brown & Yale (2)

Voting Panel – Michael Aufrichtig (Columbia), Alex Beguinet (Duke), Sydney Fadner (Boston College),
Nikki Franke (Temple; votes on women's poll only), Wes Glon (Penn State), Gia Kvaratskhelia (Notre Dame),
Andy Ma (Penn; votes on men’s poll only), Josh Runyan (UC San Diego), Laurie Schiller (Northwestern),
Bill Shipman (Brandeis) and Tom Vrabel (Sacred Heart).

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-16/to be updated to include current polls): MEN | WOMEN

2015 result links:
from NCAA Championships | from Northeast Regional

from Mid-Atlantic/South Regional | from Midwest Regional | from West Regional

Headshot Photo Galleries (with info. & notes) of 2015 NCAA Field: M-Foil | M-Epee | M-Sabre

• CF360 2015 Fencer Focus (Q&A): Men's Foil | Men’s Epee | Men’s Sabre

CLICK HERE for CF360’s annual in-depth look at the 2015 NCAA Fencing Championship field

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams (some links being updated)

• • • •

CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #2 – Jan. 29, 2016
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

Men – Columbia, Notre Dame, Pennsylvania, Penn State, Harvard

St. John’s, Ohio State, Princeton, Duke and Stanford

Women – Columbia, Notre Dame, Princeton, Harvard, Northwestern

Ohio State, St. John’s, Pennsylvania, Penn State and Temple

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-16): MEN | WOMEN

(Note that plenty of additional early-season notes, results summaries, etc., are forthcoming on CF360.)

For the third time in the past two seasons, Columbia occupies both No. 1 spots (for men and women) in the CollegeFencing360.com Coaches Polls. In the second polling of the 2015-16 season, the Columbia men (12-2) maintained a solid cushion on second-ranked Notre Dame (9-1) while the Columbia women (14-1) edged past previous No. 1 ND (10-0) by the narrow margin of 144 voting points to 142, a virtual tie for the top spot.

One school being ranked No. 1 simultaneously for both its men’s and women’s fencing teams has been a fairly common occurrence – now happening in 11 of the past 15 seasons – but it did not happen in 2013, nor in 2014. The Columbia men and women both were No. 1 in the final two polls of the 2015 season.

The Columbia women received their boost in the rankings after going 7–0 at the Penn State Duals, including wins over several top-10 teams, while the ND women were 5–0 at home vs. a collection of opponents that all fall outside the top-10. Columbia posted wins over host #8 PSU (16–11), #9 Univ. of Pennsylvania (20–7) and #10 Temple (15–12), in addition to registering a 17–10 win over a Duke team (12th-most votes) that also knocked off Penn State.

The Columbia and Notre Dame women – which split the 10 first-place votes – were slated to go head-to-head last weekend at St. John’s, but that two-day event was wiped out by the big winter storm (as was a tournament at Penn).

The Columbia men retained a double-digit cushion (142–127) over No. 2 ND, despite the Lions suffering a pair of losses at PSU: 11–16 vs. the 5th-ranked host team and 12–15 vs. #9 Duke – plus an 18–9 showdown win over Ivy League rival #3 U-Penn (now 10-1), which maintained that program-best position, now only three points behind ND with 124. In their annual battle vs. their in-state rival, the Penn men scored a key 17-10 win over #5 PSU.

The Columbia men received half of the 10 first-place votes, followed by two for St. John’s and one each for Notre Dame, Penn and Penn State.

The Penn State men (9-3; 119) – buoyed by their big win over Columbia – moved past idle Harvard (now #5; 5–0; 105) into the No. 4 position. The 6th–10th spots remain unchanged: St. John’s (4-0; 105) … Ohio State (3-2; 96) … Princeton (6-3; 89) … Duke (3-2) – 70 … and Stanford (5-0; 56). SJU, OSU and Princeton each have been idle during the past two weeks.

The Princeton women (8-2; 119), idle all semester, joined the Penn men in holding onto the No. 3 position in their respective poll. while the 4th-7th spots also remain unchanged: idle Harvard (6-0; 115) … Northwestern (22-4; 99) … Ohio State (5-2; 96) … and St. John’s (5-0; 89). 10th-ranked Temple (9-4; 70) also retained its spot, while the Penn women (now #8; 7-4; 81) and current #9 Penn State (7-5; 79) swapped positions.

The past few weeks have been uncharted territory for the Penn State women, who had not been ranked lower than sixth in the 16-year history of the poll (before being ranked 8th, and now 9th, so far this season).

Based on combined voting points (men+women), Columbia has 286 of the maximum 300, followed by Notre Dame (269), Harvard (231), Princeton (208), U-Penn (205), Penn State (198), St. John’s (194), Ohio State (192), Duke (124) and Stanford (87).

The Columbia men now have been ranked No. 1 seven times in their history (all over the past three seasons, including an active streak of four straight polls). Penn State (17) and Notre Dame (16) are nearly equal in terms of most times ranked No. 1 (among 51 total men’s team’s ranked No. 1 dating back to the 2001 season), followed by Ohio State (8), Columbia (6), St. John’s (2), Stanford (1) and Harvard (1). These totals include two polls in which there were co-#1s.

The Notre Dame women have been ranked No. 1 in nearly half (22 of 47) of the women’s college fencing polls dating back to 2002. The Penn State women are a distant second, having been top-ranked nine times, followed by Princeton (6), Columbia (4; all in 2015 or ’16), Ohio State (3) and St. John’s (3).

In addition to various results referenced above, there a few other top-10 matchups at the Penn State Duals:

• #3 Penn men 17-10 vs. [9] Duke

• #5 Penn State men 18-9 vs. [9] DUke

• #8 Penn State women 14-13 vs. [9] Penn

• #10 Temple women 18-9 vs. [8] Penn State

• Duke women 15-12 vs. #8 Penn State (only result over past two weeks, men or women, in which an unranked team beat a top-10 squad)

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-16): MEN | WOMEN

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams (some links still being updated for 2016)

The full updated 2016 CF360 Fencing Coaches Polls follow below (including all teams receiving votes).
Note that plenty of additional early-season notes, results summaries, etc. to be fortcoming on CF360 ...

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Poll #2 (Jan. 28, 2016)

MEN (first-place votes – Columbia 5, St. John’s 2, Notre Dame 1, U-Penn 1, Penn State 1)

(school (varsity dual-meet record) – voting points … previous)

1. Columbia (12-2) – 142 voting pts … (1)

2. Notre Dame (9-1) – 127 … (2)

3. Pennsylvania (10-1) – 124 … (3)

4. Penn State (9-3) – 119 … (5)
5. Harvard (5-0) – 116 … (4)

6. St. John’s (4-0) – 105 … (6)

7. Ohio State (3-2) – 96 … (7)

8. Princeton (6-3) – 89 … (8)

9. Duke (3-2) – 70 … (9)

10. Stanford (5-0) – 56 … (10)

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – UC San Diego (31), NYU (30), Brown (26), Yale (24), NJIT (20),
North Carolina (16), Brandeis (4), Air Force (2), Sacred Heart (2) and Boston College (1).

WOMEN (first-place votes – Columbia 5, Notre Dame 5)
(school (varsity dual-meet record) – voting points ... previous)

1. Columbia (14-1) – 144 … (2)
2. Notre Dame (10-0) – 142 voting pts … (1)

3. Princeton (8-2) – 119 … (3)

4. Harvard (6-0) – 115 … (4)

5. Northwestern (22-4) – 99 … (5)

6. Ohio State (5-2) – 96 … (6)

7. St. John’s (5-0) – 89 … (7)

9. Pennsylvania (7-4) – 81 … (9)
8. Penn State (7-5) – 79 … (8)

10. Temple (9-4) – 70 … (10)
Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Duke (54), Cornell (35), Stanford (31), UC San Diego (11),
North Carolina (9), Brown (7), NYU (5), Yale (4), Brandeis (4), Boston College (4), MIT (1) and Sacred Heart (1).

Voting Panel – Michael Aufrichtig (Columbia), Alex Beguinet (Duke), Sydney Fadner (Boston College),
Nikki Franke (Temple; votes on women's poll only), Wes Glon (Penn State), Gia Kvaratskhelia (Notre Dame),
Andy Ma (Penn; votes on men’s poll only), Josh Runyan (UC San Diego), Laurie Schiller (Northwestern),
Bill Shipman (Brandeis) and Tom Vrabel (Sacred Heart).

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-16): MEN | WOMEN

2015 result links:
from NCAA Championships | from Northeast Regional

from Mid-Atlantic/South Regional | from Midwest Regional | from West Regional

Headshot Photo Galleries (with info. & notes) of 2015 NCAA Field: M-Foil | M-Epee | M-Sabre

• CF360 2015 Fencer Focus (Q&A): Men's Foil | Men’s Epee | Men’s Sabre

CLICK HERE for CF360’s annual in-depth look at the 2015 NCAA Fencing Championship field

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams (some links being updated)

_______________________________________________

• • • •

CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #1 – Jan. 15, 2016
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

Men – Columbia, Notre Dame, Pennsylvania, Harvard, Penn State

St. John’s, Ohio State, Princeton, Duke and Stanford

Women – Notre Dame, Columbia, Princeton, Harvard, Northwestern

Ohio State, St. John’s, Penn State, Pennsylvania and Temple

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-16): MEN | WOMEN

(Note that plenty of additional early-season notes, results summaries, etc., are forthcoming on CF360.)

With an expanded collection of college fencing events slated for January this year (plus even more than usual that were contested during the fall semester), the first edition of the CollegeFencing360.com Coaches Poll for 2015 has been released mid-month for the first time in the 16-year history of the rankings. The Columbia men – 10 months removed from helping the Lons win the 2015 NCAA Men’s and Women’s Combined Fencing Championship – are the clear No. 1 in the initial 2016 poll, while the Notre Dame women narrowly edged the Columbia women (141 voting points to 139) in that first poll of the season.

(Note: there are several notable college fencing tournaments on the weekend of Jan. 16-17; look for details soon on CF360 main page and sidebar schedule, also on Twitter via @CF360updates).

The Notre Dame men are a distant second to Columbia in the initial poll (122 points to 141, out of a max. 150), while the University of Pennsylvania men have matched the highest ranking (No. 3; highest since being #3 in final 2009 poll) in their program’s history. The Princeton women – despite the absence of elite epeeists/Olympic hopefuls Kat Holmes and Anna Van Brummen – hold down the No. 3 position in the opening poll, while Harvard is ranked 4th in both the men’s and women’s polls.

The Penn State men debut at No. 5 in the initial poll, while the 5th-ranked Northwestern women have earned their highest ranking since opening the 2012 season at No. 4. The balance of the men’s top-10 (6th-10th) includes: St. John’s, Ohio State, Princeton, Duke and Stanford. The five teams rounding out the women’s top-10 include: Ohio State, St. John’s, Penn State, Penn and Temple.

Based on combined voting points (men+women), Columbia has 280 of the maximum 300, followed by Notre Dame (263), Harvard (235), Penn (211), Princeton (also 211), Penn State (205), St. John’s (197), Ohio State (196), Duke (106) and Stanford (84).

The Columbia men now have been ranked No. 1 six times in their history (all over the past three seasons, including three straight polls). Penn State (17) and Notre Dame (16) are nearly equal in terms of most times ranked No. 1 (among 51 total men’s team’s ranked No. 1 dating back to the 2001 season), followed by Ohio State (8), Columbia (6), St. John’s (2), Stanford (1) and Harvard (1). These totals include two polls in which there were co-#1s.

The Notre Dame women now have been ranked No. 1 in nearly half (22 of 46) of the women’s college fencing polls dating back to 2002. The Penn State women are a distant second, having been top-ranked nine times, followed by Princeton (6), Ohio State (3), St. John’s (3) and Columbia (3, all in 2015).

(more detailed content below)

The Columbia men – whose 8-0 showing in the fall semester included a 14-13 win over Ivy League rival Princeton (at the Penn Elite Invitational) – received six of the 10 first-place votes and 141 voting points (max. 150), ahead of Notre Dame (4-1; 122; one first-place), Penn (5-0; 121; one), Harvard (5-0; 118), Penn State (4-2; 115), St. John’s (4-0; 105; one) and Ohio State (3-2; 103; one). The rest of the top-10 (#8-#10) includes: Princeton (6-3; 92), Duke (0-0; 64) and Stanford (0-0; 54).

Other notable 2015 fall semester men’s results included:
• ND 14-13 vs. OSU and 16-11 vs. Princeton
• Penn 16-11 vs. ND and 16-11 vs. OSU
• Harvard 17-10 vs. PSU
• Princeton 15-12 vs. PSU
• OSU 17-10 vs. Princeton

The Notre Dame (5) and Columbia (4) women accounted for all but one of the first-place votes, with the other going to Penn. The ND women went 5-0 in the fall at the Penn Elite Invitational, with top wins over Princeton (18-9), Northwestern (14-13), OSU (16-11) and Penn (17-10). The Columbia women (7-1) were 4-1 at that same event, which did not feature a showdown vs. ND, with the Lions loss coming 13-14 vs. Northwestern (top wins so far by the Columbia women include 16-11 vs. Princeton, 16-11 earlier vs. Northwestern, and 15-12 vs. Temple).

The Princeton women (8-2; 119 pts) trail behind the top two programs, with the Tigers narrowly edging Ivy rival Harvard (6-0; 117) for the current No. 3 position. Fifth-ranked Northwestern (17-4; 99) is coming off a busy fall, with the balance of the top-10 including: Ohio State (5-2; 93), St. John’s (5-0; 92), Penn State (3-2; 90), Penn (3-2; 83) and Temple (5-3; 65).

The other notable 2015 fall semester women’s results included (beyond those listed above):

• Princeton 17-10 vs. Northwestern and 16-11 vs. PSU

• Harvard 18-9 vs. PSU and 17-10 vs. Temple

• Northwestern 14-13 vs. OSU

• Cornell 14-13 vs. Northwestern (the Big Red received the 11th-most votes and 45 pts)

• OSU 15-12 vs. Penn and 14-13 vs. Temple

• SJU 16-11 vs. Cornell

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-16): MEN | WOMEN

2015 result links:
from NCAA Championships | from Northeast Regional

from Mid-Atlantic/South Regional | from Midwest Regional | from West Regional

Headshot Photo Galleries (with info. & notes) of 2015 NCAA Field: M-Foil | M-Epee | M-Sabre

• CF360 2015 Fencer Focus (Q&A): Men's Foil | Men’s Epee | Men’s Sabre

CLICK HERE for CF360’s annual in-depth look at the 2015 NCAA Fencing Championship field

QUICK TEAM SUMMARIES

• Columbia Men – Return five of the six fencers (all seniors) who helped Lions men and women win 2015 NCAA team title … two of them reached the medal round, with 2015 epee champion Jake Hoyle edging teammate Brian Ro in a 14-13 semifinal … foilist Harry Bergman (5th) narrowly missed the 2015 medal round, while Adam Mathieu was 12th for All-America honors … sabre returner Geoff Loss (14th) placed a couple spots out of All-America status, while Will Spear (17th) wrapped up his stellar four-year career. … junior foilist Drew Johnson placed 4th at the 2015 NCAA Northeast Regional and easily could have fenced in the NCAAs (the Lions opted for the veteran Mathieu, alongside Bergman). … two Lions newcomers rank among the top-10 in the USFA under-20 rankings: foilist Nolen Scruggs (Ozone Park, NY) and sabre rookie Calvin Liang (Chandler, AZ).

• Columbia Women – Despite the season-long absence of U.S Olympic hopeful Margaret Lu (2015 NCAA runner-up), the Lions still return three-time foil All-American Jackie Dubrovich (2013 NCAA runner-up; ’14 semifinalist) and junior Sara Taffel, who placed 15th at the 2014 NCAAs – in addition to adding two of the nation’s top young foilists: Iman Blow (#2 in nation among U-20s; Brooklyn, NY) and Quinn Crum (#8; Providence, RI) … the sabre unit, led by the sophomore trio of Anastasia Ivanoff (5th at 2015 NCAAs), Lena Johnson (also an All-American, placing 9th) and Danya Yu, should continue to boost the Lions dual-meet success … the epee squad features jr. two-time All-American Mason Speta (11th at 2015 NCAAs) and so. Katie Angen, who placed 18th at the NCAAs a year ago.

• Notre Dame Women – The Irish foilists are minus an Olympic hopeful of their own (three-time NCAA champ Lee Kiefer, who will fence her final college season in 2017), in addition to replacing four-year foil All-American Madi Zeiss … but help is on the way in the form of elite freshman Sabrina Massialas (San Francisco), one of the world’s top under-20 foilists, son of U.S. men’s foil coach Greg Massialas and sister of Stanford standout/National Team regular/recent world #1 Alex Massialas (two-time NCAA men’s foil champ) … fellow San Francisco native and ND classmate Elyssa Kleiner (10th in U.S. u-20 rankings) provides even more foil depth, as does senior Nicole McKee (6th at 2015 NCAA Midwest Regional) … the Irish return a great sophomore duo in sabre, in Francesca Russo (2015 NCAA champ) and Claudia Kulmacz (13th at ’15 NCAAs), with freshman Tara Hassett (Portland, Ore.) a top candidate to round out the starting group (she is the sister of former ND sabre standouts Eileen and Kevin Hassett) … ND must replace a pair of four-year epee stars: Ashley Severson and fellow All-American Nicole Ameli, who placed 9th and 13th, respectively, at the 2015 NCAAs … the ND women could be a year away from greatness, with Kiefer set to return in 2017, which also will signal the college debut for epeeist Amanda Sirico (Olympic hopeful/current U.S. u-20 #1) … current ND newcomer Madeline Antekeier (Houston; #4 among U.S. u-20s) looks to follow in the footsteps of two other recent Texas-trained epeeists who starred with the Irish (sisters/Olympians Kelley and Courtney Hurley).

