Fencing Sits in Second Place After Day 1 of NCAA Championships
3/22/2018 4:46:00 PM | Fencing
Columbia Fencing sits in second place after Day 1
State College, Pa. — Columbia fencing sits in second place after the first three rounds of competition today at NCAA Championships.
Columbia and Notre Dame are actually tied with 56 bouts won, but the Fighting Irish hold a +79 indicator in front of Columbia +66. The indicator is only used in a tiebreaker situation when the two schools have won the same number of bouts.
"We had some great performances by some fencers and we know that we could do a lot better," Coach Michael Aufrichtig said. "To be basically tied for first place after today is a good sign and we will come back stronger tomorrow."
Current standings:
1. Notre Dame - 56 (+79 IND)
2. Columbia - 56 (+66 IND)
3. Penn State - 52 (+53 IND)
The women's foil duo of Sylvie Binder and Iman Blow went a combined 24-6 on day as both foilists tallied 12-3 records on the day. Binder and Blow sit at 2 and 3 in the individual standings, respectively.
In round 3, Binder defeated Notre Dame's Sabrina Massialas and Elyssa Kleiner en route to a perfect 4-0 pool. Blow and Binder will fence Ohio State's foil fencers in Round 5 tomorrow.
Katie Angen came out firing in her first pool, defeating Ohio State's Alexanne Verret and Emma von Dadelszen, as well as Notre Dame's Dasha Yefremenko en route to a 5-2 tally. She remained hot all day long, going 12-3 on the day and is in third place in the individual standings.
Lena Johnson put together an impressive outing in her first day of NCAAs, going 9-6 for an 11th place standing. She ended the day with a big victory over Temple's Kerry Plunkeett, who the senior had lost to the past three years.
The women's portion of the team competition concludes tomorrow with rounds 4 and 5. The top four finishers in each weapon will advance to the individual semi-finals.
SCHEDULE
FRIDAY, MARCH 23
9 a.m. : Women's Foil / Epee / Sabre, rounds 4-5
1 p.m. : Women's semifinals and championship bouts
SATURDAY, MARCH 24
9 a.m. : Men's Foil, rounds 1-3
11 a.m. : Men's Epee, rounds 1-3
1:30 p.m. : Men's sabre, rounds 1-3
SUNDAY, MARCH 25
9 a.m. : Men's Foil / Epee / Sabre, rounds 4-5
1 p.m. : Men's semifinals and championship bouts
ABOUT THE NCAA NATIONAL COLLEGIATE FENCING CHAMPIONSHIP
The 2018 NCAA Fencing Championships will take place at Penn State University from March 22-25.
Fencers will compete in a round-robin format of five-touch bouts. After the round-robin, the top-four finishers in each weapon will fence in semifinal 15-touch bouts, with the winners fencing to determine first and second places, and the non-advancing fencers being awarded a tie for third place.
An institution's place finish in the championships will be based on points earned by each individual. A team will be awarded one point for each victory by its student-athletes for the duration of the championships.
A live feed of the semifinal and final bouts will be available on ESPN3 or via the WatchESPN app.
Live results from each round of action will be available throughout the entire weekend as well by clicking here.
