UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State men’s and women’s fencing teams start the new year at the Dake Michanik Invitational at the University of Pennsylvania, from Saturday, January 17 to Sunday, January 18 in Philadelphia, Pa.
Fencing foil on the men’s side will be Spencer Burke, Alessio Fukuda, Dusan Zeljkovic, Yaroslav Muruhin, Tit Nam Cheng, Matthew Gonzalez and Julian Chin.
Last time out at the Brandeis Invitational, Burke earned eight victories, including going undefeated against Haverford with Fukuda. Fukuda, along with Gonzalez, went undefeated against Wheaton.
On the women’s side, Samantha Catantan, Eden De La Cruz, Thea Fernandes and Clarisse Tan will fence foil.
De La Cruz, Catantan and Fernandes all went undefeated against Haverford last time out. Catantan finished the competition with three undefeated performances with four additional victories.
Representing the men’s saber team is Neil Lilov, Tyson Deck, Carlos Fernando Chacon and Michael Nil.
Lilov looks to continue a strong outing last time out at Brandeis University, where he went undefeated four times, including an undefeated performance against Harverford, with two additional victories. Chacon and Deck also earned undefeated records with additional victories throughout the competition.
Fencing saber on the women’s team is Emma Holmes, Eunyu Kim, Eve Scott, Amelia Baker, Stephanie Jen and Mia Novick.
Junior Kim looks to build off an outstanding season so far, earning three undefeated victories last time out at Brandeis. Scott and Kim went undefeated against Haverford, with additional undefeated victories from Novick and Baker.
Men’s epee will be represented by Joshua Yavorovskiy, Zachary Suico, Sultan Hassan, Tim Xu and Mohammed Yassen.
Hassan, Yavorovskiy and Bonomo all earned undefeated victories at Brandeis with additional victories from Suico and Ivakimov.
On the women's side, Yuna Tamura, Lena Gyenes and Sophia Abashidze will fence epee.
Last time out, Tamura went undefeated with additional victories from Gyenes and Abashidze.
Between Saturday and Sunday, the Nittany Lions will take on Haverford, Cornell, Sacred Heart University, Duke, Ohio State University, Yale, NJIT and FDU at the Dave Michanik Invitational. Competition for Penn State begins at 9:45 a.m. on Saturday against Haverford.
FOLLOW THE NITTANY LIONS
Follow along with the Penn State Fencing team on our social media pages on Facebook (PennStateFen) and X/Instagram (@pennstatefen). Live updates during competitions regarding meet day information and other important notes will be posted on X.