• Notre Dame Men – For the second straight year, ND is replacing a former NCAA men’s foil champion (former world #1 Gerek Meinhardt wrapped up his college career in 2014, followed by Ariel DeSmet in 2015) … but the program’s signature weapon has added the nation’s top-rated U-20 foilist in Axel Kiefer (Lee’s brother; Lexington, KY) while two veterans have NCAA Tournament experience: so. Virgile Collineau (11th in ’15) and jr. Kristjan Archer (10th in ’14) … sr. epeeist Garrett McGrath was the 2014 NCAA runner-up and is a three-time NCAA entrant, while so. Nicolas Hanahan placed 22nd at the 2015 NCAAs … the Irish have three sabre fencers with NCAA Tournament bouts under their belt: sophomores Jonah Sahinberg (12th in ’15) and Jon. Fitagerald (20th), plus sr. John Hallsten (13th in ’14; 18th in ’13) … jr. foilist Hazem Khazbak was taking the semester off for an Olympic bid (with Egypt) but now is out with an injury … Ari Simmons, one of the world’s top young epeeists, is a 2016 U.S. Olympic hopeful and will start his college career with the Irish in 2016-17.

• Princeton Women – Despite the absence of Olympic hopefuls Kat Holmes and Anna Van Brummen (both former NCAA epee medal-round fencers), the Tigers still return sabre senior Gracie Stone (two-time NCAA semifinalist) and another sabre All-American in so. Allison Lee (7th at ’15 NCAAs), plus senior epee All-American Isabel Ford (also 7th at ’15 NCAAs) and yet another All-American in jr. foilist Ashley Tsue (10th in ’15) … Princeton also must replace four-time NCAA foil entrant Ambika Singh (18th at ’15 NCAAs) … Stone, who battled injuries for much of the 2015 season, could combine with elite newcomer Sage Palmedo (Portland, Ore.) to form the nation’s top sabre duo (the 5-foot-8 Palmedo is the world’s top-ranked u-20 women’s sabre fencer) … Princeton’s epee pipeline also keeps chugging, with the addition of fr. Charlene Lu (Bridgewater, NJ; #5 among U.S. u-20s).

• Penn Men – The Quakers men are a team on the rise, with an assortment of fencers who have NCAA Tournament experience plus a pair of highly-touted newcomers … sophomore John Vaiani reached the 2015 NCAA foil semifinals, while sr. Shaul Gordon was the 2013 NCAA runner-up (fencing for in-state rival Penn State; he then was a 2014 semifinalist with Penn but disappointingly placed 15th in 2015) … Penn returns its All-America epee duo, as sophomores Jake Raynis and Zsomber Garzo placed 9th and 10th at the 2015 NCAAs … the roster also includes three senior veterans who were not in the 2015 NCAAs but fenced at the NCAAs earlier in their careers: epeeist RJ Shipp (14th in ’14), foilist Adam El Kassas (21st in ’14) and epeeist Ayuub Ibrahim (8th in ’13; did not fence at all for Penn in ’15) … Penn must replace two departed fencers from its 2015 NCAA group (Steven Yang/11th in sabre, and foilist Jason Chang/16th) but overall help is on hand with the arrival of epeeist Justin Yoo (Los Angeles; #1 among U.S. u-20s) and the nation’s #7 under-20 foilist Raymond Chen (Dallas).

• More Quick Team/Fencer Notes (in most cases, these notes are beyond the obvious top returners):
– The HARVARD MEN must cope without sabre so. Eli Dershwitz (Olympic hopeful; 2015 NCAA semifinalist) but epeeist Peregrine Badger still is part of the squad (he was a 2013 NCAA semifinalist, 6th in ’13, did not fence in ’14 and then did not make NCAA is ’15) while sr. foilist Michael Woo will be hoping for a return to the NCAAs after not getting that far in 2015 (8th in ’13, 9th in ’14).
… the PENN STATE MEN have three championship-level fencers back in the fold, including the past two NCAA men’s sabre champs (current sr. Kaito Streets won in 2014 while Andrew Mackiewicz was a freshman champion in ’15) plus jr. foilist Nobuo Bravo (’15 runner-up; ’14 semifinalist).
… couple PSU WOMEN’s roster notes: Karen Chang taking year off (Olympic hopeful with Hong Kong; was 2015 NCAA sabre runner-up as a freshman) while the squad returns the potent “Junior Jessies” epee duo of Jessie Radanovich (2014 NCAA semifinalist; 5th in ’15) and Jessica O’Neill-Lyubinsky (13th in ’14; missed 2015 NCAAs, after being affected by injury in Regional round).

… OHIO STATE MEN: Lewis Weiss (epee/2015 NCAA semifinalist) is back, after taking off in the fall for his Olympic bid, while the squad’s top Canadians (namely Fares Arfa/sabre and Marc-Antoinie Blais/epee) are fencing this semester, and Inaki De Guzman (epee/2014 NCAA entrant) is back, after not fencing at OSU in 2015.

> OSU WOMEN: It’s certainly notable that Mona Shaito (NCAA foil semifinalist in ’12 and ’13) has returned, and she could be in Olympics with Lebanon again but still will fence with OSU. Alexa Antipas (sabre) was 6th at the 2014 NCAAs but did not make the 2015 NCAAs. 2015 NCAA sabre qualifier Kim Young is no longer on the OSU team. Canadian foilists Eleanor Harvey & Alanna Goldie will fence for OSU this semester.

… PRINCETON MEN: Michael Dudey (foil/DNF in 2015) is back, he was 5th at the 2013 NCAAs and 7th in 2014. Another foilist who did not fence in 2015 NCAAs is of note: Rodney Chen (15th in 2013 NCAAs; 14th in 2014). Also, Alex. Eldeib (epee) was 17th in the 2014 NCAAs but did not make the 2015 NCAAs.
… ST. JOHN’S MEN: Rarity in 2015 saw 2014 epee champ Yevginiy Karyuchenko fail to even qualify for the NCAAs the following year (due to subpar Regional performance).
… PENN WOMEN: Despite qualifying only two fencers for the NCAAs in 2015, two current veterans are past NCAA entrants: Aleina Edwards (epee; 24th in 2014) and Cassidy Seidl (foil; 24th in ’14).
… STANFORD (men and women): Several still in mix after not making 2015 NCAAs (some did not fence at all in the 2015 college seasons): veteran epeeist Paul Riviere was in 2013 (21st) and 2014 (14th) NCAAs, but not in 2015 (when his younger brother Ben was an NCAA entrant), both still are on the roster. Stephen Amann (foil) did not fence with Stanford in 2015 but was an NCAA entrant in 2014 (24th) and he now is back on the team. Avery Youngblood/women’s sabre also is back after not fencing in 2015 (she placed 19th at 2013 NCAAs).

… NORTHWESTERN: Veteran Courtney Dumas (epee; 15th at 2012 NCAAs) is back, after taking off in 2015 for an Olympic bid.

IMPACT NEWCOMERS: Beyond those referenced above – Columbia’s Blow/Crum/Scruggs/Liang; ND’s Massialas/Kleiner/Sirico/Antekeier/Kiefer; Princeton’s Palmedo/Liu; and Penn’s Yoo/Chen – several other newcomers currently rank among the USFA top-10 (under-20s) in their weapons:
• men’s epee: [2] Anton Piskovatskov (Houston, TX), Penn State

[4] Curtis McDowald (Jamaica, NY), St. John’s

[5] Wesley Johnson (Pleasant View, Utah), Princeton

• men’s sabre: [1] Ben Natanzon (Manalapan, NJ), St. John’s

[3] Karol Metryka (Linden, NJ), Penn State

[5] Mikolaj “Mickey” Bak (Linden, NJ), NYU

[10] Grant Williams (Atlanta, GA), NYU
… so look for potentially good things from NYU sabre this year (also some strong roster boosts for PSU and SJU men)

> And yet some more individual notes …

Three of the 2015 NCAA individual champions are back competing in the 2016 college season:
• Jake Hoyle (men’s epee; Columbia sr.)
• Andrew Mackiewicz (men’s sabre; Penn State so.)
• Francesca Russo (women’s sabre; Notre Dame so.)

… Three-time NCAA women’s foil champion Lee Kiefer (2013–15) of Notre Dame has one year of eligibility remaining but is not competing in the 2016 college season while pursuing a spot in the Rio Olympic Games (as is Stanford senior men’s foilist Alexander Massialas, the 2013 and ’15 NCAA champion, also having reached the 2014 semifinals). The only 2015 NCAA individual champion who is done with college fencing: Isis Washington (St. John’s women’s epee). Stanford’s Vivian Kong (2014 NCAA champion, also ’13 runner-up as a freshman) is taking a second straight year away from college fencing and is hoping to compete in the 2016 Olympic Games for her native Hong Kong.

There also are three 2014 NCAA individual champions who will be taking aim at another title in 2016:

• Yevgeniy Karyuchenko (men’s epee; St. John’s jr. … did not qualify for 2015 NCAAs)
• Kaito Streets (men’s sabre; Penn State sr. … placed 6th at 2015 NCAAs)

• Adrienne Jarocki (women’s sabre; Harvard jr. … lost 2015 NCAA semifinal vs. Russo, 12–15)

Additional current fencers to watch include the following past NCAA runner-ups (in addition to Kong in ’13 and Massilas in ’14): Penn State junior men’s foilist Nobuo Bravo (’15; also ’14 semifinalist); Princeton sr. men’s epeeist Jack Hudson (’15; also ’14 semifinalist); NJIT so. women’s epeeist Julia Garcia (’15); Notre Dame sr. epeeist Garrett McGrath (’14); St. John’s men’s sabre sr. Ferenc Valkai (’14 and ’15); Harvard women’s sabre sr. Aliya Itzkowitz (’14); Penn sabre sr. Shaul Jordon (’13, while at PSU; also ’14 semifinalist); and Columbia jr. Jackie Dubrovich (’13; also ’14 semifinalist).

And there are plenty others of note, based on reaching the NCAA semifinals/medal round over the past couple years, including: St. John’s sr. women’s foilist Marta Hausman (’15); Cornell jr. women’s epeeist Victoria Wines (’15); Penn so. men’s foilist John Vaiani (’15); Columbia sr. men’s epeeist Brian Ro (’15); OSU so. men’s epeeist Lewis Weiss (’15); St. John’s sabre sr. Roman Sydorenko (’14 and ’15); OSU jr. foilist Alanna Goldie (’14); PSU jr. women’s epeeist Jessie Radanovich (’14); PSU women’s sabre jr. Teodora Kakhiani (’14 and ’15); Princeton sabre sr. Gracie Stone (’13 & ’14); Harvard sr. men’s epeeist Peregrine Badger (’13); and Ohio State sr. women’s foilist Mona Shaito (’12 and ’13).

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams (some links still being updated for 2016)

The full initial 2016 CF360 Fencing Coaches Polls follow below (including all teams receiving votes).
Note that plenty of additional early-season notes, results summaries, etc. to be fortcoming on CF360 ...

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Poll #1 (Jan. 15, 2016)

MEN (first-place votes – Columbia 6, Notre Dame 1, Penn 1, St. John’s, Ohio State 1)

(school (varsity dual-meet record) – voting points … final 2015 ranking)

1. Columbia (8-0) – 141 voting pts … (1)

2. Notre Dame (4-1) – 122 … (3)

3. Pennsylvania (5-0) – 121 … (7)

4. Harvard (5-0) – 118 … (6)

5. Penn State (4-2) – 115 … (2)

6. St. John’s (4-0) – 105 … (4)

7. Ohio State (3-2) – 103 … (5)

8. Princeton (6-3) – 92 … (8)

9. Duke (0-0) – 64 … (9)

10. Stanford (0-0) – 54 … (10)

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – NYU (36), Brown (31), Yale (25), UC San Diego (23), NJIT (19),
North Carolina (16), Sacred Heart (6), Brandeis (3), Johns Hopkins (3), Boston College (2) and Wayne State (1).

WOMEN (first-place votes – Notre Dame 5, Columbia 4, Penn 1)
(school (varsity dual-meet record) – voting points ... final 2015 ranking)

1. Notre Dame (5-0) – 141 voting pts … (2)

2. Columbia (7-1) – 139 … (1)

3. Princeton (8-2) – 119 … (3)

4. Harvard (6-0) – 117 … (4)

5. Northwestern (17-4) – 99 … (6)

6. Ohio State (5-2) – 93 … (7)

7. St. John’s (5-0) – 92 … (8)

8. Penn State (3-2) – 90 … (5)

9. Pennsylvania (3-2) – 83 … (9)

10. Temple (5-3) – 65 … (–)
Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Cornell (45), Duke (42), Stanford (30), North Carolina (11),
Boston College (9), UC San Diego (8), Brown (5), NYU (4), Brandeis (3), Yale (3), MIT (1) and Sacred Heart (1).

Voting Panel – Michael Aufrichtig (Columbia), Alex Beguinet (Duke), Sydney Fadner (Boston College),
Nikki Franke (Temple; votes on women's poll only), Wes Glon (Penn State), Gia Kvaratskhelia (Notre Dame),
Andy Ma (Penn; votes on men’s poll only), Josh Runyan (UC San Diego), Laurie Schiller (Northwestern),
Bill Shipman (Brandeis) and Tom Vrabel (Sacred Heart).

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-16): MEN | WOMEN

2015 result links:
from NCAA Championships | from Northeast Regional

from Mid-Atlantic/South Regional | from Midwest Regional | from West Regional

Headshot Photo Galleries (with info. & notes) of 2015 NCAA Field: M-Foil | M-Epee | M-Sabre

• CF360 2015 Fencer Focus (Q&A): Men's Foil | Men’s Epee | Men’s Sabre

CLICK HERE for CF360’s annual in-depth look at the 2015 NCAA Fencing Championship field

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams (some links being updated)

_______________________________________________

• • • •

CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #4 – March 17, 2015
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

Men – Columbia, Penn State, Notre Dame, St. John’s, Ohio State
Harvard, Penn, Princeton, Duke and Stanford

Women – Columbia, Notre Dame, Princeton, Harvard, Penn State,
Northwestern, Ohio State, St. John’s, Penn and Duke

(scroll down for full release/notes & complete rankings, including all other teams receiving votes … )
• Schedule/Result Links for all teams

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-15): MEN | WOMEN

The votes for the fourth and final CollegeFencing360.com Coaches Poll of the 2015 season have been tabulated, and Columbia retained the top spot in both the men’s and women’s rankings. Penn State (135 voting pts, behind Columbia’s 140) maintained the No. 2 position in the men’s poll while Notre Dame (123) vaulted from 6th to 3rd. On the women’s side, Notre Dame stayed a firm No. 2 with 140 voting points (Columbia again has a near-unanimous 149) while the Princeton women (125) remained firmly in the third poistion.

New Bonus Offering from CF360:

CLICK HERE for CF360’s annual in-depth look at the 2015 NCAA Field of Entants

(note: Columbia University’s team also usually includes women’s fencers from Barnard College, and often is referenced as Columbia-Barnard; CF360 references them as Columbia herein).

Voting throughout the season is based on dual-meet results, but this final poll also factors in a team’s performance at its NCAA Regional competition (and resulting bids to the NCAA Championships). Six men’s teams qualified the maximum six fencers for the NCAAs: #1 Columbia, #2 Penn State, #3 Notre Dame, #4 St. John’s, #5 Ohio State and #7 Penn – while the four women’s teams that qualified six include #1 Columbia, #2 ND, #3 Princeton and #6 Northwestern (which has moved up a spot in the poll, with 100 voting points).

Current No. 4 St. John’s and [5] Ohio State have swapped spots from the previous men’s poll, while Harvard dropped from 3rd to 6th. There were two swaps of positions in the women’s polls, between current No. 6 Northwestern and [7] Ohio State, and currnent No. 7 St. John’s with new [8] U-Penn. The Duke women have cracked the top–10 for the first time in 2015, unseating Temple (which had been #10 in all three previous 2015 polls).

The Columbia men have been ranked No. 1 in five of eight polls over the past two seasons. The No. 4 St. John’s men hold their highest ranking since being #3 prior to the 2013 NCAA Regionals (the final SJU season of elite sabre standout and Olympian Daryl Homer).

Northwestern’s No. 6 ranking is its highest since being ranked 4th to open the 2012 season. And the Duke women are back in the top–10 for the first time since ending the 2013 season ranked 10th.

