­COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – UC San Diego fencing squad wrapped up competition at the two-day Western Invitational against many of the top squads in the nation, hosted by Air Force on Saturday and Sunday.
 
The Tritons were joined on the strips by Air Force, Columbia, Incarnate Word, New Jersey Institute of Technology, North Carolina, Northwestern (women only), Ohio State, and Stanford.
 
On the men's side, the Tritons took four victories over the two days of competition. Vedran Markota went 14-9 over the weekend leading men's epee to a great win over No. 4 Harvard. Isaac Ive added his two victories to Markota's two as they took the victory. In men's saber, Jerry Pan led the team with a 12-8 record and Larry Song led men's foil for the Tritons with a 5-4 record.
 
On the women's side, UC San Diego took three victories from the field. Going 22-5 against Incarnate Word, women's foil went undefeated with saber going 6-3 and epee going 7-2. The victory over Incarnate Word was the only time the Tritons took all three weapons on both sides. Renee Zuhars went 13-6 in women's epee. The epee squad took a critical victory over No. 5 Ohio State when Zuhars and Mia Wu both went undefeated with three victories each. In women's saber, freshman Zara Fearns went undefeated with three victories against No. 9 Northwestern, and leading women's foil was Rafaella Gomes who went 10-15 over the weekend.
 
UC San Diego was coming off a packed weekend as host of the 26th BladeRunner Tournament at RIMAC Arena in La Jolla, California. Roughly 800 competitors took to the strips to compete in Division 1-A and Junior levels of men's and women's epee, foil, and saber. The Tritons posted seven podium finishes and 15 top-10 placings at the Division 1-A tier.

This is UC San Diego's second season competing as a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) member.

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"I am proud of the team performance at what is now widely recognized as one of the top meets of the season," said head coach Juan Ignacio Caldero. "We have to test ourselves against the best teams in the country to continue rising to the top. On the men's side, we beat the teams in our conference, and we are getting close to top teams like OSU and UNC."

Finishing with a narrow 12-15 defeat to No. 9 Northwestern, he commented, "on the women's side, the different squads delivered strong performances in different matches which led to some inconsistency in overall wins, but we came really close to beating Northwestern which is a top women's team that we always had difficulties fencing in the past. All in all, this is a very solid start to the season and we come home with tons of energy and are ready for our next stop at the Elite Invitational in UPenn."
 
Women's Results
NJIT 14-13 (V)
NU 12-15 (D)
OSU 10-17 (D)
UNC 11-16 (D)
AF 15-12 (V)
UIW 22-5 (V)
Stanford 9-18 (D)
Harvard 10-17 (D)

Men's Results
NJIT 15-12 (V)
OSU 11-16 (D)
UNC 13-14 (D)
AF 15-12 (V)
Columbia 9-18 (D)
Stanford 15-12 (V)
UIW 16-11 (V)
Harvard 8-19 (D)
 
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.