This past spring, the Penn State women's fencing team voted for a new captain to take over for the 2023-34 season and Samantha Catantan was elected by her teammates. While an injury suffered may keep her off the strips this season, she is firmly committed to having as great an impact as possible this year as captain, a veteran team leader, and a steady voice within the Penn State fencing family.
Catantan is a junior foilist from Quezon City, Philippines who earned All-American honors when she placed 3rd at the NCAA Championships in 2021. She has been a member of the Philippine National Fencing team since the age of 14. She had never even considered going to the United States for college, let alone with a Division 1 fencing scholarship, until meeting Penn State coaches and former Nittany Lion great Nonpatat Panchan (2003 NCAA National Champion in foil) at one of Panchan's training camps. Panchan is originally from Thailand and holds yearly camps in Malaysia.
"Growing up, it was never a plan to come here," Catantan said. "The only family member we knew who lived here in the United States was my uncle. When I was hesitating to accept my offer, he got a promotion and moved from Florida to New York. This made my mom more comfortable sending me so far away." Catantan described the recruiting process and this particular coincidence as being "destiny."
On May 8 of this year, Catantan journeyed back home to the Philippines for the summer. Four days later, on May 12, the unpredictable happened.
While competing at the 32nd Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia, during the individual foil semifinals, Catantan was in the middle of her parry when she heard something pop in her knee. Her initial instinct was to riposte, resulting in being rewarded a touch. She was winning 14-5. If she were to withdraw, she would take home bronze.
One point away from winning silver, she decided to go for it.
She won.
The medical team present at the tournament were only first responders, not doctors or athletic trainers. They had no formal training and could not assess her injury properly. Catantan's coach advised she not fence until they figure out what the injury was, settled for Silver and never got to fence a finals' rematch against Maxine Wong of Singapore. Wong eventually went on to win the gold medal.
Catantan stayed in Cambodia for four more days to watch her sister compete as one of the newest members of the Philippine National Fencing Team. This was their first international tournament together.
When Catantan returned home and visited the doctor, she was informed that she had torn her ACL. She had to do 3 weeks of physical therapy before undergoing surgery on June 9.
After a week of rest, physical therapy started. Catantan said, "Rehabbing my knee was annoying, but I enjoyed spending extra time with my family. Since I started fencing, I had never been home that much because I was always either at school or practice. I only really saw my parents in the morning or late at night."
Once she was cleared to travel, she embarked on a 32-hour trip from the Philippines back to State College with a stiff knee and limited function and flexibility.
"Adjusting back to school and practicing this semester has been really frustrating since I'm not able to do what I used to do" she said. I learned that I need to be patient with my workouts and with my recovery. I was really hard on myself the first few weeks and it's hard not being able to join the practices. As a captain, I feel like I'm not able to lead by example. I still show up every day even though I can't actually practice and try to teach them the importance of that."
Catantan's projected recovery is 10 months, depending on her progress. Her goal is to start practicing by January and to prepare for the Olympic qualifying event in April 2024.