Here are handy links to all four 2015 NCAA Regional results:
• Northeast
• Mid-Atlantic/South
• Midwest
• West

… And here is a breakdown of the 2015 NCAA Qualfiers:

NCAA Qualifiers – Men

6 – Columbia
6 – Notre Dame

6 – Penn State

6 – Ohio State

6 – U-Penn

6 – St. John's

5 – Harvard (1 m-epee)

5 – Princeton (1 m-foil)

4 – Air Force (1 m-foil; 1 m-epee)

3 – Duke (2 m-sabre; 1 m-epee)

3 – Sacred Heart (2 m-epee; 1 m-foil)

3 – NJIT (2 m-foil; 1 m-sabre)

2 – Stanford (1 m-foil; 1 m-epee)

2 – Brown (1 m-epee; 1 m-sabre)

2 – NYU (1 m-foil; 1 m-epee)

2 – MIT (both m-sabre)

2 – Wayne State (1 m-foil; 1 m-sabre)

1 – UC San Diego (m-foil)

1 – Yale (m-foil)

1 – Stevens Tech (m-epee)

NCAA Qualifiers – Women

6 – Columbia

6 – Notre Dame

6 – Princeton

6 – Northwestern

5 – Penn State (1 w-epee)

5 – Harvard (1 w-epee)

5 – St. John's (1 w-sabre)

4 – Ohio State (1 w-epee, 1 w-sabre)

4 – Duke (no w-foil)

4 – Stanford (2 w-epee; 2 w-sabre)

3 – Brown (2 w-sabre 1 w-epee)

3 – Cornell (2 w-foil; 1 w-epee)

2 – U-Penn (1 w-foil; 1 w-epee; no w-sabre)

2 – Temple (1 w-foil; 1 w-sabre)

2 – Boston College (both w-epee)

2 – Air Force (both w-foil)

2 – Yale (1 w-foil; 1 w-sabre)

2 – Wayne State (1 w-foil; 1 w-sabre)

1 – North Carolina (w-sabre)

1 – NJIT (w-epee)

1 – Sacred Heart (w-sabre)

One school being ranked No. 1 simultaneously for both its men’s and women’s fencing teams has been a fairly common occurrence – happening in nine of the previous 13 seasons – but it did not happen in 2013, nor in 2014. A couple weeks ago, for the first time since the initial 2012 poll, college fencing again had a program occupying the #1 spot for both genders (Columbia).

The only 2014-15 dual-meet losses for the Notre Dame women came during the mid-January trip to New York City, in showdown matchups versus then-#2 Columbia. The only blemish for the Columbia women during the 2014–15 season came by one touch, on Jan. 17 at the Penn State Invitational, versus the host team (13–14).

The annual college fencing coaches polls currently are determined by vote from 10 collegiate men’s fencing coaches and 10 from the women’s side. The poll is sponsored by the United States Fencing Coaches Association (USFCA) and co-sponsored/administered by CollegeFencing360.com (CF360). Updated polls will be released in early February, early March and then finally in mid-March (prior to the 2015 NCAA Championships, to be held March 19-22 at Ohio State).

• HISTORY OF MEN & WOMEN BOTH #1 – Here are the 19 times in the 15-year history of the college fencing coaches polls (48 total poll releases) that a school has been ranked #1 for both men’s and women’s fencing (9 ND, 5 PSU, 2 OSU, 1 each for SJU and COL):

2015 (pre-NCAAs) – Columbia
2015 (pre-Regionals) – Columbia
–––
2012 (pre-Reg.) – Penn State (OSU won; PSU was 5th)
2012 (initial pol) – Ohio State … OSU won NCAA title
–––
2011 (pre-NCAAs) – Notre Dame … ND won NCAA title
2011 (pre-Reg.) – Notre Dame … ND won NCAA title
2011 (initial poll) – Notre Dame … ND won NCAA title
–––
2010 (pre-NCAAs) – Notre Dame  (PSU won; ND was 3rd)
2010 (pre-Reg.) – Notre Dame  (PSU won; ND was 3rd)
2010 (initial poll) – Penn State … PSU won NCAA title
–––
2009 (pre-NCAAs) – Notre Dame  (PSU won; ND was 2nd)
2009 (pre-NCAAs) – Notre Dame  (PSU won; ND was 2nd)
–––
2007 (poll #3) – Penn State … PSU won NCAA title
2007 (pre-Reg.) – Penn State … PSU won NCAA title
–––
2005 (initial poll) – Ohio State  (ND won; OSU was 2nd)
–––
2004 (pre-Reg.) – Notre Dame  (OSU won; ND was 3rd)
2004 (initial poll) – Notre Dame  (OSU won; ND was 3rd)
–––
2003 (initial poll) – Penn State  (ND won; PSU was 2nd)
–––
2002 (initial poll) – St. John's  (PSU won; SJU was 2nd)

Notes:
– Prior to 2015, in the 17 previous instances (since 2001; happened 9-of-14 yrs, all but ’01, ’06, ’08, '13 and '14) when one school was #1 in both college fencing polls (men and women), that school went on to win the NCAA title only six times (encomassing three seasons):
• Penn State in 2007 (2 polls; pre-Regionals and pre-NCAAs)
• Notre Dame in 2011 (all 3 polls)
• Ohio State in 2012 (one poll; pre-Regionals)

– 2015 is only the fifth year when a school was No. 1 in the men’s and women’s polls prior to the NCAA Championships:

• 2007: Penn State (PSU won title)
• 2009: Notre Dame (PSU won; ND was 2nd)
• 2010: Notre Dame (PSU won; ND was 3rd)
• 2011: Notre Dame (ND won title)

– The polls on March 5, 2015, marked the sixth time that a school has been No. 1 in the men’s and women’s polls heading into the NCAA Regonals, and three of the previous five have gone on to win the NCAA title (PSU in ’07, ND in ’11 and OSU in ’12) … ND was runner-up to OSU in 2004 and runner-up to PSU in ’09 (in each year, ND held both #1 rankings prior to the Regionals).

– As a reminder, from 2001–12, there was an initial poll in Jan. followed by two updates (pre-Regionals and pre-NCAA Champ.) … starting with 2013, an early-Feb. update was added, followed by the two final polls in March (yielding four total poll releases from 2013-–15, with one still to come in advance of the 2015 NCAAs).

• TOP COMBINED FENCING PROGRAMS – In addition to Columbia (#1 in both polls), Notre Dame currently is the only other school in the top-4 of both polls. Based on combined voting points (men+women), Columbia has 289 of the maximum 300, followed by Notre Dame (263) Penn State (246), Harvard (227), Ohio State (206), Princeton (205), St. John’s (202), Penn (157), Duke (110) and Stanford (83).

• POLL HISTORY – The Columbia women previously were ranked No. 2 twice in the recorded history of the coaches poll (2001-15), checking in at #2 in the initial 2015 poll (mid-Jan.). That #2 had been the program’s highest ranking since being ranked second in all three polls of the 2007 season. The Columbia men were top-ranked for the first time in program history during the first three polls of 2014.

Columbia is only the sixth women’s fencing program ever to hold down the No. 1 ranking, in the 15-year history of the coaches poll. The Notre Dame women have been ranked No. 1 in nearly half (21 of 45) of the women’s college fencing polls dating back to 2002. The Penn State women are a distant second, having been top-ranked nine times, followed by Princeton (6), Ohio State (3) and St. John’s (3).

On the men’s side, Penn State holds a narrow lead vs. longtime rival Notre Dame – with 17 polls for PSU at No. 1 while ND has 16 (among 50 total men’s team’s ranked No. 1 dating back to the 2001 season), followed by Ohio State (8), Columbia (5), St. John’s (2), Stanford (1) and Harvard (1). These totals include two polls in which there we co-#1s.

The Penn State men have been #1 or #2 during all 12 polls spanning the past three seasons (2013–15).

• INDIVIDUAL NOTES – The Penn State men feature a veterean core led by current juniors Kaito Streets (2014 NCAA sabre champion) and Nobuo Bravo (’14 NCAA foil semifinalist), plus sophomore epeeist Conor Shepard (2014 NCAA entrant). Freshman Andrew Mackiewicz has made an impressive transition into college fencing, helping fill the void of graduated sabre All-American Adrian Bak.

The current Columbia women’s foil roster includes riduculos depth with the likes of Nzingha Prescod (a teammate of ND’s Kiefer on the 2012 U.S. Olympic team), Margaret Lu – who recently joined Kiefer and Zeiss as part of the U.S. women’s foil team that scored an historic win over Italy en route to a silver-medal finish at the Gdansk World Cup – and junior Jackie Dubrovich, the 2013 NCAA runner-up and a ’14 semifinalist. With epeeist sophomore Mason Speta (2014 NCAA entrant) also returning, Columbia needed to upgrade its women’s sabre unit and appears to have done so with the freshman trio of Danya Hu, Anastasia Ivanoff and Lena Johnson.

The Notre Dame women continue to be led by the elite foil duo of two-time NCAA champion Lee Kiefer and senior Madi Zeiss (’14 NCAA runner-up and ’13 semifinalist), plus senior epeeists Ashley Severson and Nicole Ameli. Similar to Columbia, the ND women have received a much-needed sabre boost through the addition of freshmen Francesca Russo and Claudia Kulmacz.

• TOP VETERANS – Four of the six 2014 NCAA individual champions are back in 2015:

• Yevgeniy Karyuchenko (men’s epee; St. John’s so.); failed to qualify for 2015 NCAAs
• Kaito Streets (men’s sabre; Penn State jr.)
• Lee Kiefer (women’s foil two-time champion; Notre Dame jr.)

• Adrienne Jarocki (women’s sabre; Harvard so.)

(Stanford jr. women’s epeeist Vivian Kong is utilizing a redshirt season while ND men’s foilist Gerek Meinhardt ended his college career after winning the 2014 NCAA title)

There also are two current fencers who have NCAA individual titles on their resume but prior to 2014: Stanford junior foilist and 2012 Olympian Massialas (’13 NCAA champ) and Notre Dame senior men’s foilist Ariel DeSmet (’11).

Additional current fencers to watch include the following past NCAA runner-ups (in addition to Dubrovich and Kong in ’13, and Zeiss in ‘14): Notre Dame junior epeeist Garrett McGrath (’14); St. John’s men’s sabre junior Ferenc Valkai (’14); U-Penn sabre junior Shaul Jordon (’13, while at PSU); Penn sr. women’s foilist Luona Wang (’12); and Harvard women’s sabre jr. Aliya Itzkowitz (’14). Wang did not qualify for the 2015 NCAAs

Others of note, based on reaching the NCAA semifinals/medal round over the past couple years, include: Penn State jr. men’s foilist Bravo (’14); Princeton jr. epeeist Jack Hudson (’14); St. John’s sabre junior Roman Sydorenko (’14); Ohio State so. foilist Alanna Goldie (’14); PSU sr. foilist Alina Antokhina (’12); PSU so. women’s epeeist Jessie Radanovich (’14); PSU women’s sabre so. Teodora Kakhiani (’14); Princeton sabre jr. Gracie Stone (’13 & ’14); and North Carolina sabre sr. Gillian Litynski (’13).

New Bonus Offering from CF360:

CLICK HERE for CF360’s annual in-depth look at the 2015 NCAA Field of Entants

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams

The full 2015 CF360 Fencing Coaches Poll #4 follows below (including all teams receiving votes).

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-15): MEN | WOMEN

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Poll #4/Final (March 17, 2015)

MEN (first-place votes – Columbia 6, Penn State 3, Notre Dame 1)

school (varsity dual-meet record … NCAA qualifiers) – voting points … previous polls … initial 2015 poll

1. Columbia (17–6 ... 6 NCAA qual.) – 140 … (1) … (2) … (4)

2. Penn State (17–5 ... 6 NCAA qual.) – 135 voting pts … (2) … (1) … (1)

3. Notre Dame (24–7 ... 6 NCAA qual.) – 123 … (6) … (4) … (2)

4. St. John’s (14–5 ... 6 NCAA qual.) – 118 … (5) … (6) … (5)

5. Ohio State (14–6 ... 6 NCAA qual.) – 117… (4) … (3) … (3)

6. Harvard (14–3 ... 5 NCAA qual.) – 109 … (3) … (5) … (6)

7. Pennsylvania (20–9 ... 6 NCAA qual.) – 98 … (7) … (7) … (8)

8. Princeton (19–10 ... 5 NCAA qual.) – 80 … (8) ... (8) … (7)

9. Duke (15–6 ... 3 NCAA qual.) – 67 … (9) ... (9) … (9)

10. Stanford (14–3 ... 2 NCAA qual.) – 46 … (10) ... (10) … (10)

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – NJIT 34, Sacred Heart 31, Brown 22, UC San Diego 12, NYU 10,
North Carolina 7, Brandeis 6, Wayne State 5, Boston College 2, MIT 2 and Yale 1.

WOMEN (first-place votes – Columbia 9, Notre Dame 1)
school (varsity dual-meet record … NCAA qualifiers) – voting points … previous polls … initial 2015 poll

1. Columbia (25–1 ... 6 NCAA qual.) – 149 voting pts … (1) ... (1) … (2)

2. Notre Dame (27–2 ... 6 NCAA qual.) – 140 … (2) … (2) … (1)

3. Princeton (24–7 ... 6 NCAA qual.) – 125 ... (3) … (3) … (3)

4. Harvard (14–5–1 ... 5 NCAA qual.) – 118 … (4) ... (4) … (7)

5. Penn State (15–7 ... 5 NCAA qual.) – 111 … (5) … (6) … (4)

6. Northwestern (24–5 ... 6 NCAA qual.) – 100 … (7) … (7) … (9)

7. Ohio State (14–10 ... 4 NCAA qual.) – 89 … (6) … (5) … (5)

8. St. John's (10–9–1 ... 5 NCAA qual.) – 84 … (9) … (9) … (8)

9. Pennsylvania (21–9 ... 2 NCAA qual.) – 59 … (8) … (8) … (6)

10. Duke (17–6 ... 4 NCAA qual.) – 57 … – … – … –

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Temple 43 (#10 in prev. 2015 polls), Cornell 38, Stanford 37, Brown 28,
Boston College 8, Sacred Heart 5, Noth Carolina 4, UC San Diego 2, Wayne State 2 and Air Force 1.

Notes – the #1 ranking is the first in program history for the Columbia women, in the 15-year history of the poll (previously, the program’s highest rankings had been #2 in all three polls of the 2007 season and #2 in the initial 2015 poll) … the Columbia men were #1 for the first time in program history during the first three polls of 2014.

Voting Panel – Michael Aufrichtig (Columbia), Alex Beguinet (Duke), Sydney Fadner (Boston College),
Nikki Franke (Temple; votes on women's poll only), Wes Glon (Penn State), Gia Kvaratskhelia (Notre Dame),
Andy Ma (Penn; votes on men’s poll only), Josh Runyan (UC San Diego), Laurie Schiller (Northwestern),
Bill Shipman (Brandeis) and Tom Vrabel (Sacred Heart).

Poll Notes: coach Ma votes only on the men's poll and coach Franke votes only on the women’s poll; there are 10 voters for each poll – four from the Northeast region, three from the Mid-Atlantic/South, two from the Midwest and one from the West; the amount of voters per region (4-3-2-1) is in approximate ratio to the amount of schools in each region that sponsor varsity fencing – 19 in the Northeast, 13 in the Mid-Atlantic/South, 7 in the Midwest and 4 in the West ... eight of these schools sponsor only a varsity women's fencing team: CCNY, Cornell, Fairleigh Dickinson, LIU Post, Northwestern, Queens, Temple, Tufts and Wellesley … McKendree and Incarnate Word will begin varsity fencing status in 2015-16 (both schools will sponsor men’s and women’s teams).

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-15): MEN | WOMEN

2014 result links:
from NCAA Championships
from Northeast Regional | from Mid-Atlantic/South Regional | from Midwest Regional | from West Regional

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams

• • • •

CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #3 – March 5, 2015
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

Men – Columbia, Penn State, Harvard, Ohio State, St. John's,
Notre Dame, Penn, Princeton, Duke and Stanford

Women – Columbia, Notre Dame, Princeton, Harvard, Penn State,
Ohio State, Northwestern, Penn, St. John's and Temple

(scroll down for full release/notes & complete rankings, including all other teams receiving votes … ) • Schedule/Result Links for all teams

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-15): MEN | WOMEN

One school being ranked #1 simultaneously for both its men’s and women’s fencing teams has been a fairly common occurrence – happening in nine of the previous 13 seasons – but it did not happen in 2013, nor in 2014. Now, for the first time since the initial 2012 poll, college fencing again has a program occupying the #1 spot for both genders: Columbia University (which also includes women’s fencers from Barnard College, and often is referenced as Columbia-Barnard) now holds the top ranking for both men’s and women’s fencing, in the CollegeFencing360.com Coaches Poll.

The near-unanimous #1 Columbia women (25–1 dual-meet record; Ivy League champs) maintained their top ranking while the Lions men (17–6) – who shared the 2015 Ivy League title with Harvard – bumped up from second, unseeding previous #1 Penn State (which lost twice at the Temple Invitational). The Notre Dame women (27–2) still remain a clear No. 2 in the poll, and in many years would hold down the top spot. The Irish women, #1 in the initial 2015 poll, received one of the #1 votes for the current poll with 140 points (behind Columbia’s 149, out of a max. 150).

