2012 NCAA Championships Field Announced

INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA Men’s and Women’s Fencing Committee has announced the field of 144 competitors that will participate in the 2012 National Collegiate Men’s and Women’s Fencing Championships. Ohio State will host the championships at the French Field House and St. John Arena, March 22-25, in Columbus, Ohio.

Live coverage will be provided by ESPN3 and on the WatchESPN app. An hour long, documentary-style highlight show of the National Collegiate Men’s and Women’s Fencing Championships will be shown on ESPNU at 11 a.m. ET March 31.

The National Collegiate Men’s and Women’s Fencing Championships include individual events in each of the six weapons (men’s foil, men’s epee, men’s sabre, women’s foil, women’s epee, women’s sabre).

Fencers will compete in a round-robin format of five-touch bouts. After the round-robin, the top-four finishers will fence in semifinal 15-touch bouts, with the winners fencing to determine first and second places, and the losers being awarded a tie for third place. Absolute ties for the seeding will be broken as follows: for positions one through three, by a coin toss; for position four, by a fence-off.

An institution’s place finish in the championships will be based on points earned by each individual. A team will be awarded one point for each victory by its student-athletes for the duration of the championships.

Opening rounds of the NCAA Championships begin on Thursday, March 22nd with the first 4 rounds of the women’s events with the final rounds and individual finals on Friday.  The men’s events will be fenced Saturday and Sunday.

Members of the Fencing.Net community are already debating which team will take the NCAA Title.  Take a look at the predictions and join in.

Fencers Competing at the 2012 NCAA Fencing Championships: