St. John's Fencing Heads to 2019 NCAA Championships

Thursday, March 21

Cleveland, Ohio

St. John's University

NCAA Championships

St. John's Fencing Heads to 2019 NCAA Championships

3/20/2019 4:46:00 PM | Fencing

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The tournament will be hosted at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland, Ohio from March 21-24

By: Nicholas Diamantis

QUEENS, N.Y. – Closing out the 2019 season, the St. John's fencing team will send 10 fencers to compete for a national title at the 2019 NCAA Fencing Championships in Cleveland, Ohio. The tournament will be hosted by Cleveland State and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission at the Wolstein Center.

The Red Storm earned four male and six female representatives as the competition begins on Thursday, March 21, and will end on Sunday, March 24.

Head Coach Yury Gelman, a five-time member of the U.S. Olympic fencing staff, has guided the Johnnies to 26-straight years of finishing at least sixth or better at the NCAA's. Gelman has coached 24 individual national championships since he arrived at St. John's, including two national champions in 2017.

Only Harvard, Columbia, Penn State and Notre Dame qualified more fencers than St. John's, where the maximum amount of fencers that a school can receive is 12.

In men's saber, Ben Natanzon solidified a bid for the third-straight year after claiming the gold medal in saber at the Regional. The senior was a First Team All-American in 2017 and a Third Team All-American last season. Recently placing fifth at the Regional in saber, Fares Ferjani will look to earn his second-straight All-American honor as a sophomore.

Rounding out the men's team, Ivan Zagoruiko won the gold medal in men's epee at the Northeast Regional, clinching his first appearance at the NCAA Fencing Championships as a sophomore. Joining Zagoruiko at nationals in epee is Nathan Vaysberg, who impressed at regionals, winning the bronze medal with 14 victories.

On the women's side, senior Katarzyna Lachman clinched a second place finish in the women's foil competition at regionals. The senior will be joined by freshman Arianna Pappone at nationals, as the Italian finished with an impressive sixth-place finish.

In women's epee, Andrea Vittoria Rizzi earned a bid to nationals with a second place finish at regionals, capturing 18 total victories. Dominique Tannous also earned an automatic bid into the NCAA Fencing Championships after placing eighth in Regionals.

After taking home gold at regionals for the third-straight year, Karolina Cieslar will head into the NCAA Championships as one of the top saber fencers in the country. The senior dominated her opponents during the regular season with 38 victories during the regular season and went 20-3 at the NCAA Northeast Regional.

Closing out the 10 Red Storm competitors at nationals will be second-year Johnnie Karolina Kaleta, who earned a seventh-place finish in the saber competition two weeks ago.

The field of 144 fencers from 26 different schools will compete in a round-robin format of five-touch bouts for each individual weapon. After the round-robin, the top-four finishers in each weapon will fence in semifinal 15-touch bouts, with the winners fencing to determine first and second places, and the non-advancing fencers being awarded a tie for third place.

An institution's place finish in the championships will be based on points earned by each individual. A team will be awarded one point for each victory by its student-athletes for the duration of the championships.

A live feed of the semifinal and final bouts will be available on ESPN3 or the WatchESPN app. The semifinals and finals, along with other championship highlights, will air on ESPNU at 2:30 p.m. ET on April 3.