Greensboro, N.C. (theacc.com)—Notre Dame captured its second straight NCAA Fencing Championship Sunday in State College, Pennsylvania.
 
The title was the 10th overall for the Irish. It was Notre Dame first back-to-back national championships in 40 years (1977-78), when the Irish captured back-to-back men’s fencing titles. The NCAA Championship now includes both men’s and women’s fencing for a combined title.
 
Notre Dame clinched the championship in the fifth round with a 5-4 win by sophomore Ariel Simmons over Tiger Gao of Johns Hopkins in men’s epee.
 
Notre Dame freshman Nick Itkin, from Los Angeles, California, won the men’s NCAA fencing title in foil. Itkin defeated teammate Axel Kiefer, a junior from Lexington, Kentucky, to reach the finals where he defeated Sam Moelis for the title. Kiefer finished in a tie for third in the foil.
 
“He was stellar,” said Notre Dame head coach Gia Kvaratskhelia of Itkin’s performance. “He’s one of the best I’ve ever seen — as a freshman, as anyone. He breezed through the field and delivered a masterpiece in the finals.”
 
Simmons, a native of Bellaire, Texas, finished in a tie for third place, while senior Nicholas Hanahan, from Indianapolis, Indiana, finished in fifth place in the epee.
 
Notre Dame senior Jonah Shainberg, of Rye, New York, finished in fifth place in the sabre while Jonathan Fitzgerald, a senior from East Brunswick, New Jersey, was in 15th place.
 
Itkin, Kiefer and Simmons were named first team All-Americas. Hanahan and Shainberg made the All-America second team.
 
Notre Dame finished first with 185 points, followed by Columbia/Barnard (170), Ohio State (147), Penn State, 137), Harvard (129), St. John’s (124), Princeton (107), Penn (101), Yale (68) and Duke (67).
 
The Irish took a team lead in the women’s competition, which was held Thursday and Friday as a pair of juniors from San Francisco, California in Sabrina Massialas and Elyssa Kleiner, finished in second and third places in women’s foil. Amanda Sirico, a junior from Bowie, Maryland, tied for third in women’s epee. In women’s sabre, senior Francesca Russo, from Wayne, New Jersey, tied for third and Tara Hassett, a junior from Portland, Oregon, grabbed a seventh place. 
 
Massialas, Kleiner, Sirio and Russo earned first-team All-America honors, while Hassett was a second-team All-America.
 
The 2018 crown is the second national title for Notre Dame head coach Kvaratskhelia.
 
“I truly think the hard work, hard work, diligent preparation all year long paid off today, said Kvaratskhelia. “All along, we wanted to peak at the right moment and the right moment only occurs one time. We wanted to deliver this performance at the NCAA Championships and we really proved we were the superior team to everyone else here.
 
“It just shows the health of the program. We can say that Notre Dame is back, Notre Dame is relevant and moving forward we want to be able to contend for more national championships.
 
 “I’m incredibly honored to represent our University, our student-athletes, our coaches and to take home another trophy will make everyone proud.”
 
Duke, which finished 10th overall, had two of its fencers earn All-America honors. Sophomore Eoin Gronningsater, from Brooklyn, New York, finished fifth in the foil to earn second-team honors and senior Pascual Di Tella, from Vincente Lopez, Buenos Aires, Argentina, was 10th in the men’s sabre to make the third-team.
 
North Carolina finished 24th in the final team rankings and Boston College was 25th.