Northwestern Finishes Season at NCAA Championships

3/26/2017 5:36:00 PM | Women's Fencing

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Northwestern closed out its season at the NCAA Fencing Championships on Sunday in Indianapolis, Ind., highlighted by Pauline Hamilton taking 15th place in the epee competition.

Hamilton went a steady 5-5 on the second day of the competition to move up six spots in the epee field to 15th place. She earned wins over fencers from Harvard, Duke, MIT and Columbia in rounds four and five, and finished just four wins off of the last semifinalist spot. Hamilton joins Julia Abelsky and Alisha Gomez-Shah as the only current Wildcats to qualify for the NCAAs as a freshman.

Stephanie Chan earned one win on Sunday and ended the foil competition in 23rd place. The senior captain finished her Northwestern career with two NCAA Championships appearances and over 160 career wins.

Notre Dame won both the overall and women's national title. In the team rankings with just two participants, Northwestern finished 16th.

The conclusion of the Championships marks the end of Northwestern's season. Along with qualifying two fencers for the NCAA Championships in the postseason, the Wildcats earned a bronze individual medal at the NCAA Midwest Regionals and a second place overall finish along with a first place finish in epee at the Midwest Fencing Conference Championships.

Northwestern ended the duals portion of its season ranked No. 8 in the country, and tallied 33 duals wins in the first year of head coach Zach Moss' tenure. Moss will see eleven seniors with over 1,350 combined wins depart from the program while returning 20 fencers for next season.