NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Shawn Kim placed third and UC San Diego finished 13th as the NCAA National Collegiate Fencing Championships wrapped up Sunday at the University of Notre Dame.
Kim's finish in Men's Sabre tied the highest-ever placing by any Triton at Nationals. He earned All-America status for his performance.
UC San Diego also equaled the team's best-ever finish at a full-field Nationals. A total of 27 teams were in contention in Indiana.
Justin Park also competed in Men's Sabre and finished in 19th position.
In Sunday's semifinal round, Kim was defeated, 15-8, by Harvard's Filip Dolegiewicz. Dolegiewicz advanced to the championship bout where he topped Terence Lee of Duke, 15-10, to win the national title.
Kim, a junior, compiled an impressive 18-5 record over two days of bouts. The 2022 West Region Men's Sabre Champion finished with a +34 indicator with 104 touches scored and 70 touches received. Notable victories for Kim included defeating Luke Linder of Notre Dame, the 2021 Men's Sabre National Champion. He also topped finalist Lee as well as Notre Dame's Jared Smith and Penn State's Clement Perrier. Smith was a Nationals finalist in 2021 while Perrier reached the semifinals.
Kim was in first place after Saturday's three rounds and dipped into second following rounds four and five Sunday. He is tied with Leanne Singleton-Comfort for the best Triton finish at Nationals. Singleton-Comfort was third in Women's Sabre as a freshman in 2016.
Park, a senior, won eight bouts, four on Saturday and another four on Sunday. He earned big victories against his teammate Kim as well as Perrier.
Women's events took place Thursday and Friday and UC San Diego had three competitors in the mix. Senior
Julia Hill finished 19th and junior
Sarah Shen placed 20th in Sabre. True freshman
Rafaella Gomes was 23rd in Foil.
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 was their first trip to the National Collegiate Championships.
UC San Diego totaled 43 points en route to its 13th-place finish. Men's Sabre provided 26 points while 14 came from Women's Sabre and three came from Women's Foil.
Host Notre Dame won the team championship with 189 points. Harvard and Columbia/Barnard tied for second place, each with 168 points.
The Tritons also placed a program-best 13th in 2008 and 2019.
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WHAT SHAWN KIM HAD TO SAY
"Overall, this experience is one that I'll never forget. I'm very blessed to have teammates that not only train with me, but motivate me to be a better version of myself. I'm thankful for the coaching staff that relentlessly supports me along my college fencing journey. This podium finish would not be possible without the people that have helped me throughout this rollercoaster of events, and this victory doesn't belong to me as an individual, but to UC San Diego as a team."
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WHAT HEAD COACH JUAN IGNACIO CALDERON HAD TO SAY
"Finishing 13th overall felt great because we reached that position after our three women put together a solid performance and we kept it with just two men competing on the last two days. Shawn's performance goes beyond a third-place finish as he became the talk of the Championships. Coaches, referees, his rivals, and the crowd all took a moment to watch and admire a great display of skill and tactics that felt really special, almost magical."
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NATIONALS SQUAD LIVE ON KUSI
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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.
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Rafaella Gomes - 2nd in Women's Foil
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Julia Hill - 2nd in Women's Sabre
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Sarah Shen - 1st in Women's Sabre (2022 West Region Sabre Champion)
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Shawn Kim - 1st in Men's Sabre (2022 West Region Sabre Champion)
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Justin Park - 2nd in Men's Sabre
For complete results of the NCAA West Regionals,
click here.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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!
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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 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.
