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THREE TEAMS RECEIVE MAXIMUM 12 SPOTS INTO 2020 NCAA FENCING CHAMPIONSHIP FIELD
Perennial title contender Notre Dame joins two others – regional rival Ohio State and Ivy League power Princeton – with a dozen entries into 2020 NCAAs; defending champ Columbia joins surging Harvard with 11 bids (St. John’s with 10).
RELEASE: March 10, 2020
Contact: Pete LaFleur (editor@collegefencing360.com)
> 2020 NCAA Live Results (link to be added; updated after each round)
** Note – scroll down on this page for assorted lists, notes and history pertaining to the NCAA Fencing Championship, and in particular the 2020 NCAAs (additional data and notes to be added). Shorter, specific details blog posts will be coming here on CF360 throughout the 2020 NCAAs, highlighting certain bonus notes. … Also note that various photos will be added to this page, time permitting. … And be sure to follow as well via Twitter, at @CF360updates.
2020 Postseason Portal (links to be added)
2020 NCAA Result Links (March 19–22; Detroit, NI):
NCAA Championships (HTML; updated several times daily, after each round)
NCAA Results (PDF), after: Day–1 | Day–2 | Day–3 | Day–4
Official NCAA Release (2020 NCAA qualifiers)
2020 NCAA Regional Results:
Northeast | Mid-Atlantic | Midwest | West
Three teams – Notre Dame, Ohio State and Princeton – received the maximum 12 individual qualifiers for the 2020 NCAA Combined Men’s and Women’s Fencing Championship, to be held March 19–22 in Detroit. It’s rare for a team with fewer than 12 entrants to win the NCAA title – that’s happened only once (ND, back in 2005) – but defending champ Columbia and surging Harvard (both with 11 entrants) will take their shot at making history.
(A full listing of the 144 entrants in the 2020 NCAAs in included at the bottom of this page, which also includes an assortment of overview notes; more notes to be added later in the week)
In the 20 previous years of the NCAA Combined Men’s and Women’s Fencing Championship (since 2000), only once has a team has won the national title with fewer than 12 fencers: in 2005, when 11-fencer Notre Dame (and runner-up Ohio State, for that matter) both topped the lone 12-fencer team that year, third-place finisher St. John’s.
If one of the 11-bid teams (Columbia or Harvard) somehow manages to outscore all four of the 12-bid teams en route to the 2020 title, that team will have bucked significant mathematical odds. Columbia qualified only one men’s epeeist, while Harvard has only one women’s foil qualifier. St. John’s is the only other program with double-digit entrants (10; only one each in men’s and women’s sabre).
Beyond the six teams with double-digit qualifiers, Penn State is next with nine entrants in the 2020 NCAAs (one each in men’s foil, men’s sabre and women’s epee). The University of Pennsylvania is next with eight NCAA qualifiers (five men; three women). Duke (2 MF-2 ME-1 MS-1 WF-1 WS) and Yale (1 MF-1 ME-1 MS-2 WE-1 WF-1 WS) both feature seven total entrants in the 2020 NCAAs.
Only four teams qualified the maximum six men’s fencers: the three teams with 12 total entrants, plus Harvard … while Columbia joins the three 12-bid teams with the max. six women’s qualifiers. Four teams have five women’s qualifiers: Temple (which does not sponsor a men’s team), Harvard, St. John’s and Penn State. And these are the teams with five men’s qualifiers: St. John’s, Penn and Duke.
Among schools that sponsor only women’s fencing on the varsity level, two others (in addition to Temple) have qualified three-plus fencers into the 2020 NCAA field: Cornell and Northwestern (each with two foilists and one epeeist).
All told, 26 different varsity programs have qualified fencers for the 2020 NCAas.
This marks the sixth straight year that Notre Dame has earned the maximum 12 NCAA entrants, while Columbia’s streak of five straight 12-bid seasons has come to an end. Coincidentally, those teams account for each of the five previous NCAA team champions: Columbia in 2015 and ’16, followed by Notre Dame in 2017 and ’18, and then Columbia in ’18. ND’s title in 2017 prevented Columbia from becoming the first program since 2000 to win three consecutive NCAA fencing championships. Columbia returned the favor in 2019, by denying ND a three-peat. The 2018 championship marked Notre Dame’s fifth NCAA title in a 16-year span (also ’03, ’05 and ’11).
