Notre Dame Fencing Wins 11th National Title
For the third time in four years, Notre Dame captured the NCAA combined men’s and women’s fencing national title, which was held this weekend at the Bryce Jordan Center on the campus of Penn State University.
The four-day event featured the men’s foil, epee and sabre championships on Thursday and Friday, followed by the women in the same events on Saturday and Sunday.
It was the third national title under head coach Gia Kvaratskhelia, who had been an assistant at the school before taking the lead position in 2014. The final team standings were:
1. Notre Dame 201
2. Penn State 182
3. NJIT 130
4. Duke 128
5. St. John’s 106
The 201 points were the most by any team in history in the current championship format. Notre Dame held the advantage after the first day of competition and never relinquished it. Among the men it had five of the six fencers make the finals.
Marcello Olivares and Luke Linder secured their first individual championships after defeating their fellow teammates in the finals. Olivares got the best of Andrew Machovec to earn the men’s foil championship, while Linder took down Jared Smith to earn the sabre championship. Stephen Ewart made the epee semifinals as the four seed and upset the No. 1 seed to make it to the finals.
Among the Irish women, Stefani Deschner won the national title in foil and Kara Linder in sabre. Just like the men, five of the six women advanced to the semifinals: Amita Berthier and Deschner in foil, Linder in sabre and Kaylin Hsieh and Miriam Grady in epee.
Overall, the Irish claimed four individual champions, two runner-up finishes, 10 first team All-Americans and one second and third team All-American.
Notre Dame’s athletics office indicated that the fencing program has now tied football for most national titles in school history with 11 apiece. However, the school recognizes only consensus titles in football, thereby not including NCAA-recognized titles in 1919 and 1964.
Here is the national title rundown, per the university.
Football (11): 1924, 1929, 1930, 1943, 1946, 1947, 1949, 1966, 1973, 1977 and 1988
In 10 other seasons, Notre Dame received some mention as the national champion, highlighted by winning the 1964 MacArthur Bowl, presented by the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame, an award emblematic of one of the four outlets recognized by the NCAA (along with AP, the coaches’ poll, which used to be the UPI, and the Football Writers Association of America’s Grantland Rice Trophy).
The Fighting Irish were No. 1 or legitimately in the running for it on nine other occasions before losing or tying on either the last day of the regular season or the bowl: 1938 (13-0 at USC), 1948 (14-14 at USC), 1964 (20-17 at USC), 1970 (38-28 at USC), 1974 (55-24 at USC), 1980 (20-3 at USC), 1989 (27-10 at Miami), 1993 (41-39 versus Boston College) and 2012 (42-14 to Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game).
It demonstrates just how challenging it is to finish a season unbeaten or untied (achieved only twice in the last 71 years, 1973 and 1988).
Fencing (11): 1977, 1978, 1986, 1987, 1994, 2003, 2005, 2011, 2017, 2018 and 2021
Under Notre Dame icon Mike DeCicco, the men won the 1977, 1978 and 1986 titles, while the women earned it in 1987 with Yves Auriol. In 1990, the NCAA went to a combined (men’s and women’s) championship with Auriol.
Since 1979, the fencers have finished second 14 times, including five in a row from 1996-2000 before winning more titles under Janusz Bednarski.
Women’s Soccer (3): 1995, 2004 and 2010
A sport that became varsity in the late 1980s quickly emerged, first under Chris Petrucelli and then with two-time national champ Randy Waldrum. This program has also had five runner-up finishes: 1994, 1996, 1999, 2006 and 2008 — all to North Carolina.
Women’s Basketball (2): 2001, 2018
A two-point win over Purdue after Ruth Riley’s two free throws in the closing seconds won it all in 2001 for head coach Muffet McGraw, who took the reins of the program in 1987 and retired after the 2020 season.
Arike Ogunbowale’s legendary three-point bucket at the horn won the Irish their second title 17 years later.
Notre Dame also made it to the Final Four in 1997 and five straight seasons (2011-15), losing in the championship game in 2011 to Texas A&M, in 2012 to Baylor, in the 2013 semifinal to Connecticut in a de facto title game after going 3-0 against the Huskies during the season, and then in the finals again to the Huskies dynasty in 2014 and 2015.
Finally, the 2019 team nearly repeated before losing by one to Baylor in the title game.
Men’s Tennis (2): 1944 and 1959
The Irish shared it with two other teams in ’44 while finishing 9-0 under coach Walter Langford, and in ’59 with head coach Tom Fallon the 14-0 Notre Dame team shared it with Tulane.
Men’s Soccer (1): 2013
At age 68, 12th-year head coach Bobby Clark captured his first NCAA title, one year after losing as the No. 1 seed in the round of 16.
Men’s Cross Country (1): 1957
Coach Alex Wilson’s team won the title held in East Lansing, Mich. From 1987 on, coach Joe Piane guided nine top-10 finishes, including No. 3 in 1990 and 2005.
Earlier this month, Sean Carlson's harriers finished as the national runner-up to superpower Northern Arizona.
Men’s Golf (1): 1944
The final piece to the 1943-44 school year that resulted in three national titles (football and golf as well).
Note: Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame coach George Keogan was retroactively declared the 1927 and 1936 national champs by the Helms Foundation, but that is not recognized by the NCAA.
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