LA JOLLA, Calif. – A symphony of metal clangs and triumphant screams announced the 28th annual BladeRunner tournament. The two-day event is held annually inside UC San Diego's LionTree Arena. Saturday hosted four events (women's foil, men's épée, women's saber and women's épée) that yielded three podiums, five top 10 placements, and three top 20 finishes for the Tritons.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Women's Foil
Katherine Kim led the way with a perfect first round, where she only received seven touches across six matches. 2023 silver medalist
Neta Korol continued her BladeRunner prowess, her only loss a tight 5-4 decision.
Both
Katherine Kim and Korol, seeded first and fifth, earned byes to begin the elimination round. The former waltzed into the semifinals with a trio of victories, featuring scorelines of 15-1 and 15-3. A six-point semifinals defeat saw her take third place.
Korol had a tougher draw, taking ninth place after dropping out in the Round of 16.
Men's Épée
UC San Diego dominated the strips, with four Tritons (No. 1
Sunny Sharma, No. 3
Derek Rong, No. 5
Daniel Wong and No. 9
Dayus Gohel) going 6-0 to earn top 10 seedings. Newcomer
Benjamin Kim drew right outside at the 12th seed, enough to earn a bye.
Benjamin Kim finished on the podium for the Tritons following a 15-12 loss in the semifinals. Sharma and Rong fell in tight quarterfinals bouts, with the latter's going 15-14; Sharma placed fifth and Rong finished sixth. Freshman Gohel filed into ninth place after suffering a Round of 16 defeat.
Women's Saber
Zara Fearns went 5-1 in the first round to claim the No. 4 seed. The All-MPSF Conference First Team saber finished in 11th place with a 15-12 loss in the Round of 16.
Women's Épée
Renee Zuhars was one of five competitors to go undefeated in the preliminary round, earning her the fourth seed.
Pia Huber claimed the 6
th seed and
Alice Lan secured the 13th seed.
Zuhars and Huber comfortably made it into the Round of 16. Huber's evening ended here, earning her a tenth-place spot. Zuhars advanced into the semifinals, where she lost to eventual champion Victoria Guerrero. Her third-place finish capped off the first day for the Tritons.
QUOTABLE
"Our goal is to set our baseline. We don't have expectations; we just take notes on where we are," head coach
Juan Ignacio Calderon said. "I focus a lot more on the freshmen in this tournament. You don't really coach them at the beginning; you ask them questions."
"We have a long history of freshmen that won this tournament before they joined the team, and when they join it, they don't win it – it's the weight of the Triton mask," he added. "It's just a great opportunity for us to start engaging with them, and that they understand the culture of the team and what we are trying to accomplish."
UP NEXT
UC San Diego finishes the BladeRunner tournament on Sunday, featuring men's foil and men's saber. Action gets underway at 8 a.m. inside LionTree Arena. Admission is free.
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.
