NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The first day of action at the NCAA National Collegiate Fencing Championships at the University of Notre Dame is in the books and three UC San Diego women competed in three rounds of bouts in Foil and Sabre.

Junior Sarah Shen sits in 16th place while senior Julia Hill is 18th in Sabre. True freshman Rafaella Gomes is 24th in Foil.

Shen, the 2022 West Region Sabre Champion, posted six victories Thursday. Her wins came against Alexandra Gorman and Anneke Zegers of Duke, Maggie Shealy of Brandeis, Esther Bentolila of Cornell, reigning national champion Kara Linder from Notre Dame, and Amber White of Penn.

Hill earned five victories, defeating teammate Shen, Zegers, Casey Chan out of Brown, Bentolila, and White.

Leading Women's Sabre is Nora Burke from Columbia/Barnard, who won 14 of her 15 bouts on the day. Princeton's Maia Chamberlain is in second with a 13-2 record, while Elizabeth Tartakovsky from Harvard and Shealy are tied for third with identical 12-3 marks.

Gomes won bouts against Asherah Horsley of Cornell as well Helen Tan from Yale.

Zander Rhodes out of Columbia/Barnard is on top of the Women's Foil leader board with her 13-2 record. Princeton's Maia Weintraub is second at 12-3 and four fencers are tied for third after going 11-4 Thursday. 

UC San Diego is in 13th in the team standings after opening day. There are 23 teams competing at Notre Dame.

Women's Rounds 4 and 5 plus semifinals and finals are up next starting at 6 a.m. Pacific on Friday, March 25.

In addition to Gomes, Hill, and Shen, the Tritons have a pair of fencers in Men's Sabre, junior Shawn Kim and senior Justin Park.

Park is a three-time qualifier (2020, 2021, 2022), while Hill (2021, 2022) and Kim (2020, 2022) are two-time qualifiers. For Gomes and Shen, 2022 is their first trip to the National Collegiate Championships.

Men's events are on tap for Saturday, March 26 and Sunday, March 27.

For more information about Nationals, including complete day-by-day results, please visit the Tournament Central page.

------

THE SCHEDULE
(all times Pacific)

Friday, March 25
6:00am: Women's Epee Rounds 4-5 (Live Results | Live Scoring | Strip Assignments)
6:00am: Women's Foil, Rounds 4-5 (Live Results | Live Scoring | Strip Assignments)
6:00am: Women's Sabre Rounds 4-5 (Live Results | Live Scoring | Strip Assignments)
10:30am: Women's Semifinals and Championship Bouts (Watch | Live Results | Live Scoring | Strip Assignments)

Saturday, March 26
6:00am: Men's Epee Rounds 1-3 (Watch | Live Results | Live Scoring | Strip Assignments)
8:00am: Men's Foil Rounds 1-3 (Watch | Live Results | Live Scoring | Strip Assignments)
10:30am: Men's Sabre Rounds 1-3 (Watch | Live Results | Live Scoring | Strip Assignments)

Sunday, March 27
6:00am: Men's Epee Rounds 4-5 (Live Results | Live Scoring | Strip Assignments)
6:00am: Men's Foil, Rounds 4-5 (Live Results | Live Scoring | Strip Assignments)
6:00am: Men's Sabre Rounds 4-5 (Live Results | Live Scoring | Strip Assignments)
10:30am: Men's Semifinals and Championships (Watch | Live Results | Live Scoring | Strip Assignments)

------

HOW THEY GOT THERE

All five Tritons at Notre Dame qualified automatically for Nationals due to their placings at the NCAA West Regionals, which took place March 12 in San Antonio, Texas. Shawn Kim and Sarah Shen took first place in Sabre to pick up the title of West Region Sabre Champion.

• Rafaella Gomes - 2nd in Women's Foil
• Julia Hill - 2nd in Women's Sabre
• Sarah Shen - 1st in Women's Sabre (2022 West Region Sabre Champion)

• Shawn Kim - 1st in Men's Sabre (2022 West Region Sabre Champion)
• Justin Park - 2nd in Men's Sabre

For complete results of the NCAA West Regionals, click here.

------

MPSF CHAMPIONSHIPS

The inaugural Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Championships took place March 13 in San Antonio, Texas. Shawn Kim became the first-ever MPSF Sabre Champion, while four other Tritons earned second-place finishes. For complete results of the MPSF Championships, click here.

