UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.; – The Penn State men’s fencing team began its season today at the Nikke Franke Open at Temple. Participating schools included Duke, Long Island University, University of Florida, Navy, Swarthmore, Wagner College, Boston College, John's Hopkins, University of Pennsylvania, Stevens, NYU and Haverford. Fourteen Nittany Lions competed in the men’s portion of the open.
Freshman Mohamed Yasseen finished on top of men’s epee leaderboard with a 15-7 win over NYU’s Ajit Sivakumar. Sultan Hassan tied 45th, Vasil Ivakimov finished 48th, Joshua Yavorovskiy finished 51st and Sebastian Bonomo finished 53rd.
Out of 100 men's foil participants, Yaroslav Muruhin finished in second place with a 15-12 win over University of Pennslyvania’s Nicholas Wu. Dusan Zeljkovic placed 17th and Julian Chin finished 18th. Carroll Cannon tied for 22nd, Michael Desando finished 39th, and Jun Ahn finished 49th.
The sabre squad featured a second-place finish for Kamar Skeete with a 15-12 win over University of North Carolina’s John Lin. Nicholaus Zielinski finshed 21st.
Following this weekend’s action, select Penn State fencers will take part in the NAC event in Louisville, Ky., on Saturday through Monday, Nov. 8-11.
Penn State Fans are encouraged to follow Penn State fencing via X/twitter at @pennstateFEN, on Penn State fencing's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pennstatefencing and on Instagram at www.instagram.com/pennstatefen.