COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The maddest moments of March don’t involve basketball hoops or 68-team brackets. For fans of college fencing, March is all about the 2023 NCAA Fencing Championships. From March 23-26, inside the arena that’s home to Duke Basketball, 144 fencers representing 28 different universities will compete for individual and team glory.
The format for this tournament is madness indeed: In each weapon, every student-athlete fences every student-athlete in a series of five-touch bouts. That’s 24 fencers in 23 bouts apiece over two grueling days. Consider it the largest pool round you’ve ever seen.
After these five-touch bouts are completed, the top four finishers in each weapon will advance to a four-person mini-bracket. Each semifinal is a 15-touch bout with the winners advancing and the runners-up (not fair to call them “losers” when they’ve made it that far) each receiving bronze medals. Next, the finalists face off in another 15-touch bout to determine the national champion. These semifinal and final bouts will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
With that table set, let’s see who’s invited to the party. Today, the NCAA announced the 144 student-athletes — 24 per weapon — who will participate in the 2023 NCAA Fencing Championships, held on the campus of Duke University in Durham, N.C.
The selections were made using a combined formula that considers two factors:
40% — Season Performance Index (SPI), which is a complex formula designed to fairly assess a fencer’s on-the-strip performance throughout the season
60% — Placement at NCAA regional competition
USA Fencing CEO Phil Andrews will be in Durham to cheer on the student-athletes as well as meet with coaches, athletic directors and officials.
“I’ve heard fencers rave about the electric atmosphere of the NCAA Championships, and I’m excited to experience it for myself for the first time,” says Andrews, who joined USA Fencing in August. “And while I’m there, I’m eager to meet more members of the collegiate fencing community as we continue to expand our support for NCAA fencing.”
The field of 144 includes four national champions from 2022 who will return to defend their titles in 2023. That’s Kaylin Hsieh (Notre Dame) in women’s epee, Maia Weintraub (Princeton) in women’s foil, Elizabeth Tartakovsky (Harvard) in women’s saber and Ashton Daniel (Columbia) in men’s foil.
As for schools to keep your eyes on, that list starts with Columbia University, the University of Notre Dame and Princeton University. Each qualified the maximum of 12 fencers for the competition.
The University of Pennsylvania had 11 fencers qualify, while Harvard University and The Ohio State University each qualified 10.
Those schools will be in the driver’s seat for the team national championship. In NCAA fencing, the team champion is determined by the total points earned by individual fencers from the same university in their respective events. Each event contributes a certain number of points toward the team's total score.
Notre Dame, winners of the 2021 and 2022 team titles, will look to become the first university to win three or more fencing team championships in a row since Penn State won six in a row from 1995 to 2000.
Columbia, meanwhile, has won three of the past seven titles and will want to battle their way back to the top of the podium for the first time since 2019.
And Harvard, last year’s runners-up, will want to thwart any chance of a repeat.
While medals and trophies get the headlines, all of these student-athletes have accomplished something remarkable just by reaching the NCAA Fencing Championships. They’re in for an experience they’ll hold with them forever.
“Competing for a national championship inside historic Cameron Indoor Stadium is a unique opportunity that we hope you will remember for years to come,” Duke Athletics Director Nina King writes in a letter to fencers. “Take time to soak in the moment — you’ve earned this!”
Here are the qualifiers:
Columbia University-Barnard College: 12
Princeton University: 12
University of Notre Dame: 12
University of Pennsylvania: 11
Harvard University: 10
The Ohio State University: 10
Duke University: 8
Pennsylvania State University: 7
St. John's University (New York): 7
U.S. Air Force Academy: 6
University of California, San Diego: 6
Yale University: 5
New Jersey Institute of Technology: 4
New York University: 4
Northwestern University: 4
Stanford University: 4
Brandeis University: 3
Long Island University: 3
Wayne State University (Michigan): 3
Boston College: 2
Brown University: 2
Massachusetts Institute of Technology: 2
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill: 2
Cornell University: 1
Johns Hopkins University: 1
Temple University: 1
Tufts University: 1
University of the Incarnate Word: 1
Sofia Yee-Wadsworth, Brown University
Ariana Mangano, Columbia University-Barnard College
Tierna Oxenreider, Columbia University-Barnard College
Chloe Beittel, Duke University
Emily Vermeule, Harvard University
Faith Park, Harvard University
Costanza Greggi, Long Island University
Laura Fekete, Long Island University
Dominika Pawlowska, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Karen Wang, Northwestern University
Kateryna Chorniy, Pennsylvania State University
Hadley Husisian, Princeton University
Jessica Lin, Princeton University
Nicole Gavrilko, St. John's University (New York)
