LA JOLLA Calif. - The University of California San Diego will field a full team of 12 competitors for the first time ever as the NCAA National Collegiate Fencing Championships get underway this week. 

Nationals are slated for March 25-28 at the Bryce Jordan Center in University Park, Pa., with Penn State serving as the host.

UC San Diego will have two men and two women competing in each of the three weapons (Epee, Foil, Saber). The Triton roster includes three freshmen, two sophomores, four juniors, and three seniors. UC San Diego is one of just three institutions fielding a full team as Notre Dame and Penn State also have 12 qualifiers.

All action can be followed with live video and live results. In addition, all finals will be broadcast live on ESPN3.

Here's a look at UC San Diego's 12 Nationals qualifiers.

Name	Weapon	Year	Hometown/High School	Major
Tean Brooks	Epee	Freshman	Boulder, Colo./Boulder	Marine Biology
Ziad Khayat	Epee	Senior	San Jose, Calif./Zephyr Academy	Physics
Vedran Markota	Epee	Sophomore	Zagreb, Croatia/Gimnazija Zagreb	Biology
Emma Zmurk	Epee	Senior	Alameda, Calif./Alameda	Developmental Science
Benjamin Hadler	Foil	Junior	San Francisco, Calif./Lowell	Biology
Erica Kuen	Foil	Junior	Palo Alto, Calif./Henry M. Gunn	Cognitive Science
Konami Masui	Foil	Senior	Torrance, Calif./North	Communication
Lawrence Song	Foil	Freshman	Mountain View, Calif./The King's Academy	Cognitive Science
Janna Aboudaher	Saber	Freshman	Houston, Texas/St. Agnes Academy	Aerospace Engineering
Justin Cho	Saber	Sophomore	Dallas, Texas/Academy of Math & Science	Electrical Engineering
Julia Hill	Saber	Junior	San Clemente, Calif./San Clemente	Environmental Systems
Justin Park	Saber	Junior	Wayne, N.J./Wayne Hills	Neurobiology

ESSENTIALS
• 2021 NCAA National Collegiate Fencing Championships
• March 25-28, 2021
• Bryce Jordan Center | Penn State University | University Park, Pa.
• Championship Central
• Live Video
• Live Results
• Event Program


The Bryce Jordan Center at Penn State University

THE SCHEDULE
All times PDT
Thursday, March 25
• 6 a.m. PDT - Men's Epee Rounds 1-3
• 8 a.m. - Men's Foil Rounds 1-3
• 10:30 a.m. - Men's Saber Rounds 1-3

Friday, March 26
• 6 a.m. - Men's Epee/Foil/Saber Rounds 4-5
• 10 a.m. - Men's Epee/Foil/Saber Semifinals and Finals

Saturday, March 27
• 6 a.m. - Women's Epee Rounds 1-3
• 8 a.m. - Women's Foil Rounds 1-3
• 10:30 a.m. - Women's Saber Rounds 1-3

Sunday, March 28
• 6 a.m. - Women's Epee/Foil/Saber Rounds 4-5
• 10 a.m. - Women's Epee/Foil/Saber Semifinals and Finals

THE TEAMS
• Air Force
• Boston College
• Cleveland State
• Drew (men only)
• Duke
• Incarnate Word
• Johns Hopkins (women only)
• Lawrence
• Long Island (women only)
• NJIT
• North Carolina
• Northwestern (women only)
• Notre Dame
• Penn State
• Sacred Heart
• St. John's (NY)
• Stanford
• Temple (women only)
• UC San Diego
• Wayne State (men only)

THE FORMAT
Each weapon features 24 fencers competing in a round-robin format of five-touch bouts (five rounds). After 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 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 during round-robin competition.

FROM HEAD COACH JUAN IGNACIO CALDERON
• Getting a full team of 12 qualifiers is a great recognition of the resilience and hard work of our team and the Western Fencing Conference as a whole. This has been a unique year for everybody. What really made the difference is that we were able to hold on to a thin thread of hope from the moment UC San Diego decided to not give up on athletics this season, but to make decisions based on science and research.

• Nobody promised us that we could practice regularly, let alone compete, but we all teamed up with the University and the Athletic Department to hold on to that hope. To me, that is true leadership and we were inspired by it.