The only losses for the Notre Dame women came during the mid-January trip to New York City, in showdown matchups versus then-#2 Columbia. The only blemish for the Columbia women during the 2014–15 season came by one touch, on Jan. 17 at the Penn State Invitational, versus the host team (13–14).

The Princeton women (24–7; 124) maintained their No. 3 postion, while yet another Ivy League team, Harvard (14–5–1; 118), still sits in 4th. Current fifth-ranked Penn State (15–7; 110) has moved up a spot, swapping positions with Ohio State (14–10; 103). The 7th-10th spots in the women’s poll remain unchaged, with: Northwestern (24–5; 86), U-Penn (21–9; 84), St. John’s (10–9–1; 73) and Temple (24–11; 61).

The Columbia men (17–6; 139 voting points) received half of the #1 votes, followed by two each for Penn State (17–5; 134) and surging St. John’s (14–5; 117), which went 4–0 at the Temple Invit. en route to its current #5 ranking (highest for the Red Storm since the final poll of 2013). The Harvard men (14–3; 121), after being 6th in the intitial 2015 poll and 5th in early Feb., have made their own move up to third, the same spot occupied by the Crimson in the final 2014 polling. Ohio State (14–6; 120), idle in dual-meet action since the previous poll, has dropped back a spot to 4th in the men’s poll.

The Notre Dame men (24–7; 115) slipped a couple spots to 6th, while the 7th-10th positions in the men’s poll remain unchaged, with: Penn (20–9; 94), Princeton (19–10; 78), Duke (15–6; 66) and Stanford (14–3; 61).

The annual college fencing coaches polls currently are determined by vote from 10 collegiate men’s fencing coaches and 10 from the women’s side. The poll is sponsored by the United States Fencing Coaches Association (USFCA) and co-sponsored/administered by CollegeFencing360.com (CF360). Updated polls will be released in early February, early March and then finally in mid-March (prior to the 2015 NCAA Championships, to be held March 19-22 at Ohio State).

• HISTORY OF MEN & WOMEN BOTH #1 – Here are the 18 times in the 15-year history of the college fencing coaches polls (47 total poll releases) that a school has been ranked #1 for both men’s and women’s fencing (9 ND, 5 PSU, 2 OSU, 1 each for SJU and COL):

2015 (pre-Regionals) – Columbia
–––
2012 (pre-Reg.) – Penn State (OSU won; PSU was 5th)
2012 (initial pol) – Ohio State … OSU won NCAA title
–––
2011 (pre-NCAAs) – Notre Dame … ND won NCAA title
2011 (pre-Reg.) – Notre Dame … ND won NCAA title
2011 (initial poll) – Notre Dame … ND won NCAA title
–––
2010 (pre-NCAAs) – Notre Dame  (PSU won; ND was 3rd)
2010 (pre-Reg.) – Notre Dame  (PSU won; ND was 3rd)
2010 (initial poll) – Penn State … PSU won NCAA title
–––
2009 (pre-NCAAs) – Notre Dame  (PSU won; ND was 2nd)
2009 (pre-NCAAs) – Notre Dame  (PSU won; ND was 2nd)
–––
2007 (poll #3) – Penn State … PSU won NCAA title
2007 (pre-Reg.) – Penn State … PSU won NCAA title
–––
2005 (initial poll) – Ohio State  (ND won; OSU was 2nd)
–––
2004 (pre-Reg.) – Notre Dame  (OSU won; ND was 3rd)
2004 (initial poll) – Notre Dame  (OSU won; ND was 3rd)
–––
2003 (initial poll) – Penn State  (ND won; PSU was 2nd)
–––
2002 (initial poll) – St. John's  (PSU won; SJU was 2nd)

Notes:
– In the 17 previous instances (since 2001; happened 9-of-14 yrs, all but ’01, ’06, ’08, '13 and '14) when one school was #1 in both college fencing polls (men and women), that school went on to win the NCAA title only six times (encomassing three seasons):
• Penn State in 2007 (2 polls; pre-Regionals and pre-NCAAs)
• Notre Dame in 2011 (all 3 polls)
• Ohio State in 2012 (one poll; pre-Regionals)

– This is the sixth time that a school has been #1 in the men’s and women’s polls heading into the NCAA Regonals, and three of the previous five have gone on to win the NCAA title (PSU in ’07, ND in ’11 and OSU in ’12) … ND was runner-up to OSU in 2004 and runner-up to PSU in ’09 (in each year, ND held both #1 rankings prior to the Regionals).

– There have been only four years when a school was #1 in the men’s and women’s polls prior to the NCAA Championships (tbd for 2015):

• 2007: Penn State (PSU won title)
• 2009: Notre Dame (PSU won; ND was 2nd)
• 2010: Notre Dame (PSU won; ND was 3rd)
• 2011: Notre Dame (ND won title)

• TOP COMBINED FENCING PROGRAMS – In addition to Columbia (#1 in both polls), Harvard currently is the only other school in the top-4 of both polls. Based on combined voting points (men+women), Columbia has 288 of the maximum 300, followed by Notre Dame (255) Penn State (244), Harvard (239), Ohio State (223), Princeton (202), St. John’s (190) and Penn (178).

• MEN’S TEAM NOTES – Columbia shared the 2015 Ivy League title, after losing head-to-head vs. the Crimson (10–17) but sweeping the rest of the field (16–11 vs. Penn; 18–9 vs. Princeton and Brown; 20–7 vs. Yale) … Penn State’s losses at the Temple Invit. came vs. St. John’s 12–15 and in-state rival Penn 10–17 (PSU edged Princeton, 14–13) … in addition to its win over Columbia, Harvard also beat Princeton 14–13, Brown 23–4 and Yale 21–6 (but lost 9–18 to Penn) … St. John’s impressivly went 4–0 at the Temple Invit., highlighted by wins over Penn State 15–12, Penn 17–10 and Princeton 16–11 … Penn’s action-packed Feb. included the aforementioned wins over PSU and Harvard, plus the losses to Columbia and SJU (along with splitting vs. Princeton, 12–15 at the Ivy meet and 14–13 at Temple) … other notable results over the past month included: Stevens Tech 14–13 vs. Brown (at Temple) and Johns Hopkins besting top contender NJIT to repeat as MACFA champion (non-dual-meet event).

• WOMEN’S TEAM NOTES – Columbia’s impressive sweep of the Ivy League included 16–11 vs. Princeton, 17–10 vs. Harvard, 23–4 vs. Penn, 20–7 vs. Cornell, 23–4 vs. Brown and 17–10 vs. Yale … Princeton posted Ivy League wins over Harvard 15–12, Cornell 20–7, Brown 24–3 and Yale 18–9 (plus a 12–15 loss vs. Penn) – before going 4–1 at the Temple Invit. (16–11 vs. Penn; 17–10 vs. St. John’s; 14–13 vs. the host Owls; 9–19 loss to PSU) … Harvard’s Ivy League wins: 17–10 vs. Penn, 22–5 vs. Cornell, 21–6 vs. Brown and 23–4 vs. Yale … in addition to the win over Princeton, Penn State adedd three other top-10 wins at Temple: 17–10 vs. Penn, 15–12 SJU and 15–12 vs. the Owls … Penn – which like Princeton and Harvard finished 4–2 at the Ivy League meet – followed the conference win over Princeton with a top-10 victory over St. John’s (16–11, at Temple), but lost at that meet to Princeton and PSU ...

• POLL HISTORY – The Columbia women previously were ranked #2 twice in the recorded history of the coaches poll (2001-15), checking in at #2 in the initial 2015 poll (mid-Jan.). That #2 had been the program’s highest ranking since being ranked second in all three polls of the 2007 season. The Columbia men were top-ranked for the first time in program history during the first three polls of 2014.

Columbia is only the sixth women’s fencing program ever to hold down the No. 1 ranking, in the 15-year history of the coaches poll. The Notre Dame women have been ranked No. 1 in nearly half (21 of 44) of the women’s college fencing polls dating back to 2002. The Penn State women are a distant second, having been top-ranked nine times, followed by Princeton (6), Ohio State (3) and St. John’s (3).

On the men’s side, Penn State holds a narrow lead vs. longtime rival Notre Dame – with 17 polls for PSU at No. 1 while ND has 16 (among 49 total men’s team’s ranked No. 1 dating back to the 2001 season), followed by Ohio State (8), Columbia (4), St. John’s (2), Stanford (1) and Harvard (1). These totals include two polls in which there we co-#1s.

The Penn State men have been #1 or #2 during all 11 polls spanning the past three seasons (2013–15) … the #5 St. John’s men hold their highest ranking since also being #5 at the end of 2013 (the final SJU season of elite sabre standout and Olympian Daryl Homer) … the #6 Ohio State women had not been outside the top-5 since the first poll of 2012 (also #6).

• TOP VETERANS – Four of the six 2014 NCAA individual champions are back in 2015:

• Yevgeniy Karyuchenko (men’s epee; St. John’s so.)
• Kaito Streets (men’s sabre; Penn State jr.)
• Lee Kiefer (women’s foil two-time champion; Notre Dame jr.)

• Adrienne Jarocki (women’s sabre; Harvard so.)

(Stanford jr. women’s epeeist Vivian Kong is utilizing a redshirt season while ND men’s foilist Gerek Meinhardt ended his college career after winning the 2014 NCAA title)

There also are three current fencers who have NCAA individual titles on their resume but prior to 2014: Stanford junior foilist and 2012 Olympian Massialas (’13 NCAA champ); Notre Dame senior men’s foilist Ariel DeSmet (’11); and U-Penn sabre junior Shaul Jordon (’13, while at PSU).

Additional current fencers to watch include the following past NCAA runner-ups (in addition to Dubrovich and Kong in ’13, and Zeiss in ‘14): Notre Dame junior epeeist Garrett McGrath (’14); St. John’s men’s sabre junior Ferenc Valkai (’14); Penn sr. women’s foilist Luona Wang (’12); and Harvard women’s sabre jr. Aliya Itzkowitz (’14).

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams

The full 2015 CF360 Fencing Coaches Poll #3 follows below (including all teams receiving votes).

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-15): MEN | WOMEN

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Poll #3 (March 5, 2015)

MEN (first-place votes – Columbia 5, Penn State 2, St. John’s 2, Notre Dame 1)

school (varsity dual-meet record) – voting points … previous poll … initial 2015 poll

1. Columbia (17–6) – 139 … (2) … (4)

2. Penn State (17–5) – 134 voting pts … (1) … (1)

3. Harvard (14–3) – 121 … (5) … (6)
4. Ohio State (14–6) – 120 … (3) … (3)

5. St. John’s (14–5) – 117 … (6) … (5)

6. Notre Dame (24–7) – 115 … (4) … (2)

7. Pennsylvania (20–9) – 94 … (7) … (8)

8. Princeton (19–10) – 78 … (8) … (7)
9. Duke (15–6) – 66 … (9) … (9)
10. Stanford (14–3) – 61 … (10) … (10)
Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Brown 26, UC San Diego 25, North Carolina 24, Brandeis 21, NYU 17, Sacred Heart 17, NJIT 14, Johns Hopkins 4, Yale 4, Boston College 2 and Stevens Tech 1.

WOMEN (first-place votes – Columbia 9, Notre Dame 1)
school (varsity dual-meet record) – voting points … previous poll … initial 2015 poll

1. Columbia (25–1) – 149 … (1) … (2)

2. Notre Dame (27–2) – 140 voting pts … (2) … (1)

3. Princeton (24–7) – 124 … (3) … (3)
4. Harvard (14–5–1) – 118 … (4) … (7)

5. Penn State (15–7) – 110 … (6) … (4)
6. Ohio State (14–10) – 103 … (5) … (5)

7. Northwestern (24–5) – 86 … (7) … (9)

8. Pennsylvania (21–9) – 84 … (8) … (6)

9. St. John's (10–9–1) – 73 … (9) … (8)
10. Temple (24–11) – 61 … (10) … (10)

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Duke 50, Cornell 31, Noth Carolina 16, Stanford 16, Brown 10,

UC San Diego 10, Brandeis 6, Boston College 4, Sacred Heart 4, Fairleigh Dickinson 3 and MIT 2.

Voting Panel – Michael Aufrichtig (Columbia), Alex Beguinet (Duke), Sydney Fadner (Boston College),
Nikki Franke (Temple; votes on women's poll only), Wes Glon (Penn State), Gia Kvaratskhelia (Notre Dame),
Andy Ma (Penn; votes on men’s poll only), Josh Runyan (UC San Diego), Laurie Schiller (Northwestern),
Bill Shipman (Brandeis) and Tom Vrabel (Sacred Heart).

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-15): MEN | WOMEN

2014 result links:
from NCAA Championships
from Northeast Regional | from Mid-Atlantic/South Regional | from Midwest Regional | from West Regional

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams

• • • •

CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #2 – Feb. 5, 2015
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

Men – Penn State, Columbia, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Harvard,
St. John’s, Penn, Princeton, Duke and Stanford

Women – Columbia, Notre Dame, Princeton, Harvard, Ohio State,
Penn State, Northwestern, Penn, St. John's and Temple

(scroll down for full release/notes & complete rankings, including all other teams receiving votes … ) • Schedule/Result Links for all teams

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-15): MEN | WOMEN

(Note that plenty of additional early-season notes, results summaries, etc. to be fortcoming on CF360.)

Following a pair of key head-to-head victories, the Columbia women’s fencing team has traded places with Notre Dame atop the CollegeFencing360.com Coaches Poll – the first time in the 15-year history of the poll that the Lions women have sat atop the rankings. Penn State remains No. 1 in the men’s poll, but the Columbia men have moved up two spots to No. 2, narrowly ahead of Ohio State and Notre Dame.

The near-unanimous No. 1 COLUMBIA women – now 16-1 in dual matches during the 2014-15 academic year – were No. 2 in the initial 2015 poll (Jan. 21), matching the highest ranking in program history at the time. Columbia went on to post a pair of wins over then-No. 1 Notre Dame: 15–12 at the St. John’s Invitational (Jan. 24) and 14–13 the next day, at the NYU Invitatonal in Jersey City, N.J. The Lions women went 10–0 during that two-day gauntlet, with seven additional top-10 wins: versus Penn State, Ohio State (2), Harvard, St. John’s (2) and Northwestern.

Columbia’s lone loss so far in 2014-15 came by one touch, on Jan. 17 at the Penn State Invitational, vs. the host team (13–14). The Lions received nine of 10 first-place votes in the curent women’s coaches poll (for 149 of max. 150 voting points), with Notre Dame receiving the other first-place vote.

(Note: the Columbia women’s team often includes fencers who attend sister school Barnard College; the fencing team’s formal name is Columbia-Barnard, but herein simply is referenced as Columbia on CF360.)

The annual college fencing coaches polls currently are determined by vote from 10 collegiate men’s fencing coaches and 10 from the women’s side. The poll is sponsored by the United States Fencing Coaches Association (USFCA) and co-sponsored/administered by CollegeFencing360.com (CF360). Updated polls will be released in early February, late-Feb. and then finally in mid-March (prior to the 2015 NCAA Championships, to be held March 19-22 at Ohio State).

• TOP COMBINED FENCING PROGRAMS – Columbia boasts both its teams ranked among the top-2 of the respective polls (#1 women, #2 men), while Notre Dame (#2 women, #3 men) is in the top-3 of each poll. Harvard and Ohio State currently sit among the top-5 in each poll (which also include the PSU men and Princeton women). The next update to the CF360 Fencing Coaches Poll will be in early March, with Columbia having the chance to own the rare double honor of being No. 1 in both polls.

Based on combined voting points (men+women), Columbia has 278 of the maximum 300, followed by Notre Dame (265) Penn State (242), Ohio State (231), Harvard (227), Princeton (212), St. John’s (179) and Penn (174).

• TOP-10 GATHERING – A wide assortment of elite fencers will be on hand at Columbia’s Levien Gymnasium on Feb. 8-9, for the annual Ivy League Championships (contested as a series of dual meets, with individuals also honored basdd on won-loss bouting records). In addition to the host school, three other participating teams currently sit in the top-10 of the men’s and women’s polls: Harvard (#5 men; #4 women) … Princeton (#8 men; #3 women) … and Penn (#7 men; #8 women). The Brown men received the 11th-most votes in the current poll (women 14th-most), while the Cornell women received the 12th-most votes and the Yale men the 18th-most. The Yale women did not receive any votes in the current poll (Cornell does not sponsor a varsity men’s fencing team).

• MEN’S TEAM NOTES – The PENN STATE men (140 voting points, out of max. 150) are 14–3 in 2014-15 dual meets, with their only action over the past two weeks producing a 4–1 record vs. fellow top-10 teams at SJU Invitational (lone loss came 12–15 vs. Columbia). Penn State received six of the 10 first-place votes, followed by two for Columbia and one each for ND and SJU. The second-ranked Columbia men (129; 10–5) are only two voting points ahead of Ohio State (127; 14–6), while Notre Dame (127; 14–6) stands only two points behind its regional rival OSU. Harvard (118; 7–2) rounds out the current men’s top-5.