------

ALL-MPSF TRITONS

Seven UC San Diego fencers were named to All-Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) teams following the conference championships.

First Team
Rafaella Gomes, Fr., Women's Foil
Shawn Kim, Jr., Men's Sabre (2022 West Region Sabre Champion, 2022 MPSF Sabre Champion)
Vedran Markota, Jr., Men's Epee
Justin Park, Sr., Men's Sabre
Sarah Shen, Jr., Women's Sabre (2022 West Region Sabre Champion)

Second Team
Julia Hill, Sr., Women's Sabre
Lawrence Song, So., Men's Foil

------

REWIND TO 2021 NATIONALS

For the first time ever, UC San Diego fielded a full team of 12 at the 2021 NCAA National Collegiate Championships, hosted by Penn State. The Triton roster included three freshmen, two sophomores, four juniors, and three seniors. UC San Diego was one of just three institutions with a full team as Notre Dame and Penn State also had 12 competitors.

UC San Diego placed a program-best seventh out of 19 teams. Over four days of action, the Tritons amassed 99 points to earn their historic finish. UC San Diego was just six points behind sixth-place North Carolina and seven points back of fifth-place St. John's.

Two Tritons on the men's side earned All-America accolades as sophomore Vedran Markota placed ninth in Men's Epee and junior Benjamin Hadler was 10th in Men's Foil. For the women, senior Emma Zmurk finished 11th in Women's Epee to garner All-America recognition.

------

THE WEAPONS

• Epee
Epee is the heaviest of the weapons. The target to score points is the entire body. It is the only weapon where points can be awarded to both sides if there is a double touch.

• Foil
Foil is the lightest of the three weapons and enacts a rule called right-of-way. Whoever is coming forward with the attack gets the point unless their opponent takes the right-of-way from them by parrying (deflecting/blocking) their blade. The target area for scoring points is the chest and the torso, marked by a light metallic vest called a lamé. 

• Sabre
Sabre also employs the right-of-way rule, but sabreurs and sabreuses slash instead of stab. Sabre touches happen so quickly that the referees won't even start the three-minute clock used to time the bout.

------

FENCING GLOSSARY

• Advance: Take a step towards one's opponent.

• Attack: Movement or series of movements by which a fencer tries to score a point. In foil and saber, the fencer who attacks first acquires the "right-of-way." In order to execute an attack properly (i.e. one that the referee will acknowledge), the fencer's hand must be clearly extending towards their opponent's valid target in a threatening manner.

• Beat: Sharp tap on the opponent's blade to initiate an attack or provoke a reaction.

• En Garde: Position taken before fencing commences.

• Feint: A false attack intended to get a defensive reaction from the opposing fencer, thus creating the opportunity for a genuine attack ("feint-disengage attack").

• Fleche: Explosive, running attack (foil and epee only).

• Flunge: Action unique to sabre – a combination of a lunge and a fleche. Evolved recently after the FIE modified sabre rules in 1992 to prohibit running attacks.

• Lunge: Most common attacking technique, in which the fencer launches themselves at their opponent by pushing off from the back leg (which generally remains stationary).

• Parry: Defensive action in which a fencer blocks his opponent's blade.

• Point-in-Line: Action in which the fencer, who is generally out of attacking range, points their weapon at their opponent with their arm fully extended. A fencer who establishes a point in line has right-of-way, and their opponent cannot attack until they remove the blade from line by executing a beat.

• Recover: The return to the en guarde position after lunging.

• Riposte: Defender's offensive action immediately after parrying their opponent's attack.

• Second Intention: A tactic in which a fencer executes a convincing, yet false, action in hopes of drawing a true, committed reaction from their opponent.

• Stop Hit, Stop Cut (sabre only): A counter-action made at the moment of an opponent's hesitation, feint, or poorly executed attack. To be awarded the point, the fencer attempting to stop hit must clearly catch their opponent's tempo. Hence, if their Stop Hit is not "in time," the referee may award the touch to their attacker.

• Strip: Fencing area, 14 meters long by 2 meters wide.

• Touch: Score a point.

------

BE SOCIAL

The UC San Diego Fencing Team can be found on Facebook, Instagram (@ucsdfencing), and Twitter (@ucsdfencing). We just kicked off a new series called In the Classroom, where the Tritons talk about their majors and some of their favorite classes. Check it out!

------

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 has begun a new era 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 garnered 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 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in Division I or II. For more information on the Tritons, visit UCSDtritons.com or follow UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons.