western region qualifies a record 33 fencers to ncaa championships

The Western Fencing Conference will be sending an all-time regional record of 33 competitors to the 2021 NCAA National Championships taking place March 25-28 at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center. 

For the first time in program history, the University of California, San Diego qualified a full team of 12 fencers. Only two other schools (Notre Dame & Penn State) qualified the maximum 12, giving the Tritons a shot at winning the national title. 

The U.S. Air Force Academy will also be strongly represented at the Championships after qualifying a grand total of ten. The Falcons will have a full roster on the men’s side.

The University of Incarnate Word and Stanford University qualified six and five fencers, respectively, rounding out representation from all four west-region schools. 

“This is the strongest representation that the Western Fencing Conference has ever had at the NCAA National Championships. We are extremely proud of our dedicated student athletes and coaches. This unprecedented showing will provide a well-deserved boost to the WFC’s 10by30 initiative and serve notice that our conference and its member schools are firmly planted among the fencing elite.” said Daniel Milgram, President of the Western Fencing Conference.

The NCAA Championships will be streamable online with coverage of every strip. The Western Fencing Conference will post a link closer to the event.

See the list of qualifiers below:

The University of California, San Diego
Ziad Khayat - (Men’s Epee)
Vedran Markota - (Men’s Epee)
Benjamin Hadler (Men’s Foil)
Lawrence Song (Men’s Foil)
Justin Cho (Men’s Saber)
Justin Park (Men’s Saber)
Emma Zmurk (Women’s Epee)
Tean Brooks (Women’s Epee)
Erica Kuen (Women’s Foil)
Konami Masui (Women’s Foil)
Janna Aboudaher (Women’s Saber)
Julia Hill (Women’s Saber)

U.S. Air Force Academy
Matthew Han (Men’s Epee)
Russell Cha (Men’s Epee)
Nestor Levin (Men’s Foil)
Peter Griffin (Men’s Foil)
Matthew Goode (Men’s Saber)
William Nikolai (Men’s Saber)
Nicole Agob (Women’s Epee)
Jocelyn Ratzlaff (Women’s Epee)
Kaitlyn Guo (Women’s Foil)
Catherine Kim (Women’s Saber)

University of Incarnate Word
Brandon Benavides (Men’s Epee)
Thomas Petrosewicz (Men’s Epee)
Jake Thayer (Men’s Foil)
Blake Ruffner (Men’s Foil)
Juliana Peceli (Women’s Epee)
Oleksandra Rebchunovska (Women’s Foil)

Stanford University
Donghwan Park (Men’s Saber)
Calvin Zau (Men’s Saber)
Irene Yeu (Women’s Epee)
Haley Koo (Women’s Foil)
Joy Yun (Women’s Saber)