Current No. 2 Columbia and the 4th-ranked Notre Dame men swapped spots from the previous poll, while Ohio State maintained its position at No. 3 and Harvard flipped positions with previous No. 5 St. John’s (108; 10–5). There also was a swap of spots between current No. 7 Penn (85; 14–6) and 8th-ranked Princeton (84; 14–5), while Duke (63; 12–4) and Stanford (61; 14–3) again round out the top–10.

The Columbia men split their eight dual matches vs. fellow top-10 teams during the SJU/NYU weekend – highlighted by the win over PSU and splits vs. both OSU and ND. The Ohio State men – who alse fenced at the Northwesetrn Duals on Jan. 31 – went 5–5 vs. top-10 opponents over the past two weeks, with top wins over ND and Columbia (split two maatchups vs. the Lions). The Notre Dame men similarly went 5–5 vs. top-10 foes over the past two weeks, led by a 17–10 win over Columbia.

The Harvard men moved up a spot, after their 4–1 showing at the elite SJU Invitational (lone loss vs. PSU; key wins vs. ND, OSU and Columbia). After a disappointing string of defeats in their home event, the St. John’s men bounced back in Jersey City by knocking off ND, OSU and Columbia. Other notable recent results include the Stanford men – led by 2012 Olympian and 2013 NCAA foil champion Alexander Massialas – edging Ohio State, 14–13 (at Northwestern).

The surging NJIT men more than doubled their voting point total (now up to 19, trailing only 14 teams), with recent notable wins over Brown and North Carolina (after earlier quality wins over Sacred Heart and Yale). NJIT’s recent results also include 13–14 losses vs. Duke, Brandeis and Boston College. The 2015 votes are believed to be the first time in the history of the poll that New Jersey Institute of Technology has received consideration from the voting panel, which votes for a top-15 in order to provide a deeper voting sample (the actual rankings are top-10). NJIT head coach Yefim Litvan – who formerly directed the fencing teams at Rutgers when they were varsity status – is a well-respected foil master, with his current pupils including NJIT sophomore David Kong, a 2014 NCAA qualifier.

• WOMEN’S TEAM NOTES (Columbia above) – The NOTRE DAME women (141 voting points; 20–2) have defeated every opponent except for Columbia this season, losing 12–15 and 13–14 on consecutive days vs. the Lions. The Irish women have racked up 14 wins in 2014-15 vs. top-10 teams: Princeton (2), Harvard, Ohio State (2), Penn State (2), Northwestern (2), Penn (2), St. John’s (2) and Temple.

The Princeton women (128; 16–4) have maintained their No. 3 ranking, while Harvard (109; 7–3–1) vaulted from No. 7 to 4th and Ohio State (104; 14–10) still sits at No. 5. In the bottom half of the poll, current No. 6 Penn State (102; 10–7) and (8) U-Penn (89; 14–6) both have dropped two spots in the poll, while Nothwestern (91; 22–5) has surged to No. 7 (up from 9th), St. John’s (71; 9–6–1) slipped one notch to 9th and Temple (64; 18–8) still rounds out the top-10.

In the recent Northwestern Duals, the Princeton women went 11–1, with their lone loss coming by one touch (13–14) in a showdown vs. ND. The Ohio State women turned in a noteworthy win (17–10) vs. Penn State, at the SJU Invit., while Northwestern’s rise came on the heels of 14–13 wins over OSU and Penn. The St. John’s women suffered six losses (all vs. top-10 teams) on Jan. 24-25 but picked up a notable 15–12 win over OSU.

• POLL HISTORY – The Columbia women previously were ranked #2 twice in the recorded history of the coaches poll (2001-15), checking in at #2 two weeks ago. That #2 had been the program’s highest ranking since being ranked second in all three polls of the 2007 season (the Columbia men were top-ranked for the first time in program history during the first three polls of 2014). At No. 6, the Penn women have their highest ranking since being ranked sixth in the middle poll of the 2009 season (bested only by a No. 5 ranking in the middle of the ’04 season).

Columbia is only the sixth women’s fencing program ever to hold down the No. 1 ranking, in the 15-year history of the coaches poll. The Notre Dame women have been ranked No. 1 in nearly half (21 of 43) of the women’s college fencing polls dating back to 2002. The Penn State women are a distant second, having been top-ranked nine times, followed by Princeton (6), Ohio State (3) and St. John’s (3).

On the men’s side, Penn State now holds a narrow lead vs. longtime rival Notre Dame – with 17 polls for PSU at No. 1 while ND has 16 (among 48 total men’s team’s ranked No. 1 dating back to the 2001 season), followed by Ohio State (8), Columbia (3), St. John’s (2), Stanford (1) and Harvard (1). These totals include two polls in which there we co-#1s.

• TOP VETERANS – Four of the six 2014 NCAA individual champions are back in 2015:

• Yevgeniy Karyuchenko (men’s epee; St. John’s so.)
• Kaito Streets (men’s sabre; Penn State jr.)
• Lee Kiefer (women’s foil two-time champion; Notre Dame jr.)

• Adrienne Jarocki (women’s sabre; Harvard so.)

(Stanford jr. women’s epeeist Vivian Kong is utilizing a redshirt season while ND men’s foilist Gerek Meinhardt ended his college career after winning the 2014 NCAA title)

Additional current fencers to watch include the following past NCAA runner-ups (in addition to Dubrovich and Kong in ’13, and Zeiss in ‘14): Notre Dame junior epeeist Garrett McGrath (’14); St. John’s men’s sabre junior Ferenc Valkai (’14); Penn sr. women’s foilist Luona Wang (’12); and Harvard women’s sabre jr. Aliya Itzkowitz (’14).

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams

The full 2015 CF360 Fencing Coaches Poll #3 follows below (including all teams receiving votes).

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-15): MEN | WOMEN

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Poll #2 (Feb. 5, 2015)

MEN (first-place votes – Penn State 6, Columbia 2, Notre Dame 1, St. John’s 1)

(school (varsity dual-meet record) – voting points … previous poll)
1. Penn State (14–3) – 140 voting pts … (1)

2. Columbia (10–5) – 129 … (4)

3. Ohio State (14–6) – 127 … (3)

4. Notre Dame (17–7) – 124 … (2)

5. Harvard (7–2) – 118 … (6)

6. St. John’s (10–5) – 108 … (5)

7. Pennsylvania (14–6) – 85 … (8)

8. Princeton (14–5) – 84 … (7)
9. Duke (12–4) – 63 ... (9)
10. Stanford (14–3) – 61 … (10)
Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Brown 38, Brandeis 30, North Carolina 23, UC San Diego 22, NJIT 19,

NYU 12, Sacred Heart 12 and Yale 5.

WOMEN (first-place votes – Columbia 9, Notre Dame 1)
(school (varsity dual-meet record) – voting points … previous poll)

1. Columbia (16–1) – 149 … (2)

2. Notre Dame (20–2) – 141 voting pts … (1)

3. Princeton (16–4) – 128 … (3)
4. Harvard (7–3–1) – 109 … (7)

5. Ohio State (14–10) – 104 … (5)

6. Penn State (10–7) – 102 … (4)

7. Northwestern (22–5) – 91 … (9)

8. Pennsylvania (14–6) – 89 … (6)

9. St. John's (9–6–1) – 71 … (8)
10. Temple (18–8) – 64 … (10)

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Duke 44, Cornell 35, Stanford 21, Brown 17, North Carolina 17, MIT 12,

UC San Diego 7, Brandeis 4, Boston College 3, Fairleigh Dickinson 1 and Sacred Heart 1.

Voting Panel – Michael Aufrichtig (Columbia), Alex Beguinet (Duke), Sydney Fadner (Boston College),
Nikki Franke (Temple; votes on women's poll only), Wes Glon (Penn State), Gia Kvaratskhelia (Notre Dame),
Andy Ma (Penn; votes on men’s poll only), Josh Runyan (UC San Diego), Laurie Schiller (Northwestern),
Bill Shipman (Brandeis) and Tom Vrabel (Sacred Heart).

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-15): MEN | WOMEN

2014 result links:
from NCAA Championships
from Northeast Regional | from Mid-Atlantic/South Regional | from Midwest Regional | from West Regional

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams

• • • •

CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #1 – Jan. 21, 2015
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

Men – Penn State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Columbia, St. John’s,
Harvard, Princeton, Penn, Duke and Stanford.

Women – Notre Dame, Columbia, Princeton, Penn State, Ohio State,
Penn, Harvard, St. John’s, Northwestern and Temple.

(scroll down for full release/notes & complete rankings, including all other teams receiving votes … ) • Schedule/Result Links for all teams

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-15): MEN | WOMEN

(Note that plenty of additional early-season notes, results summaries, etc. to be fortcoming on CF360.)

The first edition of the CollegeFencing360.com Coaches Poll for 2015 has been released, with the Penn State men and Notre Dame women occupying the top spots in advance of the most important weekend of the 2015 regular season (Jan. 24-25), with top events to be hosted by St. John’s, NYU and Penn. Notre Dame also is second in the men’s poll, followed by Ohio State and Columbia (which were separated by only one voting point). There similarly is tight bunching near the top of the women’s poll, with only four voting points separating the #2-#4 teams behind Notre Dame (Columbia, Princeton and Penn State).

Notre Dame is the only fencing program with both its teams ranked among the top-2 of the respective polls (#1 women, #2 men), while Penn State (#1 men, #4 women) and Columbia (#2 women, #4 men) are in the top-4 of each poll. Ohio State is third in the men’s poll and fifth in the women’s.

Based on combined voting points (men+women), Notre Dame has 271 of the maximum 300, followed by Penn State (259), Columbia (250), Ohio State (235), Princeton (221), Harvard (195), St. John’s (194) and Penn (189).

The No. 2 ranking matches the highest for the Columbia women, in the 15-year history of the coaches poll (2001-15), and is the program’s highest ranking since being ranked second in all three polls of the 2007 season (the Columbia men were top-ranked for the first time in program history during the first three polls of 2014). At No. 6, the Penn women have their highest ranking since being ranked sixth in the middle poll of the 2009 season (bested only by a No. 5 ranking in the middle of the ’04 season).

The Notre Dame women now have been ranked No. 1 in half (21 of 42) of the women’s college fencing polls dating back to 2002. The Penn State women are a distant second, having been top-ranked nine times, followed by Princeton (6), Ohio State (3) and St. John’s (3).

On the men’s side, Notre Dame and Penn State now share the most times ranked No. 1 (16 each, among 47 total men’s team’s ranked No. 1 dating back to the 2001 season), followed by Ohio State (8), Columbia (3), St. John’s (2), Stanford (1) and Harvard (1). These totals include two polls in which there we co-#1s.

The annual college fencing coaches polls currently are determined by vote from 10 collegiate men’s fencing coaches and 10 from the women’s side. The poll is sponsored by the United States Fencing Coaches Association (USFCA) and co-sponsored/administered by CollegeFencing360.com (CF360). Updated polls will be released in early February, late-Feb. and then finally in mid-March (prior to the 2015 NCAA Championships, to be held March 19-22 at Ohio State).

The Penn State men – off to a 10-2 start, after one event in the fall semester and another tournament this past weekend – received half of the 10 first-place votes and 139 voting points (max. 150), ahead of Notre Dame (131; two first-place), Ohio State (127), Columbia (126; one first-place) and St. John’s (104; two first-place). The rest of the top-10 (#6-#10) includes: Harvard (100), Princeton (98), Pennsylvania (91), Duke (64) and Stanford (63). The Penn State men, with by the likes of current juniors Kaito Streets (2014 NCAA sabre champion) and Nobuo Bravo (’14 NCAA foil semifinalist), helped the Nittany Lions win the 2014 NCAA Combined Men’s and Women’s Fencing title.

The Notre Dame women – currently led by the elite foil duo of two-time NCAA champion Lee Kiefer and senior Madi Zeiss (’14 NCAA runner-up and ’13 semifinalist) – received four first-place votes as part of 140 voting points. The Irish are 5-0 after beating all of their opponents at the Ohio State Elite Invitational in mid-November – with top wins over Princeton (16-11), Penn State (24-3), the host Buckeyes (19-8) and Penn (22-5), all current top-six teams. During that event, the Princeton women saw their historic dual-meet winning streak end at 52, after going 3-3 that day with losses to host OSU (12-15), ND and Penn (11-16).

The Columbia women (6-1) collected one No.1 vote (124 voting points) to narrowly edge Princeton (123; three #1 votes) for the second position in the current poll. It is the highest ranking for the Columbia women since the 2007 team also was ranked No. 2 throughout that season, led by the potent sabre pair of Emily Jacobson and Daria Schneider (who both won NCAA titles during their careers).

The Penn State women (120) also earned a No. 1 vote in the poll and occupy the fourth position, followed by Ohio State (108). The balance of the women’s top-10 (6th-10th) includes: Penn (98), Harvard (95), St. John’s (90), Northwestern (86; one first-place) and Temple (56).

Both of the current No. 1 teams are being led by first-year full-time head coaches, as Wes Glon had the "interim head coach” tag removed over the summer while Gia Kvaratskhelia was elevated from associate head coach to head coach at Notre Dame in early December, following Janusz Bednarski’s retirment due to health reasons. Both of these new head coaches have an elite reputation and track record within the collegiate ranks, while tutoring their specialty: Glon in sabre and Kvaratskhelia in foil.

One other quick team note: the NJIT men received eight voting points in the current poll, believed to be the first time in the history of the poll that New Jersey Institute of Technology has received consideration from the voting panel, which votes for a top-15 in order to provide a deeper voting sample (the actual rankings are top-10). NJIT head coach Yefim Litvan – who formerly directed the fencing teams at Rutgers when they were varsity status – is a well-respected foil master, with his current pupils including NJIT sophomore David Kong, a 2014 NCAA qualifier.

And some individual notes …

Five of the 2014 NCAA individual champions are back in 2015:
• Yevgeniy Karyuchenko (men’s epee; St. John’s so.)
• Kaito Streets (men’s sabre; Penn State jr.)
• Lee Kiefer (women’s foil two-time champion; Notre Dame jr.)
• Vivian Kong (women’s epee; Stanford jr.; also ’13 runner-up)

• Adrienne Jarocki (women’s sabre; Harvard so.)

There also are three current fencers who have NCAA individual titles on their resume but prior to 2014: Stanford junior men’s foilist and 2012 Olympian Alexander Massialas (’13 NCAA champ); Notre Dame senior men’s foilist Ariel DeSmet (’11); and U-Penn sabre junior Shaul Jordon (’13, while at PSU).

Additional current fencers to watch include the following past NCAA runner-ups (in addition to Dubrovich and Kong in ’13, and Zeiss in ‘14): Notre Dame junior epeeist Garrett McGrath (’14); St. John’s men’s sabre junior Ferenc Valkai (’14); Penn sr. women’s foilist Luona Wang (’12); and Harvard women’s sabre jr. Aliya Itzkowitz (’14).

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams

The full initial 2015 CF360 Fencing Coaches Poll follows below (including all teams receiving votes).
Note that plenty of additional early-season notes, results summaries, etc. to be fortcoming on CF360 ...

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Poll #1 (Jan. 21, 2015)

MEN (first-place votes – Penn State 5, Notre Dame 2, St. John’s 2, Columbia 1)

(school (varsity dual-meet record) – voting points ... final 2014 ranking)
1. Penn State (10–2) – 139 voting pts … (1)

2. Notre Dame (7–2) – 131 … (6)

3. Ohio State (5–1) – 127… (4)

4. Columbia (5–1) – 126 … (2)

5. St. John’s (5–0) – 104 … (7)

6. Harvard (3–1) – 100 … (3)

7. Princeton (5–3) – 98 … (5)
8. Pennsylvania (4–4) – 91 … (8)
9. Duke (4–1) – 64 ... (9)
10. Stanford (6–0) – 63 … (10)
Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Brown 37, UC San Diego 23, North Carolina 21, Sacred Heart 21, Brandeis 18, Yale 13, MIT 9, NJIT 8, NYU 6 and Boston College 1.

WOMEN (first-place votes – Notre Dame 4, Princeton 3, Columbia 1, Northwestern 1, Penn State 1)
(school (varsity dual-meet record) – voting points ... final 2014 ranking)

1. Notre Dame (5–0) – 140 voting pts … (4)

2. Columbia (6–1) – 124 … (6)

3. Princeton (5–3) – 123 … (1)
4. Penn State (9–3) – 120 … (5)
5. Ohio State (3–3) – 108 … (2)

6. Pennsylvania (6–3) – 98 … (10)

7. Harvard (6–0) – 95 … (3)
8. St. John's (6–0) – 90 … (7)
9. Northwestern (8–0) – 86 … (8)
10. Temple (5–4) – 56 … (9)

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Duke 50, Cornell 26, Stanford 21, Brown 17, MIT 13, Sacred Heart 13, UC San Diego 7, North Carolina 5, Yale 3, Brandeis 2, Fairleigh Dickinson 2 and Air Force 1.

