St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
St. John’s Fencing Heads to 2021 NCAA Championships
3/24/2021 8:43:00 PM | Fencing
The tournament will take place at State College, Pa., from March 25-28
QUEENS, N.Y. (March 24, 2021) – The St. John's fencing team will send eight student-athletes to compete for a national title at the 2021 NCAA Fencing Championships at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College, Pa., beginning tomorrow.
A live feed of the semifinal and final bouts will be available on ESPN3 or WatchESPN app. Semifinals and finals, along with other championships highlights will air on ESPNU at 4 p.m. on Thursday, April 15.
The Red Storm will send four male and four female representatives to the competition, which begins on Thursday and will end on Sunday.
Under the direction of Head Coach Yury Gelman, a five-time member of the U.S. Olympic fencing staff, the Johnnies have finished sixth or better at the NCAA Championships in 27 consecutive opportunities. Gelman has coached 25 individual NCAA champions since he has arrived at St. John's, including Karolina Cieslar's women's saber title in 2019.
In men's foil, freshman Cesar Colon earned a spot in the championship after closing out the regular season with six wins against Sacred Heart and 19 total victories in his rookie campaign. After qualifying for the tournament last year but being unable to compete due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Maxime Tarasiewicz will make his NCAA championship debut.
Saber specialist Dalton Walker will make his first appearance at NCAAs after posting 18 victories this season across four matches. Rounding out the men's contingent will be epee specialist Nathan Vaysberg, who has been selected to nationals three times in as many tries while at St. John's.
On the women's side, junior Arianna Pappone will be making her second appearance in the NCAA Championship round. The Latina, Italy, native led the Red Storm women's foil team with 21 victories on the stripe this season. Sophomore Nicole Gavrilko earned her second straight bid to the tournament after leading the women's epee squad with 17 tallies.
In women's saber, veteran Karolina Kaleta will be returning to the championship after she finished 18th during the 2019 saber competition. Joining the graduate student will be freshman sensation Fanni Potz-Nagy, who posted an undefeated record of 21-0 this season.
The field of 144 fencers from 20 different schools will compete in a round-robin format of five 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 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 each victory by its student-athletes for the duration of the championships.
For more information about the championships, visit NCAA.com.
Players Mentioned
