UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Sparked by a seventh-place finish from junior Sean Strong in epee, Stanford finished 11th Sunday in the NCAA Collegiate Fencing Championships hosted by Penn State.
The Cardinal amassed 59 points in the four-day, combined men's and women's bouts. Notre Dame captured the NCAA crown with 185 points.
Strong won 14 of 23 bouts and narrowly missed qualifying for the semifinals. It marked his third consecutive trip to the NCAA's, Strong placing 23rd in 2016 and 15th in 2017.
"Fantastic performance by Sean," said co-head coach Lisa Posthumus. "He fought hard to get to the podium."
Sophomore Robin Cheong claimed nine of 23 bouts in epee and collected 19th.
The Cardinal also received top 20 showings from junior Jeffrey Dalli, junior Royce Wang and freshman Lucas Orts. Competing for the third consecutive year, Dalli captured 14th by winning nine of 23 bouts in sabre. Dalli finished 15th in 2016 and 23rd in 2017.
Wang advanced for the first time in sabre and earned 19th by winning seven of 23 bouts.
In foil, Orts prevailed in six of 22 bouts to garner 20th.
"I'm very pleased with how my fencers performed," Posthumus said. "Out of our seven qualifiers, four were new to the NCAA Championships. They competed hard and I'm sure they will continue to qualify for future championships."
Individual national titles were won by Eli Dershwitz of Harvard (sabre), Nick Itkin of Notre Dame (foil) and Marc-Antoine Blais of Ohio State (epee).
