2026 All-ACC Academic Men’s Fencing Team
2026 All-ACC Academic Women’s Fencing Team
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) – North Carolina’s Elden Wood has been named the 2026 Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Fencing Scholar-Athlete of the Year, while Notre Dame’s Eszter Muhari and Stanford’s Arianna Cao shared the 2026 ACC Women's Fencing Scholar-Athlete of the Year honor. The trio leads the 2026 Fencing All-ACC Academic Teams, which were announced Thursday. Wood earned the men’s honor for the second year in a row.
This year’s ACC Men’s and Women’s All-ACC Fencing Academic Teams feature 12 All-America honorees from the 2026 NCAA Championships, with seven women and five men, including national champions Ahmed Hesham (men’s sabre) and Muhari (women’s epee) from Notre Dame. Five of the ACC’s 2026 Fencers of the Year are represented on the All-ACC Academic Team, with Hesham, Muhari and Cao joined by North Carolina’s Peter Bruk (men’s foil) and Notre Dame’s Magda Skarbonkiewicz (women’s sabre).
Wood earned Honorable Mention All-America honors at the 2026 NCAA Championships with his 11th-place finish in sabre, marking his second straight All-America distinction. Majoring in psychology, the senior from New York, New York, has been named to the All-ACC Academic Team four times in his career and also has been named to the ACC Academic Honor Roll, UNC 4.0 Club and Dean’s List and a Tar Heel Scholar-Athlete. He was the silver medalist in sabre at the 2026 ACC Championships and led the team with 38 wins this season.
Muhari earned her third epee national championship, including her second straight. A senior from Budapest, Hungary, she helped lead the Fighting Irish to both the 2026 ACC and NCAA championships. Muhari claimed the 2026 ACC individual championship in epee and was named the 2026 ACC Epee Fencer of the Year. Majoring in business analytics, she has been named to the All-ACC Academic Team three times.
Cao was the ACC foil champion and earned honorable mention All-America honors in 2026. She earned ACC Foil Fencer of the Year laurels for the second straight season. The junior from San Jose, California, finished 70-25 in individual bouts during the 2025-26 season. A computer science major, she boasts a 4.01 career grade-point average and earned All-ACC Academic Team honors for the second straight season.
Duke and North Carolina led all schools with 13 honorees on the women’s team. The Blue Devils paced all schools with 15 honorees on the men’s squad.
Academic requirements for selection to the All-ACC Academic Team include a 3.0-grade point average for the previous two semesters, a 3.0 cumulative average during one’s academic career, has to have been enrolled at the institution for at least one year and the student must be classified as an undergraduate student. In addition, student-athletes must compete in either the ACC Championship or NCAA Championship this season in the sport of fencing.
Please see the link below for the complete listing of the 2025-26 All-ACC Academic Fencing Teams, including each student-athlete’s major of study.
2026 All-ACC Academic Men’s Fencing Team
2026 All-ACC Academic Women’s Fencing Team