The annual 144-fencer field (24 each in men’s foil/epee/sabre, and women’s foil/epee/sabre) features fencers from 26 total schools, including four teams with five each: Temple (referenced earlier) along with the West Region trio of Air Force (two men’s epee & women’s sabre; one men’s foil) … UC San Diego (two men’s sabre; one men’s foil, men’s epee & women’s epee) … and Stanford (one in each men’s weapon, plus women’s foil & epee).
The NYU men have qualified four fencers (two sabre; one foil & epee). In addition to Cornell and Northwestern, programs qualifying three fencers include North Carolina (one men’s foil, men’s sabre & women’s foil) and Boston College (1 MF–1 MS–1 WE).
The balance of the 144-fencer field includes: a pair of Brandeis women’s sabre fencers … two from NJIT (women’s foil & epee) … and five with a single entrant: Brown women’s sabre; Hunter men’s epee; Incarnate women’s foil; MIT women’s sabre; and Wayne State men’s sabre.
• Competition Format – All fencers compete in a round-robin format of 23 five-touch bouts, spread out over two days (women on Thur.-Fri., March 19-20; followed by the men on the weekend). The team scoring is simple – with each individual victory counting as one point to the team total. The top-four finishers in each weapon will contend for individual titles (women on Friday afternoon; men Sunday), with 15-touch semifinals and title bouts. Those closing individual bouts do not factor into the team point totals.
>> 2020 NCAA Fencing Championship Entrants: <<
12 – Notre Dame, Ohio State & Princeton
11 – Columbia (1 men’s epee)
Harvard (1 women’s foil)
10 – St. John’s (1 men’s sabre & women’s sabre)
9 – Penn State (1 men’s foil, men’s sabre & women’s epee)
8 – Penn (1 men’s foil & women’s foil; no women’s sabre)
7 – Duke (2 MF–2 ME–1 MS–1 WF–1 WS)
Yale (1 MF–1 ME–1 MS–2 WE–1 WF–1 WS)
5 – Air Force (1 MF–2 ME–2 WS)
UC San Diego (1 MF–1 ME–2 MS–1 WE)
Stanford (1 MF–1 ME–1 MS–1 WF–1 WE)
Temple* (1 WF–2 WE–2 WS)
4 – NYU (1 MF–1 ME–2 MS)
3 – Boston College (1 MF–1 MS–1 WE)
Cornell* (2 WF–1 WE)
North Carolina (1 MF–1 MS–1 WF)
Northwestern* (2 WF–1 WE)
2 – Brandeis (2 WS)
NJIT (1 MF–1 WS)
1 – Brown (women’s sabre)
Hunter (men’s epee)
Incarnate Word (women’s foil)
MIT (women’s sabre)
Wayne State (men’s sabre)
* = these schools sponsor only women’s varsity fencing
notes: in addition to the ND, OSU and Princeton men, Harvard also qualified the max. six fencers, as did the Columbia women.
_______
• Most NCAA Championship Qualifiers Over Past 6 Years(2015–20; max. 12 per year, or 72 total):
72 – Notre Dame Dame
71 – Columbia (11 in 2020)
66 – Ohio State (10-11-11-12-10-12)
63 – Harvard (10-9-11-10-12-12)
62 – Penn State (11-10-10-10-12-9)
61 – Princeton (11-12-11-9-6-12)
60 – St. John’s (11-12-8-9-10-10)
52 – Penn (8-8-11-10-7-8)
44 – Duke (7-6-7-7-10-7)
40 – Yale (3-4-8-8-10-7)
40 – Stanford (6-7-9-7-6-5)
28 – NYU (2-5-7-6-4-4)
24 – Northwestern* (6-4-2-4-5-3)
22 – UC San Diego (1-4-2-5-5-5)
20 – Air Force (6-1-1-4-3-5)
19 – Temple* (2-4-2-3-3-5)
19 – NJIT (4-6-3-3-1-2)
18 – Cornell* (3-4-3-2-3-3)
16 – Wayne State (4-3-4-2-2-1)
11 – Boston College (2-2-2-1-1-3)
11 – North Carolina (1-2-1-1-3-3)
10 – Brown (5-1-1-1-1-1)
9 – Incarnate Word (0-1-2-2-3-1)
8 – Sacred Heart (4-3-0-1-0-0)
5 – MIT (2-0-1-1-0-1)
3 – Fairleigh Dickinson* (0-0-1-1-1-0)
2 – Stevens Tech (’15 & ’18), Detroit (’17 & ’18) & Brandeis (’20)
1 – Lawrence (’16), Vassar (’17), Johns Hopkins (’18) & Hunter (’20)
* = schools that sponsor only women’s fencing
>> 33 of the 44 schools that currently sponsor varsity fencing have sent at least one fencer to the NCAAs during the past six seasons (2015-20), all but: Cleveland State, Drew, Haverford, Lafayette & Yeshiva, along with six that sponsor only women’s varsity fencing: CCNY, Denison, Long Island, Tufts, Wagner & Wellesley.
