SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The close of the Women's National Collegiate Fencing Championships on Friday saw UC San Diego sophomore Katherine Kim earn All-America honors for the second-straight year after finishing 11th. Fellow foilist Piper Randolph finished 22nd.
 
Kim's finish resulted in her being named an Honorable Mention All-American. She was a Second Team All-American as a freshman last year after placing seventh. Kim is only the second female fencer at UC San Diego to earn multiple All-America awards and the first since Janet Wertz in 1997.
 
Notre Dame is the host of this year's event. The women's competition was on Thursday and Friday, with the men upcoming on Saturday and Sunday. This was the first year that the NCAA awarded separate team national championships for the women and men, with each individual fencer's results earning points toward the team title. The Tritons were 16th.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
There are 24 participants in each weapon. Fencers competed against each other in a round-robin format of five-touch bouts. The top four in each weapon then fenced in single-elimination semifinal and final 15-touch bouts to crown the national champions.
 
Kim finished with a record of 12-11. The Two Tritons fenced each other first on Thursday, with Randolph victorious 5-4. Kim finished the first day with a 7-8 record, with four of those losses coming down to the final touch. The sophomore was also on the right side of some close bouts, winning twice by a 5-4 scoreline. Kim then had a 5-3 record on day two, with two losses again coming by just one point.
 
Randolph finished with a record of 6-17. She showed particularly well on Thursday, going 5-10. In addition to her win over Kim, Randolph knocked off three other eventual All-Americans with victories over Yale's Kristina Petrova (finished 5th), Notre Dame's Josephina Conway (6th) and Penn's Kimberly Jang (10th). The freshman closed the event with several close bouts and a 1-7 record on Friday.

QUOTABLE
"Being an All-American again is an amazing feeling and a testament to all the hard work accumulated since last year," Kim said. "It is always an honor to compete among the best in the country, and I am so proud to represent the Tritons on the highest collegiate stage again.
 
I want to thank my family for their tremendous support, along with Sergei Golubitsky, my personal coach from home. And I also want to extend a huge thank you to all of UC San Diego Athletics, including the entire fencing team, my coaches, our athletic trainers and my fabulous women's foil squad for their constant support and amazing work ethic this season."
 
UP NEXT
The Tritons will have two representatives in the men's competition this weekend, both epeeists. Senior Sunny Sharma is making his second-straight appearance at nationals and will be joined by freshman Nurzhan Abzhanov. The action gets underway at 6:00 a.m. PT on both Saturday and Sunday.
 
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 in NCAA Division I. The 24-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 39 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 NCAA Division I or II. For more information on the Tritons, visit UCSDtritons.com or follow UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons.