LA JOLLA, Calif. – Throughout the summer, UC San Diego Athletics will be taking a look back at the greatest moments and accomplishments from the 2020-21 school year. Each week, a Throwback Thursday and Flashback Friday segment will be featured on UC San Diego Athletics' Instagram and Twitter accounts.
On this Throwback Thursday, UC San Diego Athletics is highlighting the fencing team's historic 2021 campaign.
The season was drastically shortened due to the pandemic, but that didn't stop the Tritons from accomplishing several program firsts and bests.
In early March at Air Force in Colorado, the Triton men and women won
Western Fencing Conference team championships. It was the first time in program history that both squads earned titles in the same season.
Next, UC San Diego qualified a full team of 12 for the National Collegiate Championships, another first for the Tritons. At Penn State in late March, UC San Diego placed seventh of 19 teams, the Tritons' best-ever finish at Nationals. Three fencers won All-America honors including junior
Benjamin Hadler (10th in Foil), sophomore
Vedran Markota (9th in Epee), and senior
Emma Zmurk (11th in Epee).
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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 II and III 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.
