UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State men’s and women’s fencing teams finished the first round of postseason competition at the Mid-Atlantic/South Regional Championships hosted at Haverford College on Saturday, March 7.
The Nittany Lions faced competition from schools across the Mid-Atlantic and South regions to compete for NCAA Championship qualification, including Haverford, Wagner, Princeton, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Lafayette, Temple, North Carolina, NJIT, Stevens, Drew, Fairleigh Dickinson and UPenn.
Qualifiers for the NCAA National Fencing Championship will be announced on Tuesday, March 10 on the NCAA website.
MEN’S EPEE
Men’s epee competed in the first round of competition. Senior Tingwei Xu led the Nittany Lions with a 6th place finish. Mohamed Yassin followed up Xu for Penn State with a 12th place finish, senior Zachary Suico came in 16th place and senior Sultan Hassan rounded out the men’s epee squad with a 21st place finish.
WOMEN’S EPEE
Penn State saw three Nittany Lions finish within the top ranks during the regional round of competition. Allegra Cristofoletto led Penn State in the women’s epee rankings with a 6th place finish. Freshman Yuna Tamura came in 22nd place and Sophia Abashidze earned a 27th place finish.
MEN’S FOIL
Two Nittany Lions finished within the top 10 for the men’s foil team. Tit Nam Cheng led the squad with a 4th place finish and Spencer Burke earned a 6th place finish. Julian Chin earned a 12th place finish, Yaroslav Muruhin finished in 17th overall and Alessio Fukuda’s 27th overall finish completed the rankings for Penn State men’s foil.
WOMEN’S FOIL
On the women’s side, Senior Samantha Catantan earned the highest overall place for the Nittany Lions, completing the regionals round of competition with a 4th place finish. Eden De La Cruz competed for a 20th overall finish, Thea Fernandes tied for 25th overall and senior Clarisse Tan finished in 30th overall.
MEN’S SABER
Senior Neil Lilov led the Penn State men’s saber team with a third-place finish overall. Freshman Tyson Deck earned a 22nd place finish with Carlos Fernando Chacon rounding out the men’s saber fencers with a 24th overall finish.
WOMEN’S SABER
For the women’s squad, Eunyu Kim carried her dominance from the regular season into the postseason, earning a second-place overall finish for the women’s saber team. Senior Steph Jen finished in 17th place and senior Mia Novick finished in 29th.
NEXT UP
Penn State will prepare for the NCAA National Fencing Championship that will be hosted in South Bend, In. at the University of Notre Dame. The championships will begin on Thursday, March 19 and finish on Sunday, March 22. The women will compete first on Thursday and Friday followed by the men on Saturday and Sunday.
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.