UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Nittany Lion fencing teams begin their postseason slate at Haverford College in Haverford, Pa. at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regional Championships on Saturday, March 7. The regional championships serve as the qualifier to send Penn State fencers to the National Collegiate Fencing Championship held from March 19-22 in South Bend, In.
IN THE RANKINGS
Going into postseason competition, the men’s fencing team wrapped up the regular season ranked No. 7.
COMPETITION SCHEDULE & LINEUP
Fencing teams from across the mid-Atlantic and south regions will compete against Penn State in the regional round of competition. The competition includes host school Haverford College, Wagner College, Princeton, Duke, the University of North Carolina, the University of Pennsylvania, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Stevens University, Drew University, Johns Hopkins University, Lafayette College, Fairleigh Dickinson University and Temple University.
Penn State will send a total of 24 fencers to the Mid-Atlantic and South Regional Championships at Haverford College.
Fencing foil for the men’s team is Tit Nam Cheng, Spencer Burke, Julian Chin, Alessio Fukuda and Yaroslav Muruhin.
Samantha Catantan, Eden De La Cruz, Thea Fernandes and Clarisse Tan will all fence foil for the women’s team.
On the men’s team, Mohamed Yassin, Zachary Suico, Tingwei Xu and Sultan Hassan will all fence epee.
Representing the women’s epee team are Allegra Cristofoletto, Yuna Tamura and Sophia Abashidze.
Neil Lilov, Carlos Fernando Chacon and Tyson Deck will fence saber for the men’s team.
On the women’s side, Eunyu Kim, Eve Scott, Steph Jen, Mia Novick and Amelia Baker will all fence saber.
LAST TIME ON THE STRIP
The Nittany Lions finished regular season competition at the Temple Invitational on Sunday, February 22 in Philadelphia.
Catantan is taking away an impressive 7-2 finish at the Temple Invitational into the regional championships. Catantan earned an undefeated performance against Johns Hopkins University in a women’s foil loss. During competition against the University of Pennsylvania, Catantan fenced undefeated for the second time in an 8-1 win. An additional victory for Catantan was against Temple University.
For the men’s epee team, Suico fenced 7-2 at the Temple Invitational to wrap up his senior regular season. Suico had 2-1 performances against Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pennsylvania. Suico’s performance against Johns Hopkins led the Penn State men’s epee team to a close 5-4 victory. In a 6-3 win against Stevens University, Suico fenced undefeated.
Cheng and Burke finished the competition with a 5-1 record for the men’s foil team. The men’s foil team fenced a perfect 9-0 against Johns Hopkins, featuring undefeated performances from both Cheng and Burke. In a later round against Stevens University, Burke and Cheng each fenced 2-1 to lead the Penn State men’s foil team to a 6-3 win.
Yassin finished the competition at Temple University with a 5-1 record. In the men’s epee win against Johns Hopkins, Yassin fenced undefeated. Yassin earned an additional win against the University of Pennsylvania in a loss for the men’s epee team.