• As part of our Nationals team, we have two fencers, Ben (Hadler) and Ziad (Khayat), that qualified for the third time and they will bring extensive experience to Pennsylvania. We also have Emma (Zmurk) and Konami (Masui) who qualified for a second time - the first time when they were freshmen and now as seniors. Justin (Park) qualified last season but as the event was canceled, he will get his opportunity to compete this year.

• We always take pride on qualifying freshmen to Nationals as it shows the growing potential of the team. To me, it is remarkable that Janna Aboudaher, Tean Brooks, and Lawrence Song did so well being brand new in such a challenging environment. All three of them will be key pillars of the team moving forward.

• Fencing at the core is an individual sport, but it is in college where fencers truly become teammates. We now have the depth to compete as a team and it clearly showed this season. We will compete against the top teams in the country. They are more experienced and highly-ranked, but we are holding on strongly to our thread, this time not of hope but ambition. I know we are going to do very well.

HOW WE GOT HERE
Nationals qualifiers from the West Region were based on results from the West Invitational and Western Fencing Conference Team Championships, held March 6-7 at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. In addition, recommendations from coaches were taken into consideration. Historically, fencers around the nation qualify through a regional, but none were held this season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

REPEAT PERFORMANCES
For five Tritons, it will be at least their second time qualifying for the National Collegiate Championships;  Benjamin Hadler (2019, 2020, 2021), Ziad Khayat (2019, 2020, 2021), Konami Masui (2018, 2021), Justin Park (2020, 2021), and Emma Zmurk (2018, 2021).

RECENT NC CHAMPIONSHIPS MEMORIES
• 2020: UC San Diego earned five automatic qualifiers for the National Collegiate Championships - Benjamin Hadler (Foil), Ziad Khayat (Epee), Shawn Kim (Saber), and Justin Park (Saber) for the men and Amelia Harrison (Epee) for the women. Nationals were set for March 19-22 in Detroit, but on March 12, exactly one week before the event was to begin, the NCAA canceled its remaining winter and spring championships due to the pandemic.

• 2019: Five Tritons competed at Nationals, which were hosted by Cleveland State. For the men, Ziad Khayat (Epee) finished seventh, Benjamin Hadler (Foil) took 12th, and Syed Adam Emir Putra (Saber) was 23rd. Khayat's finish was the best ever for a Triton male at Nationals. Both he and Hadler earned All-America honors for placing among the top-12 in their 24-fencer fields. The women also boasted an All-American as Emily Beihold (Epee) was 12th. In addition, Miya Coimbra (Saber) placed 22nd. As a team, UC San Diego finished 13th of 26 schools, matching its best placing in program history (2008 with six qualifiers). Columbia won the team championship with 178 points. Penn State (166) finished second and Notre Dame (165), the 2018 champion, was a close third. UC San Diego totaled 48 points.

• 2018: Emma Zmurk (Epee) took 17th and Konami Masui (Foil) was 24th. In addition, Emily Beihold placed 20th. All three Triton women were freshmen. David Hadler (Foil), garnered All-America honors by placing 11th, while Zach Kravitz (Epee) took 15th. UC San Diego was 14th of 27 teams.

CHAMPIONS X 2
For the first time ever, UC San Diego won Western Fencing Conference (WFC) titles on both the women's and men's sides as the league championships were held March 6-7 at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. All four WFC programs were competing including Air Force, Incarnate Word, and Stanford, along with UC San Diego. The Triton women continued their dominance in the conference, winning their sixth championship in the last seven years by defeating Air Force (21-6), Incarnate Word (25-2), and Stanford (20-7). They also took home league titles in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2020. It was the first-ever WFC championship for the Triton men. In 2020, they finished second, just one touch behind Air Force. This year, they took a 17-10 victory against the Falcons to go along with wins against Incarnate Word (20-7) and Stanford (25-2).


Scenes from the 2021 WFC Championships in Colorado

------

About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions III and II and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.

Return To Sport… Safely
In order for UC San Diego scholar-athletes to be permitted to return to training and competition safely and within federal, state, local, and university guidelines, the athletic department implemented a number of measures designed to complement and enhance the university's highly-successful Return To Learn program. Notable actions include being physically distanced when practical, including during out-of-season training sessions; wearing masks, except when undergoing physically strenuous exercise; and maintaining proper hygiene. Athletes, coaches, and staff are testing at a higher frequency than the campus population, teams adhere to CDC, NCAA, and Big West Conference guidelines, and department officials participate in regular meetings with conference and university-affiliated physicians and the UC San Diego emergency operations staff.