Fencing Competes At NCAA Regionals

Saturday, March 12

Princeton, N.J.

All Day

North Carolina

NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regionals

March 14, 2022 | Fencing

PRINCETON, N.J. - Members of the North Carolina fencing team competed at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regional Championships this past weekend at Princeton. The individual competition will play a large part in determining the qualifiers 2022 NCAA Championships on March 24-27 in Notre Dame, Indiana.

The Tar Heels sent 21 athletes to the regional event, a much smaller squad that what you would normally find at a team dual meet. The competition began at 9 a.m. and lasted the entire day.

According to Tar Heel head coach Matt Jednak, the volume of bouts at regionals makes it the hardest competition of the season.

"Regionals is the hardest tournament of the year. I think it's even harder than the NCAA's," said Jednak. Talking to other athletes, even those who have fenced on an international stage at a high level, were saying the same thing. They were in awe with how long and challenging the day was."

The tournament was structured as a series of pool play, where a certain number of fencers were cut after each round. The final round was a round-robin-style pool, where the top 12 fencers in each weapon group competed. The Tar Heels had four athletes qualify for the final dozen, Sophia Mandour and Sofia Molho in women's foil, as well as Cam Santos and Henry Shugart in men's epee. These four athletes all fenced 26 bouts on Saturday, most of any single day of the season.

"Making it to the final round is a big deal. It is just as much a challenge of endurance as technical preparation and execution. It's a challenging event, and to make it to the final 12 is a challenging feat," said Jednak.

The goal of every athlete competing at the Mid-Atlantic/South Regionals is to qualify for the NCAA Championships just two weeks away at Notre Dame. Qualification to the NCAA Championships is 40 percent based on regular season results and 60 percent on the finish at the regionals. Only seven athletes per gender from each weapon group per region will qualify and with nearly 40 people competing in each weapon, that raises the stakes of every bout.

Coach Jednak attributes much of the success for the Tar Heels this weekend to Aubrey Molloy, Claire Harmon, and James Mulligan, the three seniors that all competed this weekend. Instead of only focusing on themselves at their final regionals, their selflessness and support pushed the team to perform even as they got tired later in the day.

"I would like to thank each one of my seniors. They were leaving it all on the line and fencing hard the whole time. As soon as they were done with their day, they were right back supporting their team. It was really cool to see them have their moment to reflect, but still be there cheering and supporting throughout the day," said Jednak.

NCAA Championship qualifiers will be announced on Tuesday, March 15.

Results
Men's Sabre
13. Noah Shepanek
19. Luca Rampazzo
23. Alec Mulvaney
33. William Wun

Women's Sabre
20. Abigale Parker
32. Iman Tucker

Men's Foil
15. James Mulligan
16. Connor Head
19. Will Palazzolo
22. Jake McGillion-Moore

Women's Foil
6. Sophia Mandour
10. Sofia Molho
20. Tarleton Hunt
26. Aubrey Molloy

Men's Epee
8. Henry Shugart
9. Cameron Santos
18. Xavier Hilbert
21. Eli Lippman

Women's Epee
22. Claire Harmon
29. Allegra Parker
31. Erica Oake