DURHAM, N.C. – Stanford fencing picked up the program’s first ACC individual title this weekend, with Arianna Cao taking the women’s foil crown. Cao, the defending NCAA women’s foil champion, went a perfect 9-0 in the individual competition. The Cardinal landed seven in the top eight across four different weapon competitions.
Cao was nearly joined on the women’s foil podium by freshman Ruoxi Sun, who finished fourth after dropping the bronze medal bout 15-11 to Notre Dame’s Meredith Palmer. Sun went a perfect 6-0 in pool play before winning in the round of eight to advance to the semifinals.
Sophomore Ishani Sood finished in the top eight as well, falling to Sun in the round of eight after going 3-2 in pool play.
On the men’s side of individual play, Julian Goor and Sanjay Kasi each narrowly missed out on podium finishes. Goor finished fourth after going 3-2 in pool play, and ran into Kasi in the round of with. Kasi went 4-1 in pool play, but dropped a 15-9 decision to Goor.
Freshmen Carson Bosita and Kushal Patel each finished in the top eight in saber and epee as well, respectively. Bosita took sixth in saber after going 6-0 in pool play, while Patel landed eighth in epee after a 3-2 run in pool play.
Of the Card’s seven top-eight finishers, four were freshmen and only two were upperclassmen.
The women’s teams finished third in the competition, going 2-2 in team results. The men finished fifth, going 0-4.
Next up for Stanford is a trip to the NCAA Western Regionals on March 7 in San Antonio.