Notes – the #2 ranking matches the highest for the Columbia women, in the 15-year history of the poll, and is the program’s highest rankings since being #2 in all three polls of the 2007 season (the Columbia men were #1 for the first time in program history during the first three polls of 2014) … at #6, the Penn women have their highest ranking since being #6 in the middle poll of the 2009 season (bested only by a #5 ranking in middle of ’04 season).

Voting Panel – Michael Aufrichtig (Columbia), Alex Beguinet (Duke), Sydney Fadner (Boston College), Nikki Franke (Temple; votes on women's poll only), Wes Glon (Penn State), Gia Kvaratskhelia (Notre Dame), Andy Ma (Penn; votes on men’s poll only), Josh Runyan (UC San Diego), Laurie Schiller (Northwestern), Bill Shipman (Brandeis) and Tom Vrabel (Sacred Heart).

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-15): MEN | WOMEN

2014 result links:
from NCAA Championships | from Northeast Regional

from Mid-Atlantic/South Regional | from Midwest Regional | from West Regional

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams

• • • •

2014 poll summaries included below …

CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #4 (Final) – March 18, 2014
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

Men: 1–Penn State, 2–Columbia, 3–Harvard, 4–Ohio State, 5–Princeton,
6–Notre Dame, 7–St. John’s, 8–Univ. of Pennsylvania, 9–Duke, 10–Stanford

Women: 1–Princeton, 2–Ohio State, 3–Harvard, 4–Notre Dame, 5–Penn State,
6–Columbia, 7–St. John’s, 8–Northwestern, 9–Temple, 10–Univ. of Pennsylvania

(scroll down for full release/notes & complete rankings, w/ all others receiving votes)
• Schedule/Result Links for all teams

The fourth and final edition of the CollegeFencing360.com Coaches Poll for 2014 has been released and the Penn State men have climbed into sole possession of the top spot, while the powerhouse Princeton women completed a run of being ranked No. 1 for all four polls of the 2014 season. Penn State and Columbia had been tied atop the men's rankings in the previous poll, after Columbia was No. 1 in the first and second polls of the 2014 season. The 10 first-place votes in the final poll were split evenly between both men's teams, but Penn State finished with a 143-132 advantage over Columbia in total voting points.

The Penn State men turned in an impressive showing at the Mid-Atlantic/South Regional (March 8, at Lafayette)– led by three of the top-4 finishers in the foil competition (Nobuo Bravo, Jeremy Goldstein and David Willette). PSU also had three top-8 regional finishes in men's epee (paced by freshman Conor Shepard's third place) while senior Adrian Bak won the regional men's sabre competition (teammate Caito Streets was sixth, to clinch his berth in the NCAA Championships). One day later, the Columbia men competed at the deeper Northeast Regional (held at Wellesley) and were led by a sabre trio who each placed in the 4th-7th range (Geoff Loss, Will Spear and Chris Ahn). Columbia's foilists did not crack the top-4 at the regional, although Adam Mathieu and Harry Bergman finished 5th and 6th, while epeeist Jake Hoyle posted the team's top finish in any weapon at the event (3rd, the team's only top-8 epee finisher).

During the 2013-14 regular season, Columbia fashioned a 27-3 record in dual-meet action while Penn State was 21-3. They split two head-to-head matchups, with Columbia winning at Penn State on Jan. 11 (15-12) while PSU took the rematch two weeks later (14-13, at St. John's). Columbia was edged by current #5 Princeton, 14-13, in the final round of the 2014 Ivy League Championship while dropping a 15-12 home dual meet vs. unranked Sacred Heart (several top Columbia fencers did not compete in that loss). Penn State's other two losses came in late-Jan. bouting at St. John's, against the current #6 and #3 teams (12-15 vs. Notre Dame, 11-16 vs. Harvard).

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-14): MEN | WOMEN (courtesy CF360)

The Penn State men now have been ranked No. 1 in 15 polls (since 2001) during the recorded history of the rankings, nearly matching Notre Dame's 16. OhioState is a distant third on that list, having been ranked No. 1 eight times.

The Columbia men came up one poll short of being ranked No. 1 throughout the season's poll cycle – a feat accomplished four times in the past eight years, by Ohio State in 2006, Penn State in 2008, and Notre Dame in both 2009 and '11. Interestingly, in those four years only 2011 saw a men's team that had been No. 1 all season then lead its team to the NCAA Combined Men's and Women's Fencing title (Harvard was somewhat of a surprise winner in 2006, while OSU won in '08 and PSU in '09).

The Princeton women, of course, did in fact run the table in 2013-14 – both in terms of their won-loss record (31-0, for a 51-match unbeaten streak) and atop all four 2014 coaches polls. A team holding the top spot throughout the poll cycle has been much more common on the women's side – as Princeton is the seventh team to do so over the past 13 years (also St. John's in 2002, Penn State in '03, ND in '04, PSU again in '07, and ND once more in '08 plus '11). That 2011 season represents the only time that a college fencing program has seen both its men's and women's teams ranked No. 1 all season – and Notre Dame followed suit by winning the NCAA combined team title that season.

That 2011 Notre Dame team was fronted by three senior sabre All-Americans – Avery Zuck, Barron Nydam and Eileen Hassett – plus a pair of NCAA champions in epeeist Courtney Hurley (an eventual 2012 Olympian) and freshman men's foilist Ariel DeSmet (teammate Gerek Meinhardt did not qualify for the 2011 NCAAs, due to injury). Zuck lost in the men's sabre final to another future Olympian, Daryl Homer of St. John's, while Hassett reached the medal round. That Notre Dame 12-fencer contingent included five others who earned 2011 All-America status – Reggie Bentley (foil), Nydam (sabre), Hayley Reese (foil), Ewa Nelip (epee) and Lian Osier (sabre) – while epeeists James Kaull and Brent Kelly, plus foilist Rachel Beck, chipped in some key wins as ND edged rival by Penn State by six points (174-168).

Of the five other previous women's teams to be ranked No. 1 throughout a poll cycle, only one other – Penn State in 2007 – capped the season as part of an NCAA combined team champion. The 2002 NCAA combined champion was Penn State (the St. John's women were #1 all season) while Notre Dame won the next year, in 2003, despite PSU having a women's team that had been No. 1 in all the polls. The following year, the situation was flipped on the Irish women, who had taken their turn as the No. 1 team in each 2004 poll only to see their growing regional rival Ohio State claim the big prize. The ND women again ran the table in the 2008 polls, but OSU again was the NCAA combined team champion for that season.

Returning to 2014, Notre Dame men tumbled from third place in the previous poll to a final ranking of 6th (97 voting points), allowing new #3 Harvard (121), Ohio State (119) and Princeton (106) each to bump up a spot. It equals the lowest ranking for the Notre Dame men in the 14-year history of the coaches poll and is the program's lowest since also ranking sixth in the final 2007 poll. St. John's (95) nearly knocked ND into the 7th position, with the Red Storm rising from 8th to 7th. Penn (93) slipped back a spot to 8th, while (9) Duke (69) and (10) Stanford (64) rounded out the top-10 in the final 2014 men's poll.

For the third straight poll, the Ohio State women (135) maintained a firm hold on the No. 2 position, followed by Harvard (120), Notre Dame (115) and Penn State (114) in the 3rd-5th spots. The Columbia women (103) slipped back from 4th to 6th, allowing both ND and PSU to move up one position. Surging St. John's (86) bumped up from 10th to 7th, while (8) Northwestern (74) moved up one spot. Temple (74) and Penn (67) completed the top-10 for the final 2014 women's poll.

The OSU women went 23-3 in the 2013-14 regular season, with two of their three losses coming against top-ranked Princeton.

The Harvard women were ranked in the top-3 of the entirety of one year's poll cycle (2–3–3–3) for the first time in the history of the rankings. The Princeton women now have been ranked No. 1 five times (also in the initial 2013 poll, ND was No. 1 the rest of that season), trailing only Notre Dame (20) and Penn State (9) for the most times ranked atop the women's poll.

The past few weeks have been relatively uncharted waters for Notre Dame, which is sending its lowest number of quarriers (10) to the NCAAs during the six-weapon era (since 2000). The Notre Dame men (6th) have matched their lowest rankings in the history of the coaches poll while the ND women's ranking in the March 7 poll (5th) was its lowest since ending 2007 fifth in the final poll for that season.

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-14): MEN | WOMEN (courtesy CF360)

It's interesting to note that the three teams that have qualified the maximum 12 fencers for the 2014 NCAA Championships (plus one of the two who have 11) each have the same "combined poll standing" – if you add their men's and women's poll rankings, each adds up to six. Penn State is No. 1 in the men's poll but 5th in the women's, Princeton is the reverse of that, Ohio State has the No. 2 women and 4th-ranked men, and Harvard is ranked third in both polls.

Based on combined voting points (men + women), Penn State would rank first overall with 257, followed closely by Princeton at 256 and Ohio State at 254 – virtually a three-way tie among the three teams with the 12 entrants. Harvard is next at 241 (121 men, 120 women), followed by Columbia (235), Notre Dame (212), St. John's (181) and Penn (160).

In looking at 2014 NCAA men's qualifiers:
• Six teams have the maximum six men's entrants: Penn State, Ohio State, Princeton, Harvard, St. John's & Columbia
• Notre Dame (one epee) and Penn (one foil) have qualified five men's fencers
• Duke (only one in foil, one in epee) and Stanford (no sabre) each have four qualifiers
• Sacred Heart is the only team with three men's entrains (one foil, two epee)
• The teams sending two men's entrants include: Air Force (foil, sabre), Brandeis (foil, sabre), NYU (foil, sabre) and Yale (both in sabre)
• Finally, the single qualifiers: foilists from Cleveland State, NJIT and Wayne State … epeeists from Brown and MIT … and sabre entrants from UC San Diego and North Carolina

In terms of 2014 NCAA women's qualifiers:
• Penn State, Ohio State and Princeton of course have the max. six entrants (all others have five or fewer)
• Four are sending five: Harvard (one foil), St. John's (one sabre), Notre Dame (one sabre) and Northwestern (one foil)
• Three have four NCAA entrants: Columbia & Penn each have one entry in epee & sabre; Temple one in foil & sabre
• Those with three: Air Force (2 foil, 1 sabre), Brown (1 foil, 2 sabre), Stanford (2 epee, 1 sabre) & Yale (1 of each)
• There are two entrants from: Cornell (foil & epee), Sacred Heart (epee & sabre) and Wayne State (foil & sabre)
• Rounding out the 72 women's entrants are one each from Brandeis foil, Duke epee, MIT sabre and UNC sabre

The six Columbia men’s entrants went on to go 93-51 at the 2007 NCAAs, the most men’s wins in that 2007 field (Columbia ended up third in the 2007 men’s/women’s combined format).

Note that plenty of additional notes (including detailed team info.) with the initial 2014 poll release are included below (be sure to check it out, scroll down a bit, look for the photos) ...

2014 Fencing Capsules from CF360:

The fourth and final 2014 CF360 Fencing Coaches Poll follows below (including all teams receiving votes).

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Poll #4 – FINAL (March 18, 2014)

MEN (first-place votes – Penn State 5, Columbia 5)
school (varsity dual-meet record) – voting points … previous rankings (3–7–14 … 2–6–14 ... 1–22–14)
1. Penn State (21–3) – 143 voting points … (t1) ... (2) ... (2)
2. Columbia (27–3) – 132 … (t1) ... (1) … (1)
3. Harvard (12–6) – 121 … (4) ... (6) ... (5)
4. Ohio State (16–9) – 119 … (5) ... (4) ... (6)
5. Princeton (17–11) – 106 … (6) ... (5) ... (3)
6. Notre Dame (16–7) – 97 … (3) ... (3) ... (4)
7. St. John’s (12–7) – 95 … (8) ... (8) ... (7)
8. Pennsylvania (18–10) – 93 … (7) ... (7) ... (8)
9. Duke (20–8) – 69 … (9) ... (10) ... (–)
10. Stanford (10–4) – 64 … (10) ... (9) ... (10)
Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Brown 38 (9th in poll #1), Sacred Heart 34, Brandeis 27,
North Carolina 20, Yale 18, Air Force 11, UC San Diego 7, Johns Hopkins 3 and NYU 3

Notes – the earlier No. 1 was the highest ranking ever by any Columbia fencing team (men or women), since college fencing coaches poll debuted in 2001.

WOMEN (first-place votes – Princeton 10)
school (varsity dual-meet record) – voting points … previous rankings (3–7–14 … 2–6–14 ... 1–22–14)
1. Princeton (31–0) – 150 voting points … (1) ... (1) ... (1)
2. Ohio State (23–3) – 135 … (2) ... (2) ... (5)
3. Harvard (15–4) – 120 … (3) ... (3) ... (2)
4. Notre Dame (15–8) – 115 … (5) ... (4) ... (3)
5. Penn State (15–10) – 114 … (6) ... (6) ... (4)
6. Columbia (23–7) – 103 … (4) ... (5) ... (6)
7. St. John's (8–12) – 86 … (10) ... (10) ... (10)
8. Northwestern (24–9) – 81 … (9) ... (9) ... (7)
9. Temple (28–8) – 74 … (7) ... (8) ... (9)
10. Pennsylvania (18–8) – 67 … (8) ... (7) ... (8)
Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Stanford 43, Brown 33, Cornell 22, Duke 18, Air Force 15, Yale 8,
North Carolina 6, Sacred Heart 6, Brandeis 2, MIT 1 and Wayne State 1

Note – the earlier No. 7 equaled the highest ranking for Temple in recorded poll history (highest since mid-2012)

Voting Panel – Michael Aufrichtig (Columbia), Alex Beguinet (Duke; men's poll only), Janusz Bednarski (Notre Dame), Zoltan Dudas (Princeton), Sydney Fadner (Boston College), Nikki Franke (Temple; votes on women's poll only),
Wes Glon (Penn State), Josh Runyan (UC San Diego), Laurie Schiller (Northwestern), Bill Shipman (Brandeis)
and Tom Vrabel (Sacred Heart).

Poll Notes: coach Beguinet votes only on the men's poll and coach Franke votes only on the women’s poll; there are 10 voters for each poll – four from the Northeast region, three from the Mid-Atlantic/South, two from the Midwest and one from the West; the amount of voters per region (4-3-2-1) is in approximate ratio to the amount of schools in each region that sponsor varsity fencing – 18 in the Northeast, 13 in the Mid-Atlantic/South, 7 in the Midwest and 4 in the West ... seven of these schools sponsor only a varsity women's fencing team: CCNY, Cornell, Fairleigh Dickinson, Northwestern, Queens, Temple, Tufts and Wellesley.

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-14): MEN | WOMEN (courtesy CF360)

PDF lists of top returners from 2013 fencing season (indicated by highlighting):
from NCAA Championships | from Northeast Regional ... Mid-Atlantic/South Reg. ... Midwest Reg. ... West Reg.

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams | CLICK HERE for quick rundown of 2013-14 results

• • • •

CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #3: March 7, 2014
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

Men: co-1–Columbia, co-1–Penn State, 3–Notre Dame, 4–Harvard, 5–Ohio State,
6–Princeton, 7–Univ. of Pennsylvania, 8–St. John’s, 9–Duke, 10–Stanford

Women: 1–Princeton, 2–Ohio State, 3–Harvard, 4–Columbia, 5–Notre Dame,
6–Penn State, 7–Temple, 8–Univ. of Pennsylvania, 9–Northwestern & 10–St. John’s

(scroll down for full release/notes & complete rankings, w/ all others receiving votes)

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams

The third edition of the CollegeFencing360.com Coaches Poll for 2014 has been released and there now is a tie between Columbia (27-3) and Penn State (21-3) atop the men's rankings, with 144 voting points each (max. of 150). Columbia – ranked No. 1 in the previous two 2014 polls – received six of the 10 first-place votes, with Penn State receiving the other four. The co-#1s have split two head-to-head matchups this season, with Columbia winning at Penn State on Jan. 11 (15-12) while PSU took the rematch two weeks later (14-13, at St. John's). Columbia was edged by current #6 Princeton, 14-13, in the final round of the Ivy League Championship while dropping a 15-12 home dual meet vs. unranked Sacred Heart (several top Columbia fencers did not compete in that loss). Penn State's other two losses came in late-Jan. bouting at St. John's, against the current #3 and #4 teams (12-15 vs. Notre Dame, 11-16 vs. Harvard).

The unbeaten Princeton women (31-0), who are riding a 51-match unbeaten streak during dual-meet action, remain a unanimous #1. The Ohio State women (23-3; 135 voting pts) – with two of their three losses in 2013-14 coming against top-ranked Princeton – still are firmly in the No. 2 spot, while Harvard (15-4; 123) maintained the third spot in the women's poll. Columbia (23-7; 117) and Notre Dame (15-8) round out the women's top-5, with those teams flipping spots since the previous polling.

