NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Stanford sophomore Donghwan Park earned his second All-America honor, placing 12th in the men's saber at the National Collegiate Fencing Championships on Sunday at University of Notre Dame's Castellan Family Fencing Center.
Park led Stanford's combined men's and women's team of six to 12th place.
After placing 11th as a freshman, Park went 12-11 over two days. A 5-2 upset victory over UC San Diego's Shawn Kim, who advanced to the semifinals, in the fifth round of duels Sunday was enough to get Park into the top 12 and an All-American place. Park was named to the third team.
Lucas Orts, a fifth-year senior and past All-American, placed 18th in the foil with a 9-14 record, with freshman teammate Draper Dayton 20th at 7-16.
In the saber, Stanford's Noah Matricciani placed 20th with a 7-16 record and in epee, Aidan Kung placed 24th with a 6-17 mark. For Dayton, Kung, and Matricciani, it was their first NCAA appearance.
On Friday, Haley Koo was 18th in the women's foil with an 8-15 record.
Thus completes season that truly was a miracle. The program was among 11 at Stanford that was scheduled to be cut, but all were brought back and are being built for to be stronger than ever over the long haul.
For a Cardinal program to recover from having only five fencers compete last season and facing an uncertain future, to having six qualify for nationals in a strong year for collegiate fencing and to place 12th as a team was something to be proud of.
