Junior in 23rd Place
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Yale junior fencer Brian Wang (Fremont, Calif.) ended the first day of NCAA men's fencing championship foil competition in 23rd place Thursday at Ohio State's French Fieldhouse.
Competing in NCAAs for the first time, Wang recorded victories over Adam Mathieu (a two-time first team All-Ivy League honoree) of No. 1 Columbia and Stanislov Sudilovsky of No. 5 Ohio State. He had a -33 indicator. Wang also had narrow 5-4 losses to Penn's Jason Chang and Columbia's Harry Bergman. That was one of the closest bouts of the day for Bergman, a two-time second team All-Ivy honoree who had 12 victories in 15 bouts Thursday and is currently in second place.
Wang, coming off a 13th-place finish at the NCAA Northeast Regional, is one of 24 competitors in foil. The first day of NCAAs included three round-robin rounds of five-touch bouts, with two more rounds coming Friday. After the round-robin, the top four finishers in each weapon fence in semifinal 15-touch bouts, with the winners fencing to determine first and second places, and the non-advancing fencers being awarded a tie for third place. The championships run from Mar. 19-22.
Wang, the lone male competitor for Yale, has earned two points for his school in the team standings -- putting the Bulldogs in 19th place. Those are the first points Yale has earned in men's foil competition at NCAAs since 2012, when Shiv Kachru '12 had 14 victories en route to a seventh-place finish.
A member of Saybrook College, Wang is a graduate of Mission San Jose High School.
Live coverage of the championships is available on-line at ESPN3 or via the WatchESPN app. An hour-long, documentary-style highlight show of the championships will air on ESPNU at 3:00 p.m. Wednesday, Apr. 8.