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-14): MEN | WOMEN (courtesy CF360)

The Notre Dame men (16-7; 116) have held onto the No. 3 spot, while Ivy League co-champion Harvard (12-6; 114) climbed from 6th to 4th, with current No. 5 Ohio State (16-9; 112) and 6th-ranked Princeton (17-11; 94) each sliding back one position. The rest of the current men's top-10 (7th-10th) includes: Pennsylvania (18-10; 92), St. John's (12-7; 83), Duke (20-8; 74) and Stanford (10-4; 61), with theses final two spots flip-flopping from the previous poll

The rest of the current women's top-10 (6th-10th) includes: Penn State (15-10; 104), Temple (28-8; 86), Pennsylvania (18-8; 81), Northwestern (24-9; 75) and St. John's (8-12; 59). Temple was ninth in the first 2014 poll but has bumped up a spot in each of the updates, with the #7 rank matching its highest in the history of the coaches poll (the Owls most recently were #7 in mid-2012).

The annual college fencing coaches polls currently are determined by vote from 10 collegiate men’s fencing coaches and 10 from the women’s side. The poll is affiliated with the United States Fencing Coaches Association (USFCA) and administered by CollegeFencing360.com (CF360). The fourth and final 2014 poll will be released in mid-March (prior to the 2014 NCAA Championships, to be held March 20-23 at Ohio State).

Prior to 2014, no Columbia fencing team (men's or women's) had been ranked No. 1 in the nation, in the 14-year history of the coaches poll. The previous high ranking for the Columbia men was No. 2, in the final poll of the 2007 season (prior to the NCAAs). The six Columbia men’s entrants went on to go 93-51 at the 2007 NCAAs, the most men’s wins in that 2007 field (Columbia ended up third in the 2007 men’s/women’s combined format).

Based on combined voting points (men + women), Columbia would rank first overall with 259, followed by Princeton (251), Ohio State (250), Penn Stare (246), Harvard (235), Notre Dame (227) and Penn (172).

2014 Fencing Capsules from CF360:

The third 2014 CF360 Fencing Coaches Poll follows below (including all teams receiving votes).

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Poll #3 (March 7, 2014)

MEN (first-place votes – Columbia 6, Penn State 4)
school (varsity dual-meet record) – voting points … previous rankings (2–6–14 & 1–22–14)
co-1. Columbia (27–3) – 144 voting points … (1) … (1)
co-1. Penn State (21–3) – 144 … (2) ... (2)
3. Notre Dame (16–7) – 116 … (3) ... (4)
4. Harvard (12–6) – 114 … (6) ... (5)
5. Ohio State (16–9) – 112 … (4) ... (6)
6. Princeton (17–11) – 94 … (5) ... (3)
7. Pennsylvania (18–10) – 92 … (7) ... (8)
8. St. John’s (12–7) – 83 … (8) ... (7)
9. Duke (20–8) – 74 … (10) ... (–)
10. Stanford (10–4) – 61 … (9) ... (10)
Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Brown 50 (9th in poll #1), North Carolina 34, Brandeis 28,
Sacred Heart 22, Yale 18, UC San Diego 10, Johns Hopkins 3, Stevens Tech 1

Notes – this is the highest ranking ever by any Columbia fencing team (men or women), since college fencing coaches poll debuted in 2001.

WOMEN (first-place votes – Princeton 10)
school (varsity dual-meet record) – voting points … previous rankings (2–6–14 & 1–22–14)
1. Princeton (31–0) – 150 voting points … (1) ... (1)
2. Ohio State (23–3) – 135 … (2) ... (5)
3. Harvard (15–4) – 123 … (3) ... (2)
4. Columbia (23–7) – 117 … (5) ... (6)
5. Notre Dame (15–8) – 113 … (4) ... (3)
6. Penn State (15–10) – 104 … (6) ... (4)
7. Temple (28–8) – 86 … (8) ... (9)
8. Pennsylvania (18–8) – 81 … (7) ... (8)
9. Northwestern (24–9) – 75 … (9) ... (7)
10. St. John's (8–12) – 59 … (10) ... (10)
Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Stanford 41, Cornell 34, Duke 29, Brown 25, North Carolina 12,
Sacred Hart 4, Boston College 3, Sacred Heart 3, Yale 3, Brandeis 2, Johns Hopkins 1

Note – this equals the highest ranking for Temple in recorded poll history (highest since mid-2012)

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-14): MEN | WOMEN (courtesy CF360)

PDF lists of top returners from 2013 fencing season (indicated by highlighting):
from NCAA Championships | from Northeast Regional ... Mid-Atlantic/South Reg. ... Midwest Reg. ... West Reg.

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams | CLICK HERE for quick rundown of 2013-14 results

• • • •

CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #2: Feb. 6, 2014
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

Men: 1–Columbia, 2–Penn State, 3–Notre Dame, 4–Ohio State, 5–Princeton,
6–Harvard, 7–Univ. of Pennsylvania, 8–St. John’s, 9–Stanford & 10–Duke

Women: 1–Princeton, 2–Ohio State, 3–Harvard, 4–Notre Dame, 5–Columbia,
6–Penn State, 7–Univ. of Pennsylvania, 8–Temple, 9–Northwestern & 10–St. John’s

(scroll down for full release/notes & complete rankings, including all others receiving votes … )

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams

The second edition of the CollegeFencing360.com Coaches Poll for 2014 has been released and the top spots remain unchanged, although both teams now are a unanimous No. 1 (150 voting points) – the once-beaten Columbia men (22-1) and the unbeaten Princeton women (21-0), who are riding a 41-match unbeaten streak during dual-meet action. The surging Ohio State women (19-2; 138 voting pts) – whose only losses in 2013-14 have come against top-ranked Princeton – have climbed from No. 5 to No. 2 in the current CF360 Coaches Poll, followed by the women's teams from Harvard (121), Notre Dame (113) and Columbia (112). The Harvard and Notre Dame women both have slipped back one spot in the rankings while the Columbia women have bumped up from 6th to 5th (the Penn State women, 99 pts, dropped from 4th to 6th).

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-14): MEN | WOMEN (courtesy CF360)

The Penn State men (13-3; 134 voting pts) – which own the only win over Columba in 2013-14 – have maintained their spot at No. 2, while three teams are closely bunched in the 3rd-5th spots of the current men's poll: Notre Dame (116), Ohio State (112) and Princeton (108). Ohio State climbed two spots from its previous No. 6, while Notre Dame moved up one position and Princeton dropped from 3rd to 5th (current No. 6 Harvard, 94 pts, slipped back one spot). The rest of the men's current top-10 (7th-10th) includes: the University of Pennsylvania (93), St. John's (90), Stanford (69) and Duke (63), which is back in the top-10 after previous No. 9 Brown slipped outside the top-10. Penn and St. John's flipped spots from the previous poll.

The rest of the current women's top-10 (7th-10th) includes: Pennsylvania (89), Temple (87), Northwestern (73) and St. John's (67). Penn and Temple both bumped up one spot, while Northwestern fell back from 7th to 9th.

The annual college fencing coaches polls currently are determined by vote from 10 collegiate men’s fencing coaches and 10 from the women’s side. The poll is affiliated with the United States Fencing Coaches Association (USFCA) and administered by CollegeFencing360.com (CF360). Additional 2014 updated polls will be released in late-Feb./early March and then finally in mid-March (prior to the 2014 NCAA Championships, to be held March 20-23 at Ohio State).

Based on combined voting points (men + women), Columbia would rank first overall with 262, followed by Princeton (258), Ohio State (250), Penn Stare (233), Notre Dame (229), Harvard (215) and Penn (182).

Despite losing a pair of All-Americans – epeeist Katarzyna Dabrowa (2012 NCAA champion) and Allison Miller in sabre – from the 2013 team, the Ohio State women went unbeaten during their weekend in New York City (11-0, at the NYU and St. John's invitationals) before going 6-1 at the recent Northwestern Invitational. The OSU women's unbeaten weekend in NYC included three 14-13 wins and two others by 15-12 margins. Over the course of the 2013-14 season, the Buckeyes women have racked up 12 wins over current top-10 teams: Harvard, Notre Dame (2), Columbia (2), Penn State, Penn (2), Temple, Northwestern and St. John's (2). The only 2013-14 losses for the OSU women have come against top-ranked Princeton: 8-19 on Nov. 23 (at Princeton) and 12-15 at Northwestern (Feb. 2).

The Columbia men raced out to a 21-0 record in 2013-14 before being edged by No. 2 Penn State, 14-13, at the St. John's Invitational on Jan. 26. All four of Columbia's wins that day at St. John's came by scores of 15-12.

2014 Fencing Capsules from CF360:

Note that plenty of additional notes with the initial 2014 poll release are included below ...

The second 2014 CF360 Fencing Coaches Poll follows below (including all teams receiving votes).

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Poll #2 (Feb. 6, 2014)

MEN (first-place votes – Columbia 10)
(school (varsity dual-meet record) – voting points … previous ranking, 1–22–14)
1. Columbia (22–1) – 150 voting points … (1)
2. Penn State (13–3) – 134 … (2)
3. Notre Dame (13–6) – 116 … (4)
4. Ohio State (13–8) – 112… (6)
5. Princeton (14–5) – 108 … (3)
6. Harvard (5–5) – 94 … (5)
7. Pennsylvania (14–6) – 93 … (8)
8. St. John’s (9–6) – 90 … (7)
9. Stanford (10–4) – 69 … (10)
10. Duke (15–5) – 63 ... (9)
Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Brown 49 (9th in prev. poll), North Carolina 44, UC San Diego 30,
Yale 27, Sacred Heart 10, NYU 4, MIT 3, Air Force 2, Brandeis 1, Stevens Tech 1.

Notes – this is the highest ranking ever by any Columbia fencing team (men or women), since college fencing coaches poll debuted in 2001.

WOMEN (first-place votes – Princeton 10)
(school (varsity dual-meet record) – voting points … previous ranking, 1–22–14)
1. Princeton (21–0) – 150 voting points … (1)
2. Ohio State (19–2) – 138 … (5)
3. Harvard (7–3) – 121 … (2)
4. Notre Dame (10–8) – 113 … (3)
5. Columbia (17–5) – 112 … (6)
6. Penn State (8–9) – 99 … (4)
7. Pennsylvania (15–5) – 89 … (8)
8. Temple (21–6) – 87 … (9)
9. Northwestern (21–6) – 73 … (7)
10. St. John's (8–8) – 67 … (10)
Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Stanford 38, Cornell 34, Brown 30, Duke 14, Boston College 8,
North Carolina 8, Yale 8, Air Force 4, Brandeis 3, Johns Hopkins 1, Sacred Heart 1, UC San Diego 1 & Tufts 1.

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-14): MEN | WOMEN

PDF lists of top returners from 2013 fencing season (indicated by highlighting):
from NCAA Championships | from Northeast Regional ... Mid-Atlantic/South Reg. ... Midwest Reg. ... West Reg.

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams | CLICK HERE for quick rundown of 2013-14 results

• • • •

CF360 FENCING COACHES POLL #1: Jan. 22, 2014 Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
(all content courtesy of College Fencing 360; please credit and link accordingly)

Men – Columbia, Penn State, Princeton, Notre Dame, Harvard,
Ohio State, St. Jhn’s, Univ. of Pennsylvania, Brown & Stanford

Women – Princeton, Harvard, Notre Dame, Penn State, Ohio State,
Columbia, Northwestern, Univ. of Pennsylvania, Temple & St. John’s

(scroll down for full reease/notes & complete rankings, including all others receiving votes … )

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams

The first edition of the CollegeFencing360.com Coaches Poll for 2014 has yielded some historic results in the 14-year history of the collegiate fencing poll (2001-14). The Columbia men have received the No. 1 ranking for the first time in program history (men or women) while the Brown men have cracked the top-10 (9th) for the first time in their program history (men or women). It’s a landmark day all-around for Ivy League fencing, as the Princeton women join the Columbia men as near-consensus No. 1 picks in their respective polls, while the Harvard women own the highest ranking (No. 2) in their program history.

Sophomore foilist Adam Mathieu (above right, in blue sock, fencing in the 2013 NCAAs vs. Notre Dame veteran and current world No. 1 Gerek Meinhardt) and the rest of his fairly young teammates are part of the first Columbia fencing team (men's or women's) ever to be ranked No. 1. – photo by Pete LaFleur/CollegeFencing360.com; all rights reserved

The annual college fencing coaches polls currently are determined by vote from 10 collegiate men’s fencing coaches and 10 from the women’s side. The poll is sponsored by the United States Fencing Coaches Association (USFCA) and administered by CollegeFencing360.com (CF360). Updated polls will be released in early February, late-Feb. and then finally in mid-March (prior to the 2014 NCAA Championships, to be held March 20-23 at Ohio State).

The unbeaten Columbia men (13-0) – buoyed by a fall-semester victory over Princeton (19-8) and a recent head-to-head win versus homestanding Penn State (15-12) – received nine of the 10 first-place votes and 148 of the possible 150 voting points. The Penn State men are firmly in the second spot (140; one 1st-place vote), followed by Princeton (121), Notre Dame (114) and Harvard (111). The rest of the men’s top-10 (6th-10th) includes: Ohio State (95), St. John’s (82), the University of Pennsylvania (78), Brown (64) and Stanford (62).

Susie Scanlan A400

On the women’s side, Princeton received 147 of the possible 150 voting points (eight of 10 first-place votes) for a comfortable margin ahead of Harvard (124; one 1st-place vote), which edged third-place Notre Dame (120), followed by Penn State (118) and Ohio State (110). The balance of the women’s top-10 (6th-10th) includes: Columbia (106; one 1st-place vote), Northwestern (89), the Univ. of Pennsylvania (81), Temple (80) and St. John’s (57).

2012 U.S. Olympian and 2013 NCAA epee runner-up Susie Scanlan (left) leads a top-ranked Princeton women's fencing team featuring ridiculous depth throughout its lineup.
– photo by Pete LaFleur (College Fencing 360); all rights reserved

This is the highest ranking for the Harvard women since the 2010 team was No. 3 in the initial poll that season. That Crimson women’s team featured eventual 2010 NCAA sabre champion Caroline Vloka and epee runnr-up Noam Mills.

2014 Fencing Capsules from CF360:

Defending NCAA champion Princeton is the only fencing program with both its men’s (3rd) and women’s (1st) teams among the top-3 in the respective polls. Penn State has both of its teams among the top-4 (No. 2 men; No. 4 women), as does Notre Dame with the 4th-ranked men’s team and the No. 3 women. Based on combined voting points (men + women), Princeton would rank first overall with 268, followed by Penn State (258), Columbia (254), Harvard (235), Notre Dame (234), Ohio State (205), U-Penn (159) and St. John’s (139).

The full initial 2014 CF360 Fencing Coaches Poll follows below (including all teams receiving votes).
Note that plenty of additional notes also are included below ...

CollegeFencing360 Coaches Poll #1 (Jan. 22, 2014)

MEN (first-place votes – Columbia 9, Penn State 1)
(school (varsity dual-meet record) – voting points ... final 2013 ranking)
1. Columbia (13-0 – 148 voting points … (7)
2. Penn State (10-1) – 140 … (1)
3. Princeton (7-2) – 121 … (3)
4. Notre Dame (0-0) – 114 … (2)
5. Harvard (4-1) – 111 … (4)
6. Ohio State (2-1) – 95… (6)
7. St. John’s (4-1) – 82 … (5)
8. Pennsylvania (3-4) – 78 … (8)
9. Brown (5-0) – 64 ... –
10. Stanford (3-0) – 62 … (9)
Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Duke 49 (10th in final 2013 poll), North Carolina 43, Yale 33,
Sacred Heart 25, Air Force 9, UC San Diego 8, Brandeis 5, Stevens Tech 5, MIT 4, NYU 4.

Notes – this is the highest ranking ever by any Columbia fencing team (men or women), since college fencing coaches poll debuted in 2001; also believed to be first time any Brown team (men or women) has been in the top-10.

WOMEN (first-place votes – Princeton 8, Columbia 1, Harvard 1)
(school – voting points ... final 2013 poll)
1. Princeton (8-1) – 147 voting points … (2)
2. Harvard (5-0) – 124 … (7)
3. Notre Dame (0-0) – 120 … (1)
4. Penn State (8-3) – 118 … (6)
5. Ohio State (2-1) – 110 … (4)
6. Columbia (9-3) – 106 … (3)
7. Northwestern (6-0) – 89 … (8)
8. Pennsylvania (5-2) – 81 … (t10)
9. Temple (6-3) – 80 … (9)
10. St. John's (4-2) – 57 … (5)

Also Receiving Votes (panel submits top-15) – Brown 38, Cornell 37, Duke 29 (t-10th in final 2013 poll), Stanford 28, Yale 9, North Carolina 8, Air Force 6, Sacred Heart 4, Boston College 3, UC San Diego 3, Brandeis 2, Johns Hopkins 1.

Note – this is believed to be the highest ranking for the Harvard women in the 14-year history of the college fencing coaches poll.

• Fencing Coaches Poll History (spreadsheets; 2001-14): MEN | WOMEN

PDF lists of top returners from 2013 fencing season (indicated by highlighting):
from NCAA Championships | from Northeast Regional
from Mid-Atlantic/South Regional | from Midwest Regional | from West Regional

• Schedule/Result Links for all teams
CLICK HERE for quick rundown of 2013-14 results

ADDITIONAL NOTES BELOW on initial 2014 college fencing poll ...

