SOUTH BEND, Ind. – National Championship sweep.
The Notre Dame men’s fencing team claimed the 2026 NCAA Men’s Fencing Championship Sunday on the home strips inside the Joyce Center, winning their first team men’s team championships as the event shifted to separate men’s and women’s championships this season. It’s the 16th team national championship for Irish fencing, and second this weekend, after winning 14 co-ed national titles, including six of the last eight under head coach Gia Kvaratskhelia (2017, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025).
ANOTHER TITLE CLAIMED 🏆
The Irish are 2026 NCAA Men’s Fencing National Champions#GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/9hDS76gso6
— The Fighting Irish (@FightingIrish) March 22, 2026
Including the women’s fencing national title from Friday, the 16 fencing national championships represent the most by any team in Notre Dame athletics history. The pair of national titles this weekend give the Fighting Irish 38 team national championships in athletics as a whole.
The dynasty run continues for the Irish under Kvaratskhelia, as Notre Dame’s head coach has now won eight national championships during his tenure with the Irish, the most by any Notre Dame head coach in school history.
The Irish men finished with 91 points over the two days of competition, winning the team title by 10 points over Columbia/Barnard.
Notre Dame wasn’t done collecting hardware after the team title. The Irish added an individual title in the afternoon, as Ahmed Hesham won the sabre NCAA individual title, his first career individual national title after finishing third a year ago. It caps a remarkable season for the sophomore, who won the sabre ACC individual title last month.
Hesham took down Harvard’s Colin Heathcock 15-10 in the sabre semifinal before taking down St. John’s Adham Moataz 15-12 in front of a loud atmosphere inside Purcell Pavilion to conclude the 2026 NCAA Fencing National Championships.
With the individual sabre title by Hesham combined with the women’s epee title from Eszter Muhari on Friday, Notre Dame fencing has now won 51 individual NCAA titles.
The Irish claimed silver in the other weapons as Kruz Schembri (epee) and Chase Emmer (foil) both earned first-team All-American status for finishing runner-up in their respective weapons.
Radu Nitu (sabre) and Ziyuan Chen (foil) both earned All-American status for finishing in the top-eight.
2026 NCAA Men’s Fencing Championships
Final Standings
- Notre Dame, 91
- Columbia/Barnard, 81
- St. John’s, 63
- Harvard, 62
- Penn, 58
- Duke, 44
- North Carolina, 43
- Long Island, 40
- Princeton, 37
- Ohio State, 37
Epee
2. Kruz Schembri, Notre Dame
14. Jonathan Hamilton-Meikle, Notre Dame
Foil
2. Chase Emmer, Notre Dame
5. Ziyuan Chen, Notre Dame
Sabre
1. Ahmed Hesham, Notre Dame
7. Radu Nitu, Notre Dame