March 23, 2017

By Joanne Norell

INDIANAPOLIS — Day 1 is in the books at the 2017 National Collegiate Fencing Championships at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum, with Notre Dame (57), Ohio State (56) and Columbia (51) topping the team standings through three rounds of men’s competition in foil, epee and sabre.

The Fighting Irish surged into first place by the end of competition Thursday thanks to an impressive showing in sabre, which accounted for 22 of Notre Dame’s 57 points. Ohio State and Columbia each picked up 20 points via men’s foil, leading the field in that category. Both Notre Dame and Columbia have 186 bouts remaining over the next three days of competition, while Ohio State has 163 more opportunities to pick up points.

Foil
The FIE world No. 1-ranked foilist two-time NCAA men’s foil champion Alexander Massialas of Stanford sits in first place after the third round, posting an 11-4 record on Thursday with a +32 indicator. Also with 11 wins are defending national champion Maximilian Chastenet of Ohio State (+24) in second place and third-place Nolen Scruggs of Columbia (+16). Notre Dame’s Kristjan Archer sits in fourth place with a 10-5 mark, while five fencers went 9-6 on the day.

Massialas defeated Chastenet 5-2 on Friday and will face Scruggs on Day 2. Scruggs also defeated Chastenet on Day 1.

Epee
Princeton’s Wesley Johnson — making his first NCAA appearance as a sophomore — sits in first place in men’s epee with a 12-3 record through three rounds, enjoying a +18 indicator. Also a first-timer, Harvard’s Albert Chein sits in second with an 11-4 mark and a +19 indicator and Ohio State’s Lewis Weiss is in third with an 11-4 record and +16 indicator.

Justin Yoo (Pennsylvania), Cooper Schumacher (St. John’s) and Gabe Canaeux (Columbia) are each 10-5.

Sabre
Harvard’s Eli Dershwitz occupies first place with just one loss in three rounds of sabre, sitting at 14-1 with at +51 indicator. Notre Dame’s Jonah Shainberg went 12-3 on Friday to take second place through the first day, while Ben Natanzon of St. John’s sits in third place with an 11-4 mark. The next five fencers in the standings are 10-5 thus far.

Up Next

The men’s competition will conclude on Friday at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum. Action will start at 9 a.m. with the fourth and fifth rounds of pool competition, followed by the semifinals and finals of each weapon beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET. The semifinal and championship bouts will be broadcast on ESPN3 or the WatchESPN app.

— ND —