Recent teams qualifying the max. 12 NCAA entrants:
• 2020 – 3 … Notre Dame, Ohio State & Princeton (winner TBD)
• 2019 – 4 … Columbia, Harvard, Notre Dame & Penn State
• 2018 – 3 … Columbia, Notre Dame & Ohio State
• 2017 – 2 … Columbia and Notre Dame
• 2016 – 2 … Columbia and Notre Dame
• 2015 – 2 … Columbia and Notre Dame
• 2014 – 3 … Ohio State, Penn State & Princeton
• 2013 – 2 … Notre Dame and Princeton
• 2012 – 5 … Harvard, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Princeton & St. John’s
• 2011 – 3 … Notre Dame Ohio State & Princeton
• 2010 – 5 … Harvard, Notre Dame, Penn State, Princeton & St. John’s
• 2009 – 3 … Penn State, Notre Dame & Ohio State
• 2008 – 4 … Columbia, Ohio State, Notre Dame & St. John’s
• 2007 – 3 … Columbia, Penn State & St. John’s
• 2006 – 3 … Harvard, Penn State & Notre Dame
• 2005 – 1 … St. John’s (finished 3rd, behind 11-fencer teams ND & OSU)
• 2004 – 2 … Ohio State and Penn State
• 2003 – 2 … Notre Dame and Ohio State
• 2002 – 2 … Notre Dame and Penn State
• 2001 – 2 … Notre Dame and St. John’s
• 2000 – 4 … Notre Dame, Penn State & Stanford
bold = won NCAA title (ND won in 2005, with 11 fencers)
italics = runner-up (OSU was 2nd in 2005, with 11 fencers, and
again in 2016 with only 11 … while Penn State similarly has finished 2nd four
times with only 11 fencers: 2001, ’03, ’11 and ’15 … and back in the first year
of the six-weapon format, 2000, St. John’s finished as runner-up with 11
fencers, a feat that SJU replicated in 2002).
• ALL-TIME NCAA TEAM CHAMPIONS:
>> During Combined Men’s/Women’s Championship era (1990–2019):
13 – Penn State (90-91-95-96-97-98-99-00-02-07-09-10-14)
6 – Notre Dame (94-03-05-11-17-18)
5 – Columbia (92-93-15-16-19)3 – Ohio State (04-08-12)
1 – St. Johns (2001), Harvard (2006) and Princeton (2013)
… from 1994-2003, PSU or ND won the title every year not 2001 (SJU) … prior to Harvard in 2006, only five schools had won titles in the combined era (PSU, Columbia, ND, SJU and OSU), with Princeton in 2013 then becoming only the seventh team on this list.
>> All Eras NCAA Fencing Team Titles
(men ’41-’42 & ’47-’89; women ’82-’89; combined ’90-’19):
16 – Columbia (men: 51-52-54*-55-63-65-68-71*-87-88-89; combined: 92-93-15-16-19)
14 – Penn State (women: 83; combined: 90-91-95-96-97-98-99-00-02-07-09-10-14)
12 – NYU (men’s titles: 47-54*-57-60-61-66-67-70-71*-73-74-76)
10 – Notre Dame (men: 77-78-86; women 87; combined: 94-03-05-11-17-18)
10 – Wayne State (men: 75-79-80-82-83-84-85; women: 82-88-89)
4 – Ohio State (men 42; combined 04-08-12)
4 – Penn (men 53-69-81; women 86)
3 – Navy# (men’s titles: 50-59-62)
2 – Princeton (men 64; combined 2013)
2 – Yale (women 84-85)
2 – Illinois# (men 56-58)
1 – Harvard (combined 2006)
1 – St. Johns (combined 2001)
1 – Detroit (men 1972)
1 – Army# (men 1949*)
1 – Rutgers# (men 1949*)
1 – CCNY# (men 1948)
1 – Northwestern# (men 1941)
# = no longer sponsor varsity men’s fencing
>> the 86 total titles listed above include three shared men’s titles: Columbia and NYU in both 1954 and ’71, plus Army and Rutgers in ’49
• WINNING WITH FEWER THAN 12 – It is not unprecedented, but it is rare, for a team with 11 entrants to win the NCAA Fencing title over a team with the full 12 … and it’s certainly more conceivable when there’s only one or two teams with 12 (as opposed to three-plus with the max. entrants, as there have been in recent years).