Prior to this initial 2014 poll, the Princeton and Columbia fencing programs (men and women) had combined for only two No. 1 rankings spanning the 14-year history of the coaches poll – by the Tigers women in the final 2012 poll and in the initial 2013 rankings. Three schools – Notre Dame (36), Penn State (22) and Ohio State (11) – have combined to earn 87 percent (69 of 79) of the No. 1 rankings (men and women) that are on record for the 14-year history of the collegiate fencing poll. Only five other fencing programs have produced a No. 1-ranked team: St. John’s (5), Princeton (3) and one each from Stanford, Harvard and now Columbia. (Note that the No. 1 women’s teams from the three 2001 polls have yet to be confirmed).

The 14-year history of the men’s fencing poll has included Notre Dame in the No. 1 position 16 times (none since 2011), followed by Penn State (13; including final 2013 poll, Ohio State (8; most recently on initial 2013 poll), St. John’s (2; most recent in 2004), Stanford (1; initial 2001 poll), Harvard (1; initial 2007 poll) and now Columbia (1). Starting with the 2002 season, the Notre Dame women have held down the top spot in 20 of the 38 coaches polls during that span (including the final three in 2013), followed by Penn State (9; most recently on the initial 2012 poll and three each from St. John’s (all in 2002), Ohio State (most recently 2012 midseason) and Princeton. Prior to the four polls released in the 2013 season, the fencing coaches poll had three release dates each year from 2001-12.

Notre Dame senior men's foilist Ariel DeSmet (right) – who won the NCAA title
as a freshman in 2011 – is one of several elite fencers who will be on display this
weekend in New York City, during college fencing events at NYU and St. John's.
photo by Pete LaFleur
(College Fencing 360); all rights reserved

HUGE WEEKEND ON TAP – It should be noted that collegiate fencing teams, in recent years, have begun to hold more dual meets during the fall semester and early January (such as the recent Penn State Invitational). The annual USFCA poll traditionally has been a mid-January release, allowing for team rosters to be finalized while – over the past few years – being released in advance of the biggest weekend of high-end competition during the collegiate fencing regular season. Such a huge weekend is quickly approaching (Jan. 25-26), with four dual-meet tournaments to showcase an assortment of elite teams. Most of the top-10 teams are in action this weekend, all except for the Princeton men and women, and the Stanford men:

• Sat., Jan. 25–Sun., Jan. 26 (Philadelphia Invitational; at U-Penn; men Sat./women Sun.)
– field includes: Penn (#8 men & women), Northwestern (#7 women), Temple (#9 women), Cornell (women), Duke,
North Carolina, Sacred Heart, Johns Hopkins, Fairleigh Dickinson (women), Haverford, Drew, NJIT & Lafayette

• Sat., Jan. 25 (NYU Invitational)
– field includes: Columbia (#1 men/#6 women), Notre Dame (#4 men/#3 women), Ohio State (#6 men/#5 women),
St. John’s (#7 men/#10 women), Northwestern (#7 women), North Carolina (men), Yale, NYU & Wayne State

• Sat., Jan. 25 (Northeast Fencing Conf. meet #2; at Boston College)
– field includes Brown (#9 men), Boston College, Brandeis, MIT, Vassar & Tufts (varsity women; men’s club team),
plus Darmouth & Smith club teams

• Sun., Jan. 26 (St. John’s Invitational)
– field includes Penn State (#2 men/#4 women), Columbia (#1 men/#6 women), Harvard (#4 men/#2 women),
Notre Dame (#4 men/#3 women), Ohio State (#6 men/#5 women) & St. John’s (#7 men/#10 women)

QUICK NOTES ON TOP-5 TEAMS

• (1) COLUMBIA men – return 10 of 11 participants from the 2013 NCAA Northeast Regional and all five 2013 NCAA entrants, led by three All-Americans: junior left-handed sabre standout Will Spear (5th in ’12 & ’13 NCAAs), sophomore foilist Brian Ro (6th in ’13) and sabre junior Michael Josephs (11th in ’12, 10th in ’13) … Spear's brother Jeff also fenced at Columbia and was a member of the 2012 Olympic team ... two years ago, as a freshman, Alex Hadzic reached the 2012 NCAA men’s epee final, but his sophomore season at Columbia took an unusual twist as he was black-carded at the 2013 Regional and thus could not qualify for the ’13 NCAAs (Hadzic is taking the year off from collegiate fencing but could return in 2014-15) ... in the past, Columbia’s first meets have come in Kat Holmes A450 late Jan. but the Lions already have competed in the fall semester plus earier this month, winning all 13 of their dual meets (with the more noteworthy victories coming against Penn State, Princeton and Duke).
– CLICK HERE for more in-depth team capsules on Columbia men and women

• (1) PRINCETON women – return 9 of 11 participants from the 2013 NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regional and five of six 2013 NCAA entrants, all of them All-Americans: 2012 epee Olympian and 2013 NCAA runner-up Susannah Scanlan (also 5th in ’09, 7th in ’10), sabre so. Gracie Stone (3rd in ’13), jr. epeeist Kat Holmes (3rd in ’12, 5th in ’13), jr. foilist Ambika Singh (10th in ‘12, 9th in '13) and sr. foilist Eve Levin (2nd in ‘12, 12th in ’12, 10th in ’13) … the 2014 Tigers women boast four fencers (covering all three weapons) who all have reached the medal round in previous NCAA Championships: Scanlan, Levin, Holmes and Stone ... Gracie’s sister, 2013 NCAA champ Eliza Stone (8th in ’10, 2nd in ’11, 3rd in ’12) will be hard to rep Alex Kiefer A400 ace, but the Tigers have ridiculous depth in all three women’s weapons ... he Princeton women won all eight of their dual meets in the fall, including victories over Penn State, Ohio State, Columbia and Penn.
– CLICK HERE for more in-depth team capsules on Princeton men and women

Current Harvard senior Alex Kiefer (left) and her sister Lee Kiefer (now a sophomore at Notre Dame) both have won NCAA foil titles as freshmen (Alex in 2011 and Lee in 2013).
– photo by Pete LaFleur (College Fencing 360); all rights reserved

• (2) HARVARD women – return 9 of 11 participants from the 2013 NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regional and all five of their 2013 NCAA entrants, led by three All-Americans: sr. Alex Kiefer (2011 NCAA champion, also 11th in ’12, 6th in ’13), so. epeeist Nina Van Loon (11th in ’13) and sabre so. Aliya Itzkowitz (12th in ’13) ... jr. epeeist Emma Vaggo is a two-time NCAA entrant who narrowly missed All-America status in 2012 and ’13 (14th both seasons) … the Crimson sabre squad should get a boost from the addition of fr. Bak A400 (Middle Village, N.Y.) … – CLICK HERE for more in-depth team capsules on Harvard men and women

Penn State senior Adrian Bak (right) could be back in the mix for the NCAA sabre title in 2014, after losing a heartbreaking 15-14 semifinal to eventual champ Michael Mills (Penn) in 2013.
– photo by Pete LaFleur
(College Fencing 360); all rights reserved

• (2) PENN STATE men – return 8 of 12 participants from the 2013 NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regional and two of six 2013 NCAA entrants, both of them three-time All-Americans with NCAA medal-round experience: two-time NCAA foil runner-up David Willette (’10 & ’13; also 3rd in ’11) and saber sr. Adrian Bak (7th in ’11, 6th in ’12, 3rd in ’13) ... PSU has some big slots to fill, most notably with the departure of four-time NCAA foil semifinalist Miles Chamley-Watson (the 2013 world champion) and the transfer of 2013 NCAA sabre runner-up Shaul Gordon ... there still is plenty of depth on the foil squad, including so Nobuo Bravo (placed 3rd at ’13 Regional) ... promising fr. epeeist Conor Shepard did not fence at the recent Penn State Invitational, but PSU is hopeful for his return to active status soon ... the squad also has a top sabre newcomer in f. Adam Lewicki ... Penn State’s only blemish so far (12-1), spanning some fall bouts and the recent home event, was the 12-15 loss to Columbia (top wins have come vs. Princeton, Harvard, Penn and Duke).
– CLICK HERE for more in-depth team capsules on Penn State men and women

• (3) PRINCETON men – return 6 of 11 participants from the 2013 NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regional and four of six 2013 NCAA entrants, two of them All-Americans: so. foilist Michael Dudey (5th) and sabre senior Robert Stone (7th at ’13 NCAAs, 22nd in ’12), who combined with his sabre sisters Eliza and Gracie Stone to help the Tigers win the 2013 NCAA team title ... the team’s other senior sabre veteran, Phil Dershwitz, reached the NCAA semfiinals in 2012 (18th in ’11, 14th in ’13) ... the Tigers must replace their elite epee due of 2013 seniors Jonathan Yergler (2012 NCAA champ, runner-up in ’11 & ’13, 9th in ’10) and Ed Kelley (’13 semifinalist, 8th in ’12) ... top options to fill that void include jr. Luke Politi (11th at ’13 Regional) and highly-rated freshman Alex Hou Kiefer A450 e (Upton, Mass.) ... the Princeton men went 7-2 during their fall dual meets, losng 8-19 to Columbia and 7-20 vs. Penn State (with top wins over Ohio State and Penn).
– CLICK HERE for more in-depth team capsules on Princeton men and women

2012 Olympic quarterfinalist and 2013 NCAA women's foil champion Lee Kiefer (left) returns for her second season at Notre Dame in 2014.
– photo by Pete LaFleur (College Fencing 360); all rights reserved

• (3) NOTRE DAME women – return 6 of 10 participants from the 2013 NCAA Midwest Regional and three of six 2013 NCAA entrants, each of them All-Americans: 2012 Olympic quarterfinalist and 2013 NCAA foil champion Lee Kiefer, jr. foilist Madi Zeiss (8th in ’12, 3rd in ’13) and sabre so. Joanna Thill (11th in ’13) ... similar to the Princeton men’s epee, the Irish women’s epee squad has bid farewell to a pair of standouts in two-time NCAA champ Courtney Hurley (’11 & ’13; also semifinalist in ’09 & ’10; ’12 Olympian) and Ewa Nelip (3rd in ’08 & ’09, 9th in ’11, 8th in ’13) ... beyond Kiefer and Zeiss, the Irish have several other battle-tested foilists while juniors Ashley Severson (5th) and Nicole Ameli (11th) both earned 2012 Glon A400 ll-America honors, while Hurley and Nelip were pursuing Olympic bids ... the Notr Dame women will be opening their 2013-14 season on Jan. 25 at the NYU Invitational.
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Nicole Glon (right) – daughter of longtime Penn State sabre caoach and current interim head coach Wes Glon – could combine with fellow senior Jess Russo and newcomer Heather Nelson (a 2013 Air Force grad. & two-time NCAA entrant) to make PSU one of the nation's top women's sabre units.
– photo by Pete LaFleur (College Fencing 360); all rights reserved

• (4) PENN STATE women – return 1 of 12 participants from the 2013 NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regional and four of five 2013 NCAA entrants, three of them All-Americans: so. foilist Clarise Luminet (7th) among with sabre senior Nicole Glon (8th in ’13, also 17th in ’11 & 9th in ’12) ... PSU has another fencer with NCAA tournament experience, as jr. lefthander Alina Antokhina was a 2012 NCAA finalist before slipping to a 22nd-place finish in ’13 ... the Nittany Lions could field one of the nation’s top women’s sabre trios, thanks to the addition of graduate student Heather Nelson (who fenced at the NCAAs twice with Air Force, placing 19th in 2011 & 23rd in ’12 ... four-time NCAA epee semifinalist Marg Guzzi (2010 NCAA champ, ’12 runner-up) is impossible to replace, and none of the squad’s returning epeeists finished among the top-18 at the 2013 Regional ... promising fr. Jessie Radanovich (Frisco, Calif.) could emerge as a key member of the 2014 PSU epee squad ... results so far for the PSU women (fall and early-Jan. home even Kevin Hassett A450 ) have produced an 8-3 record, with losses coming against Princeton 8-19, Harvard11-16 and Penn 13-14 (top wins over Temple and Duke).

– CLICK HERE for more in-depth team capsules on Penn State men and women

Kevin Hassett (left) will be hoping to replicate the senior sabre season turned in by his sister Eileen in 2011, when she reached the medal round while helping Notre Dame win the NCAA Men's and Women's Combined Fencing Championship.
– photo by Pete LaFleur (College Fencing 360);
all rights reserved

• (4) NOTRE DAME men – return 7 of 11 participants from the 2013 NCAA Midwest Regional and all six 2013 NCAA entrants, led by three All-Americans: the world’s current No. 1-ranked men’s foilist Gerek Meinhardt (2-time U.S. Olympian; 2010 NCAA champion, 2nd in ’09, 3rd in ’13), senior foilist Ariel DeSmet (2011 NCAA champ, 10th in ’13) and sabre sr. Kevin Hassett (7th in ’12, 9th in ’13) ... so. epeeist Garrett McGrath narrowly missed 2013 All-America honors, after placing 13th at the NCAAs ... the N Woo A400 tre Dame men will be opening their 2013-14 season on Jan. 25 at the NYU Invitatioal.
– CLICK HERE for more in-depth team capsules on Notre Dame men and women

Sophomore foilist Michael Woo (right) is part of a deep and talented Harvard men's fencing team that could rack up plenty of wins in 2013-14.
– photo by Pete LaFleur
(College Fencing 360); all rights reserved

• (5) HARVARD men – return seven of nine participants from the 2013 NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regional and five of six 2013 NCAA entrants, led by three All-Americans: the foil duo of jr. Brian Kaneshige (12th in ’12, 7th in ’13) and so. Michael Woo (8th in ’13), plus sr. epeeist Mike Raynis (6th in ’11, 20th in ’12, 11th in ’13) ... the Crimson could exceed their No. 5 preseason ranking if their veteran sabre duo – sr. Eric Arzoian and jr. lefthander Alexander Rykik – perform more like they did at the 2013 Regional than they did at the 2013 NCAA Championships (Ryjik was the Regional runner-up but 22nd at the NCAAs, while Arzoian placed 4th at the Regional but 15th at the NCAAs) ... Harvard has strong foil depth – as current so. Jerry Chang (5th) and sr. Lucas Lin (14th) joined Kanshige and Woo among the top-15 finishes at the 2013 Regional ... the team also must cope with the absence of jr. Peregine Badger, who is taking a year off (Badger was a 2013 NCAA semifinalist, after placing 6th in ’12) ... Harvard’s five fall dual meets produced four wins (none over current top-10 teams), plus a 12-15 loss to Penn State.

– CLICK HERE for more in-depth team capsules on Harvard men and women

• (5) OHIO STATE women – return 7 of 11 participants from the 2013 NCAA Midwest Regional and five of six 2013 NCAA entrants, but only one of them a 2013 All-American: jr. two-time NCAA foil semifinalist Mona Shaito ... sr. epeeist Caroline Piasecka is a three-time NCAA entrant (15th in ’11, 9th in ’12, 15th in ’13) but OSU bid farewell to 2012 NCAA epee champion Katarzyna Dabrowa (also 3rd in ’11, 6th in ’13) along with another regular epee starter in Tasha Domashovetz ... the OSU foil squad has veteran and newcomer depth, but as of Jan. 10 the 14-fencer roster included only three fencers who were listed as epeeist and four at sabre ... recent addition Kimberly Young (Gilbert, Ariz.), one of the nation’s top-rated freshmen, could provide a big boost and is listed as epee/sabre on the official roster ... jr. Celina Merza won the 2013 Midwest Regional sabre title but placed only 18th at the NCAAs ... the OSU sabre squad must replace four-year NCAA entrant Allison Miller (16th in 2010 and ’11, 11th in ’12, 5th in ’13), but fr. Alexa Antipas (Stony Brook. N.Y.) joins Young as promising newcomers who could fence plenty of key bouts in 2014 ... the OSU women fenced only three dual meets vs. varsity competition in the fall, losing 8-18 vs. Princeton while beating Penn and Cleveland State.
– CLICK HERE for more in-depth team capsules on Ohio State men and women

Additional in-depth team capsules:
• St. John's men and women
• Univ. of Pennsylvania men and women
• Northwestern women
• Temple women
• Brown men (content being added)
• Stanford men anf women

OLYMPIAN ALERT – Although a pair of 2012 Olympians – two-time NCAA champs Daryl Homer (St. John’s sabre) and Courtney Hurley (Notre Dame epee) – ended their standout college careers in 2013, there still are several 2012 Olympians back on the college fencing scene for 2014. This esteemed group includes three former NCAA champions, headlined by current world No. 1 men’s folist Gerek Meinhardt, a graduate student at Notre Dame who won the NCAA title back in 2010 (’09 runner-up; ’13 semifinalist). Stanford sophomore Alexander Massialas – who beat his longtime friend and club teammate Meinhardt in the 2013 NCAA semifinals, en route to winning his own NCAA title – is part of the U.S. men’s foil team that currently holds the world’s No. 1 ranking. Penn State veteran David Willette, although not a 2012 Olympic participant, has competed with the U.S. Men’s Foil Team and is a two-time NCAA runner-up (2010 and ’13; also a semifinalist in ’11). Meinhardt and Massialas also were members of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team.

Current Stanford sophomore

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