STANFORD, Calif. – An upset of defending national champion Notre Dame, a 12th-place finish at the NCAA Championships, an Elite 90 Award winner, and induction of the program's second member to the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame, highlighted the 2019 fencing season.
Cleveland on our minds. NCAA Fencing Championships start Thursday. #GoStanford
A post shared by Stanford University Fencing (@stanfordfence) on Mar 19, 2019 at 5:11pm PDT
The Cardinal began the season in January by winning the Western Invitational in Colorado Springs, Colorado, for the fourth straight year. The men's team went 6-0 and the women placed 5-2. Junior Samuel Kwong compiled a 14-0 record in sabre to spark Stanford.
Next up was the Northwestern Duals in Evanston, Illinois, where the Cardinal men's team surprised the Fighting Irish, 15-12. Stanford finished second in the two-day event with a 9-1 mark, and 22 student-athletes qualified for the NCAA Regional.
Freshman Julian Cheng led the way with a 32-5 slate in foil, while senior Sean Strong finished 27-6 in epee and Kwong went 28-7. For the women, sophomore Madeline Liao closed 20-9 in foil and freshman Hanna Lee went 31-11 in epee.
Strong posted another stellar season, placing a squad-best sixth in men's epee at the NCAA Championships in Cleveland and earned second-team All-American for the second consecutive year. Sophomore Lucas Orts claimed 10th in foil to secure honorable mention All-American, and Kwong registered 22nd.
On the women's side, Lee paced the Cardinal by earning 20th in epee. Liao finished 21st in foil and graduate student Kaleigh Mentzer collected 21st in sabre.
Orts received the Elite 90 Award for achieving the highest overall grade point average of all men's competitors at the championships, maintaining a 4.012.
Scholar Athlete. Elite 90 Award/All-American. #GoStanford
A post shared by Stanford University Fencing (@stanfordfence) on Mar 23, 2019 at 8:18am PDT
Prior to the NCAA's, the Cardinal participated in the NCAA Regionals at UC San Diego. Kwong, Strong, Orts and Liao captured gold medals.
Additionally, Carly Weber-Levine won Block S Honors for Women at the Stanford Athletics Board Awards Ceremony presented to a senior letterwinner with the highest GPA. She recorded a 4.037 in biomechanical engineering and earned an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.
A key four-year contributor, Weber-Levine reached the NCAA Championships three times. She finished 22nd in 2016, 11th in 2017 and 19th in 2018. This year, she placed second at the NCAA West Regional.
In September, Felicia Zimmermann '00 was inducted into the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame. The only woman to win NCAA titles in foil (1998) and epee (1999), she won four U.S. foil crowns and competed in the 1996 and 2000 summer Olympics.
Congratulations to one of our all-time greats. See full interview link in our bio. GoStanford
A post shared by Stanford University Fencing (@stanfordfence) on Oct 1, 2018 at 4:49pm PDT
Nick Bravin, a three-time NCAA foil champion (1990, 1992 and 1993) was inducted into the Stanford Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010.