Most notably, such an “underdog title” happened in 2005 when Notre Dame’s 11-fencer contingent rallied to beat another 11-fencer team, Ohio State, in a 173-171 thriller that played out in Houston (St. John’s had been the only team to qualify 12 but faded and finished third, at 162). That 2005 NCAA format closed with two days of the women’s bouts, as Notre Dame surged past OSU (which had only 5 women’s entrants) – with the ND six-fencer contingent comprised entirely of fencers who competed in at least one NCAA individual final during their respective careers (foil–Alicja Kryczalo and Andrea Ament; epee–Kerry Walton and Amy Orlando; sabre–Mariel Zagunis and Valerie Providenza).
Over the past 15 seasons (2006-20), there has been an average of 3.2 teams with the maximum 12 entrants at the NCAA Championships – including five in 2010 and ’12 (four in ’08 and ’16; three in ’06, ’07, ’09, ’11, ’14, ’18 and ’19; and a low of two in 2013, ‘15 and ’17).
In the first 20 years of six-weapon competition at the NCAAs (2000-19),
an average of 2.9 teams have received the maximum 12 NCAA qualifiers. There
have been two years with five 12-entrant teams (2010 and ’12) … three others
with four 12-qualifier squads (2000, ’08 and ’16) … seven different years with
three 12-entrant teams (2006-07-09-11-14-18-19) … seven with a pair of 12-bid
teams (2001-02-03-04-13-15-17) … and only one year with a single 12-entrant team,
in 2005.
| >> 2020 NCAA FENCING QUALIFIERS (sorted by weapon): • MEN’S FOIL (24 entrants include: 8 Northeast Region auto. bids … 7 Mid-Atlantic auto. bids … 4 Midwest auto. bids … 3 West auto. bids … plus at-large bids from Northeast & Mid-Atlantic) Notre Dame (2) – Andrew Machovec & Marcello Olivares Ohio State (2) – Diego Cervantes & Nathan Wriedt Princeton (2) – Samuel Barmann & Julian Knodt * Columbia (2) – Sidarth Kumbla & Sam Moelis * Harvard (2) – Kenji Bravo & Geoffrey Tourette * St. John’s (2) – Jan Jurkiewicz & Maxime Tarasiewicz Duke (2) – Eoin Gronningsater & Brycen Rushing * Penn State (1) – Sebastiano Bicego Penn (1) –Michael Li Yale (1) – Maxwell Yee Air Force (1) – Nester Levin UC San Diego (1) – Benjamin Hadler Stanford (1) – Lucas Orts NYU (1) – Zohaib Mannan Boston College (1) – Bin Huang North Carolina (1) – James Mulligan NJIT (1) – Thomas Manley * Several schools had more than two men’s foilists fall within the NCAA qualification standard, with others including: Duke’s Finn Hossfeld & Jonathan Schwarztman (meaning the Devils had four total qualifiers), along with Harvard’s Duncan Rheingans-Yoo, Columbia’s Ashton Daniel and Princeton’s Cameron Levy. _______________ • MEN’S EPEE (24 entrants include: 8 Northeast Region auto. bids … 6 Mid-Atlantic auto. bids … 4 Midwest auto. bids … 4 West auto. bids … plus two at-large bids from Mid-Atlantic) Notre Dame (2) – Harrison Kimatian & Valentin Matveev Ohio State (2) – Bence Bende & Henry Lange * Princeton (2) – ME Finn Miller & Wesley Yuan Harvard (2) – Andrew Lee & Adrien Sandler St. John’s (2) – Nathan Vaysberg* & Ivan Zagoruiko Penn State (2) – Elias Cole & Jonathan Piskovatskov Penn (2) – Emon Daroian & Eliot Herbst Duke (2) – Daniel Campbell & Bowen Wang Air Force (2) – Matthew Han & Stephen Kimatian Columbia (1) – Cedric Mecke Yale (1) – Safi Haider UC San Diego (1) – Ziad Khayat Stanford (1) – Robin Cheong NYU (1) – Samuel Bekker Hunter (1) – Anton Chmut * SJU has three men’s epeeists within the NCAA qualification standard and opted to send Vaysberg to the NCAAs (rather than Shomari Moore) … OSU similarly opted for Bence Bende instead of Matthew Comes. _______________ • MEN’S SABRE (24 