Irene Yeu, Stanford University
Montserrat Viveros, The Ohio State University
Yeva Mazur, The Ohio State University
Karen Bei, Tufts University
Jocelyn Ratzlaff, U.S. Air Force Academy
Renee Zuhars, University of California, San Diego
Eszter Muhari, University of Notre Dame
Kaylin Hsieh, University of Notre Dame
Jessica Liang, University of Pennsylvania
Shirley Guo, University of Pennsylvania
Delphine Devore, Columbia University-Barnard College
Zander Rhodes, Columbia University-Barnard College
Asherah Horsley, Cornell University
Christina Ferrari, Duke University
Rachel Koo, Duke University
Ever Marinelli, Harvard University
Lauren Scruggs, Harvard University
Anna Biasco, Northwestern University
Samantha Catantan, Pennsylvania State University
Maia Weintraub, Princeton University
May Tieu, Princeton University
Malwina Kolodziejczyk, St. John's University (New York)
Crystal Qian, Stanford University
Anna Novoseltseva, Temple University
Alina Lee, The Ohio State University
Dariia Myroniuk, The Ohio State University
Melissa Kline, U.S. Air Force Academy
Amita Berthier, University of Notre Dame
Rebeca Candescu, University of Notre Dame
Katina Proestakis Ortiz, University of Pennsylvania
Sabrina Cho, University of Pennsylvania
Ludovica Mancini, Wayne State University (Michigan)
Emme Zhou, Yale University
Helen Tan, Yale University
Maggie Shealy, Brandeis University
Casey Chan, Brown University
Nora Burke, Columbia University-Barnard College
Vera Kong, Columbia University-Barnard College
Anneke Zegers, Duke University
Kunling Tong, Duke University
Elizabeth Tartakovsky, Harvard University
Zoe Kim, Harvard University
Kristen Palmer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Megumi Oishi, Northwestern University
Sky Miller, Northwestern University
Aleksandra (Ola) Strzalkowski, Pennsylvania State University
Chloe Fox-Gitomer, Princeton University
Ryan Jenkins, Princeton University
Julia Cieslar, St. John's University (New York)
Joy Yun, Stanford University
Julieta Toledo, The Ohio State University
Mira Vestel, U.S. Air Force Academy
Sophia Kovacs, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Atara Greenbaum, University of Notre Dame
Kara Linder, University of Notre Dame
Hailey Lu, University of Pennsylvania
Vivian Lu, University of Pennsylvania
Sydney Hirsch, Yale University
Skyler Liverant, Columbia University-Barnard College
Teddy Lombardo, Columbia University-Barnard College
Allen Marakov, Duke University
Ark Ma, Harvard University
Jonas Hansen, Harvard University
Mohamed Elsayed Saleh, Long Island University
Ian Adler, New York University
Ryan Griffiths, Pennsylvania State University
Ryan Lee, Princeton University
Tristan Szapary, Princeton University
Paul Fortin, St. John's University (New York)
Henry Lange, The Ohio State University
Paul Veltrup, The Ohio State University
Matthew Han, U.S. Air Force Academy
Derek Rong, University of California, San Diego
Vedran Markota, University of California, San Diego
Eli Lippman, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Jonathan Hamilton-Meikle, University of Notre Dame
Maruan Osman-Touson, University of Notre Dame
Avery Townsend, University of Pennsylvania
Isaac Herbst, University of Pennsylvania
Rico Braun, University of the Incarnate Word
Ahmed Elsayed, Wayne State University (Michigan)
Theodore Vinnitchouk, Yale University
Brian Wang, Boston College
Ashton Daniel, Columbia University-Barnard College
Joon Paik, Columbia University-Barnard College
James Chen, Harvard University
Kenji Bravo, Harvard University
Patrick Liu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cristian Candescu, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Kevin Katayama, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Farr Dickson, New York University
Aidan Johnson, Pennsylvania State University
Arwen Borowiak, Pennsylvania State University
Brandon Li, Princeton University
Mohamed Hamza, Princeton University
Jan Jurkiewicz, St. John's University (New York)
Diego Cervantes, The Ohio State University
Edriss Ndiaye, The Ohio State University
Jack Griffith, U.S. Air Force Academy
John Maurer, U.S. Air Force Academy
Jacob Levy, University of California, San Diego
Lawrence Song, University of California, San Diego
Chase Emmer, University of Notre Dame
Marcello Olivares, University of Notre Dame
Blake Broszus, University of Pennsylvania
Davide Lorenzoni, University of Pennsylvania
Inigo Rivera, Boston College
Antonio (Tony) Escueta, Brandeis University
Lev BenAvram, Brandeis University
Christopher Walker, Columbia University-Barnard College
Colby Harley, Columbia University-Barnard College
Lukas Dannull, Duke University
Terence Lee, Duke University
William Hu, Johns Hopkins University
Justin Petway, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Brian Kim, New York University
Darren Yen, New York University
Clement Perrier, Pennsylvania State University
Matthew Limb, Princeton University
Ronald Anglade, Princeton University
Ahmed Ferjani, St. John's University (New York)
Fares Ferjani, St. John's University (New York)
Donghwan Park, Stanford University
Jack Price, The Ohio State University
Shawn Kim, University of California, San Diego
Jared Smith, University of Notre Dame
Luke Linder, University of Notre Dame
Simon Kushkov, University of Pennsylvania
Eyad Marouf, Wayne State University (Michigan)
Jack Pan, Yale University
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