March 23, 2014
COLUMBUS, Oh. -
Penn State Fencing clinched its 13th national title with a dominant performance in the 2014 NCAA Fencing Championships on Sunday. This title is Penn State's third in the past six years. Penn State fencing is now the winningest fencing program in the NCAA.
As a team, Penn State finished the competition with 180 bout victories toppling Princeton University's second place finish of 159 bout victories, and St. John's University's third place finish of 156 bout victories.
Individually, sophomore Kaito Streets (Redwood City, Calif.) claimed the 2014 men's saber NCAA Championship. Streets became the 13th individual champion for the Nittany Lions in program history.
In the team race, the Nittany Lions were neck and neck with Princeton throughout much of the competition but started to pull away by the end of day three. Penn State sealed off the win late Sunday morning.
"I feel fantastic, absolutely fantastic," said interim head coach Wes Glon. "I'm proud of the team and they were so determined to win and they did. I'm really proud of the kids."
Streets held the number one spot in the men's saber event heading into the final four. After advancing to the finals against St. John's Ferenc Valkai, Streets toppled Valkai and became champion. Senior Adrian Bak (Franklin Lakes, N.J.) finished the day 6th.
In the men's epee competition, freshman Conor Shepard (Colleyville, Texas) finished tenth while sophomore Yasser Mahmoud (Quincy, Mass.) completed the day 19th.
In the men's foil competition, sophomore Nobuo Bravo (San Francisco, Calif.) and senior David Willette (Lafayette, Calif.) took the number three and four spot in the final four. Bravo tied for third. Willette advanced to the foil final against Notre Dame's Gerek Meinhardt but fell to the Fighting Irish and brought home second place.
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