entrants include: 9 Northeast Region auto. bids … 7 Mid-Atlantic auto. bids … 4 Midwest auto. bids … 2 West auto. bids … plus at-large bids from Midwest & West) Notre Dame (2) – Alessandro Contreras & Jared Smith Ohio State (2) – Domenik Koch & Roscoe Swartz Princeton (2) – Daniel Kwak & Nicholas No Columbia (2) – Andrew Doddo & Christopher Walker * Harvard (2) – Filip Dolegiewicz & Mitchell Saron * Penn (2) – Steven Lin & Raymond Zhao UC San Diego (2) – Shawn Kim & Justin Park NYU (2) – Brian Kim & Darren Yen St. John’s (1) – Sal Centanni Penn State (1) – Inti Farfan-Bayerl Duke (1) – Soravit Kitsiriboon Yale (1) – Nicolas Del Vecchio Stanford (1) – Noah Matricciani Boston College (1) – Spencer Kuldell North Carolina (1) – Beni Rabinowitz Wayne State (1) – Clement Perrier * Two schools had more than two men’s sabre fencers fall within the NCAA qualification standard, with others including: Harvard’s Erwin Cai and Columbia’s Josef Cohen. _______________ • WOMEN’S FOIL (24 entrants include: 8 Northeast Region auto. bids … 7 Mid-Atlantic auto. bids … 5 Midwest auto. bids … 2 West auto. bids … plus at-large bids from Mid-Atlantic & Midwest) Notre Dame (2) – Stefani Deschner & Morgan Partridge * Ohio State (2) – Gabriela Cecchini & Camilla Rivano Princeton (2) – Morgan Lee & May Tieu Columbia (2) – Natalie Minerik & Ester Schreiber * St. John’s (2) – Katarzyna Lachman & Arianna Pappone Penn State (2) – Lodovica Bicego & Isabella Zuzulo Cornell (2) – Ying Cao & Madeleine Nishimura Northwestern (2) – Anna Biasco & Sarah Filby Harvard (1) – Cindy Liu Penn (1) – Grace Hoa Duke (1) – Zoe Superville Yale (1) – Emme Zhou Stanford (1) – Madeline Liao Temple (1) – Aryana Abtin North Carolina (1) – Sophia Mandour Incarnate Word (1) – Oleksandra Rebchunovska * Two schools had more than two women’s foilists fall within the NCAA qualification standard, with others including: Notre Dame’s Samantha Viqueira and Columbia’s Rachel Zhang. _______________ • WOMEN’S EPEE (24 entrants include: 9 Northeast Region auto. bids … 7 Mid-Atlantic auto. bids … 4 Midwest auto. bids … 2 West auto. bids … plus at-large bids from Northeast & Midwest) Notre Dame (2) – Miriam Grady & Amanda Sirico Ohio State (2) – Alexanne Verret & Montserrat Viveros Princeton (2) – Lola Constantino & Sofia Komar Columbia (2) – Anne Cebula & Giana Vierheller * Harvard (2) – Cindy Gao & Saanchi Kukadia St. John’s (2) – Nicole Gavrilko & Andrea Vittoria Rizzi Penn (2) – Jessica Liang & Vanessa Dib Yale (2) – Joy Ma & Shirley Wang Temple (2) – Margherita Calderaro & Naomi Ross Penn State (1) – Barbara Vanbenthuysen UC San Diego (1) – Amelia Harrison Stanford (1) – Hanna Lee Boston College (1) – Rylie Rueda Cornell (1) – Megan Eno Northwestern (1) – Julia Falinska * Columbia’s Karolina Nixon also fell within the NCAA qualification standard. _______________ • WOMEN’S SABRE (24 entrants include: 9 Northeast Region auto. bids … 7 Mid-Atlantic auto. bids … 4 Midwest auto. bids … 2 West auto. bids … plus at-large bids from Northeast & Mid-Atlantic) Notre Dame (2) – Wara Linder & Regina O’Brien Ohio State (2) – Sarah Merza & Julieta Toledo Princeton (2) – Alexis Anglade & Ryan Jenkins Columbia (2) – Violet Michel & Daniella Timofeyev Harvard (2) – Veronica Czyzewski & Marta Lasota Penn State (2) – Zara Moss & Kelli Wozniak Air Force (2) – Leanne Singleton-Comfort & Erin Shea Temple (2) – Malia Hee & Kerry Plunkett Brandeis (2) – Jessica Morales & Maggie Shealy Yale (1) – Sydney Hirsch St. John’s (1) – Karolina Cieslar Duke (1) – Alexandra Gorman NJIT (1) – Dorottya Berczy Brown (1) – Casey Chan MIT (1) – Kristen Palmer | |