SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Following yesterday’s women’s championship, the focus shifted to the men as the Notre Dame men’s fencing opened up the third total day of competition and first day of men’s competition inside the Joyce Center Saturday. Rounds 1-3 were completed today in men’s epee, foil and sabre.
The Irish lead the team competition after day one with 63 points, 12 more than second place Columbia/Barnard and 19 points ahead of third place Harvard.
Notre Dame individuals lead in all three weapons heading into day two.
In sabre, Ahmed Hesham was nearly perfect on the day, finishing 14-1 on the day to put himself in a strong position for Sunday after finishing in third a year ago. Radu Nitu contributed eight victories on the day as the Irish put up 22 sabre points Saturday.
Defending foil national champion Chase Emmer notched 12 victories through the first three rounds today, leading the way in men’s foil. Teammate Ziyuan Chen is in fourth after he tallied 10 victories as the 22 foil wins were the most among any team on Saturday. Both foilists will look to qualify for the semifinals tomorrow.
In his NCAA Championship debut, freshman Kruz Schembri sits atop the epee leaderboard, recording 13 victories on Saturday to sit atop the leaderboard and put himself in contention for a spot in the semifinals. Jonathan Hamilton-Meikle is in 14th place after six wins on Saturday.
Rounds 4-5 for all weapons begins tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. ET inside the North Dome before the men’s semifinals and championship bouts take place inside Purcell Pavilion at 1:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+ to close out the 2026 NCAA Fencing Championships. For more information, click here.