Princeton One Off the Lead After Day One of the NCAA Fencing Championships

Complete Championship Schedule | Live Results (HTML) | ESPN3.com coverage

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Day one of the 2012 NCAA Fencing Championships saw several strong performces by Ivy League teams and individuals, as the first four rounds of the women's portion of the championship were contested at Ohio State's French Field House on Thursday.

As a team, Princeton trails the leaders of Notre Dame, Ohio State and Penn State by one point (i.e. one victory) as that trio of leaders racked up 51 points to Princeton's 50 on the day. Harvard sits in sixth (41 points), followed by Columbia and Penn, who are tied for seventh (35). Brown is 12th (13), follwoed by 13th-place Cornell (10) and Yale, who is tied for 14th (8).

On the individual leaderboard, Princeton's Katherine Holmes is in third in women's epee with 11 wins, with her teammate Hannah Safford checking in at seventh with 10 wins after a day of fencing. Columbia's Lydia Kopecky had nine wins on the day and is in ninth.

In foil, the Ivy contingent was led by Penn's Luona Wang, who recorded an impressive 12 wins, good for second place entering Friday's action. Harvard's Alexandra Kiefer, the 2011 NCAA Women's Foil Champion, notched nine wins and stands in eighth. With eight wins each, the Ivy trio of Sarah Parmacek (Penn), Lauren Miller (Yale) and Ambika Singh (Princeton) is ranked ninth through 11th, respectively, based on indicator margin.

Harvard's Caroline Vloka led the Ivy sabre fencers with 10 wins on the day and a +21 indicator margin, good for third place on the leaderboard. Princeton's Eliza Stone ranks fourth with nine wins.

Women's fencing action concludes Friday with rounds five through seven of round-robin play. Following the completion of those rounds, the top four finishers in each weapon will fence simultaneous semifinal 15-touch bouts, with the winners fencing to determine the 2012 individual NCAA Champion. The semifinal losers will tie for third. 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. Coverage of the medal round is slated to air on ESPN3, with the bouts scheduled to run from 1:45 p.m. until 3:45 p.m.

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.
 

2012 NCAA Championship Overall Team Standings - Day One:
1. Notre Dame -- 51
1. Ohio State University -- 51
1. Pennsylvania State -- 51
4. Princeton University -- 50
5. St. John's University -- 48
6. Harvard University -- 41
7. Columbia -- 35
7. Penn -- 35
9. Northwestern University -- 34
10. Temple University -- 23
11. Duke University -- 22
12. Brown University -- 13
13. Cornell University -- 10
14. Stanford University -- 8
14. Yale University -- 8
16. North Carolina -- 5
17. Boston College -- 2
17. Sacred Heart -- 2
19. M.I.T. -- 1
19. U.C. San Diego -- 1