STANFORD, Calif. -- Six Stanford fencers were selected to compete at the National Collegiate Men's and Women's Championships on March 24-27 at Notre Dame.
Five are men: Noah Matricciani and Donghwan Park in saber, Draper Dayton and Lucas Orts in foil, and Aidan Kung (pictured above) in epee. Haley Koo (foil) will be the lone Cardinal woman. The six qualifiers were the most for Stanford since bringing six in 2019.
This will be the fourth qualification, but third appearance for Orts, who has a best finish of 10th, in 2019. The 2020 lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic prevented Orts, Matricciani and three others from competing.
Therefore, this will be the first nationals appearance for Dayton, a freshman, and Kung and Matricciani, both seniors. Koo and Park reached nationals last year as freshmen, with Koo placing sixth and Park 11th.
Koo and Orts won NCAA West Regional titles on Saturday, as well as the first MPSF Championships on Sunday, both in San Antonio, Texas. Kung was second.
At the NCAA Championships, there will be 24 competitors in each division. Fencers will compete in a six-person round-robin format of five-touch bouts, with the top four finishers in each weapon advancing to the semifinals. The first two days of the NCAA schedule are devoted to the women and the final two to the men. Twenty-seven schools will be represented.
The meet will be held at the Castellan Family Fencing Center in Notre Dame, Indiana. It opens Thursday with the first three rounds of each weapon. Koo begins at 8 a.m. PT on Thursday and at 6 a.m. PT for the fourth and fifth rounds on Friday, followed by championship bouts at 10 a.m. PT
The men begin Saturday with the first three rounds of the epee (6 a.m. PT), foil (8 a.m. PT), and saber (10 a.m. PT). On Sunday, the fourth and fifth rounds begin at 6 a.m. PT for all three weapons, and the championship bouts at 10:30 a.m. PT.
The overall season records for each of Stanford's qualifying fencers, in order of winning percentage: Koo, 47-12 (.797); Orts, 46-14 (.767); Matricciani, 33-12 (.733); Dayton, 21-13 (.618); Park, 23-15 (.605); and Kung, 29-31 (.483).
