The Penn State Nittany Lion men’s fencing team closed out the NCAA Championships today. Nittany Lions added two more All-Americans today with senior Andrew Mackiewicz (Westwood, Mass.) and junior Karol Metryka (Linden, N.J.) placing third and seventh, respectively in saber. The saber duo’s honors brings Penn State’s total All-America haul to six for the weekend.
Penn State finished the tournament in fourth place with 137 points. Winning the team competition was Notre Dame with 185 points, and in second was Columbia with 163 points.
“We took fourth since we were short two people. There were five other universities with ten fencers, and we were the best of all of them,” said head coach Wes Glon. “I am happy we finished fourth and grabbed a trophy. I’m looking forward to next year as always.”
First to finish the fourth and fifth rounds today was saber. Mackiewicz and Metryka both earned All-American status with Mackiewicz being able to compete in the semi-finals for the men’s NCAA saber championship.
Mackiewicz carried an 11-4 record in the fourth round, where he then added two wins and two losses. In the fifth round, Mackiewicz went 3-1 putting him at 16-7, which places him at fourth and secured him a spot in the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, Mackiewicz lost to the future saber national champion Eli Dershwitz from Harvard.
Metryka came into day four with a record of 9-6. Metryka was perfect in the fourth round going 4-0, which placed him at sixth. With a 2-2 record in the fifth, Metryka improved his record to 15-8 overall, which placed him at seventh. Placing in seventh allowed Metryka to be named Penn State’s sixth All-American in the Championships.
Competing in the men’s foil was Sebastiano Bicego (Vicenza, Italy). Bicego came into today with a record of 7-8, and in the fourth round went 0-3. Bicego finished off his day with a 3-1 finish in the fifth round, which him at 10-12 overall. Finishing at 15th in the tournament, Bicego did miss out on qualifying for All-American staus.
Competing in men’s epee was Anton Piskovatskov (Houston, Texas). Piskovatskov in the fourth round was dominant going 3-1. He followed up his round four performance with a 1-3 record in the fifth round. He finished with an overall record of 7-16, which did not qualify him for All-American status.
Penn State will play host for the NCAA Fencing Championships again in 2021.