UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State men's and women's fencing teams began the post season Saturday at Drew University for the NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regionals. Here, they competed against fencers from Princeton, Johns Hopkins, Penn, Duke, North Carolina, Drew, Steven's (M), Temple (W), NJIT, Haverford and Lafayette.
In men's epee, Tingwei Xu came in 8th place with Devin Tafoya in 9th and Zachary Suico in 15th. Mitchel Bekker tied for 25th place with Ismael Chavez of Wagner College and Nicholas Glaz finished in 47th place. For the women, Jaclyn Khrol tallied a 4th place finish with Kateryna Chorniy in 7th and Axelle Wasiak in 10th.
Freshman Tit Nam Cheng led the Nittany Lions with an 8th place finish in men's foil. Spencer Burke came in 12th, Arwen Borowiak in 13th and Aidan Johnson in 21st place.
After spending the majority of the regular season out with injury, captain Samantha Catantan took 2nd place in women's foil out of 46 total participants. Arianna Proietti followed in 6th place, Eden De La Cruz in 24th, Thea Fernandes in 29thand Ariel Ratsep in 30th place.
Neil Lilov was the first-place finisher in men's sabre, topping 40 of the region's best. Kamar Skeete notched a 4th place finish with Nico Pope coming in 26th. Eunyu Kim led the ladies with a 4th place finish. Close behind came Ola Strzalkowski in 6th, Aurora Colter in 14th and Mia Novick in 18th place.
The NCAA committee will announce all NCAA Championship qualifiers on Tuesday, March 12 on NCAA.com. The NCAA Championship Tournament will be held at French Field House in Columbus, Ohio from March 21-24.
Penn State fans are encouraged to follow Penn State fencing via Twitter @pennstatefen, on Instagram @pennstatefen and on Penn State Fencing's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pennstatefencing.
