On Sunday, March 22, 2026, the NCAA Fencing Championships concluded at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, United States, bringing to a close four days of competition of the highest collegiate standard. This year’s championships will be remembered as a landmark occasion, not only for the exceptional quality of fencing on display, but also because they marked the first edition conducted under the new separate men’s and women’s team championship format. Notre Dame, the host institution, achieved a remarkable result by winning both the women’s and the men’s team titles on home pistes.
As Head Fencing Coach at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Virginia, I followed these championships with great professional interest and genuine admiration. It was a real pleasure to witness such a high standard of fencing, and at the same time to consider the organisation, structure, and competitive framework of the NCAA championship model. Events of this calibre offer far more than results alone. They provide an example for coaches, athletes, schools, and universities. They show what excellence can look like when sport is supported by vision, discipline, institutional strength, and a serious commitment to education.
The championships were held from 19 to 22 March 2026 at the Joyce Center in South Bend. The women’s events took place on Thursday and Friday, while the men’s events were contested on Saturday and Sunday. The championship field comprised 144 competitors from 26 institutions, with contests across the six recognised NCAA events: women’s épée, foil, and sabre, and men’s épée, foil, and sabre. The format remains one of the most distinctive in collegiate sport. Each weapon begins with a demanding round-robin phase of five-touch bouts, after which the top four progress to the direct-elimination stage, where the semi-finals and finals are fenced to 15 touches. Team success is determined by victories accumulated during the round-robin phase, which means that depth, resilience, and consistency across the entire squad are essential.
What made this year especially significant was the implementation of the new championship structure, under which the NCAA awarded separate men’s and women’s team titles for the first time. This was not merely an administrative adjustment. It was an important step in the development of collegiate fencing, one that gives clearer competitive recognition to both divisions and reflects the sport in a more balanced and transparent way. The significance of this reform was immediately underscored by Notre Dame’s historic double victory, with the women winning their team title on Friday and the men following with their own championship on Sunday.
The men’s championship provided an especially revealing lesson in how elite programmes achieve success. Notre Dame won the men’s team title with 91 bout victories, finishing ahead of Columbia/Barnard on 81. Yet this triumph was not built upon one isolated star performance or one dominant weapon. Rather, it was the result of balance across the squad, with Notre Dame recording 33 wins in sabre, 31 in foil, and 27 in épée. That is the essence of NCAA fencing. A championship is not secured by occasional brilliance alone. It is secured by structure, preparation, composure, and quality across all three weapons.
The individual results also reflected the depth and international quality of the collegiate field. In the men’s competition, Youssef Shamel of North Carolina captured the épée title, Sam Kumbla of Columbia won the foil championship, and Ahmed Hesham of Notre Dame claimed the sabre crown. In the women’s competition, Eszter Muhari of Notre Dame delivered one of the standout performances of the championship by winning the women’s épée title. Such results confirm that NCAA fencing continues to attract athletes of exceptional calibre and that the collegiate pathway remains a serious and prestigious arena for athletic and personal development.
These championships also raise an important question for every school, academy, and university programme: what truly enables an academic sporting programme to succeed? The answer is clear. Sustainable success is built on the union of excellent teaching, thoughtful recruiting, strong coaching, institutional support, and a culture of disciplined daily work. Talent matters, of course, but talent alone is never enough. Students and athletes are drawn to good schools because they seek an environment that offers intellectual quality, personal growth, trusted leadership, competitive opportunity, and a meaningful future. They want to join an institution that combines academic credibility with sporting ambition, and high standards with genuine care for the individual.
This is precisely why recruiting is so important. Good recruiting is not simply about identifying the most talented fencers. It is about recognising the students who will flourish within a school’s ethos, contribute to a team culture, and grow both on and off the piste. In fencing, that task requires particular care. A serious programme must think across épée, foil, and sabre, across immediate performance and long-term development, and across technical ability, character, and academic readiness. The strongest programmes recruit with discernment. They do not merely seek athletes who can win bouts. They seek students who can contribute to a culture of excellence.
At the same time, the quality of education remains fundamental. A school must offer a very high standard of teaching if it wishes to attract serious students and serious athletes. Young people do not choose an institution solely because of results. They choose it because they see there a future. They want rigorous education, respected teachers, a stable environment, a strong community, and the opportunity to become not only successful competitors, but well-formed individuals. A truly distinguished academic-athletic programme succeeds because it offers both: a demanding education and an ambitious sporting environment.
Notre Dame provided a compelling example of that model throughout this championship. The organisation of the event, the quality of the competitive field, the atmosphere within the venue, and the discipline shown across the programme all reflected the strength of a university capable of supporting excellence at the highest level. These championships were not simply a tournament. They were a demonstration of what can happen when a leading academic institution combines resources, tradition, coaching expertise, recruiting strength, and a clear culture of performance.
I should also like to pay special tribute to the referees, whose work in épée, foil, and sabre played a vital role in the success of these championships. High-level fencing depends upon high-level officiating, and throughout this event the standard of refereeing was both impressive and reassuring. The referees brought authority, composure, consistency, and technical understanding to every phase of the competition. Their command of tempo, priority, distance, and the demands of each weapon helped ensure that the bouts were conducted with fairness, clarity, and respect for the athletes. In a championship of this importance, such professionalism is indispensable, and it deserves to be recognised with sincere appreciation.
For that reason, I should like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to all athletes who competed in this year’s NCAA Fencing Championships. Their discipline, courage, technical command, and sportsmanship honoured the finest traditions of our sport. I would also like to offer my warm congratulations to the coaches, referees, organisers, staff, volunteers, and the entire University of Notre Dame community for delivering a championship of such distinction. To host an event of this scale and significance and to emerge as champion in both divisions is an exceptional achievement, and one fully deserving of admiration and respect.
I am also pleased to share photographs taken during the championships. Please do take a moment to view the accompanying images I captured during this outstanding event, as they reflect not only the technical beauty of fencing, but also the poise, intensity, and collegiate spirit that defined this remarkable weekend.
I would also like to express my appreciation to USA Fencing and to Bryan Wendell for their excellent championship coverage and for helping bring the story of these events to the wider fencing community. Bryan Wendell is identified by USA Fencing as its Director of Communications, and his reporting has helped document this important championship weekend with clarity and distinction.
Looking ahead, the 2027 NCAA Fencing Championships are scheduled to be hosted by Duke University, in partnership with the Durham Sports Commission, in Durham, North Carolina. That is encouraging news for all who care deeply about the future of collegiate fencing, and it ensures that next year’s championship will once again be held in an academically distinguished and athletically ambitious setting.
Above all, this championship offers a message worth sharing with every young person considering sport and education. Fencing is a beautiful sport. It teaches judgement, timing, resilience, discipline, courage, respect, and self-command. When it is placed within a strong school or university environment, it becomes even more powerful, because sport and education together can shape character in lasting ways. That is why events such as the NCAA Fencing Championships matter so deeply. They do not merely crown champions. They inspire future students, future athletes, and future leaders.
In every meaningful respect, the 2026 NCAA Fencing Championships at the University of Notre Dame were historic, distinguished, and deeply instructive. They showed what is possible when excellent recruiting, strong academic standards, skilled coaching, high-quality officiating, institutional strength, and a culture of sustained effort come together in one place. For the entire fencing community, this championship was not only a celebration of achievement. It was also a lesson, and a very positive example, of how the sport should continue to grow.
