UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — CollegeFencing360.com has released the first Coaches Poll of the season, and the Nittany Lions find themselves ranked high among the competition. The men’s team is ranked second in the nation, only behind Ohio State, and the women’s team is ranked fourth.
CollegeFencing360.com is the official home for the national college fencing poll. Two more polls will be released throughout the season: one in mid-February, and one in early March after the 2013 NCAA regionals.
Penn State will have the chance to compete against many of the other ranked teams this weekend as they head to Queens, N.Y. to compete in the St. John’s Invitational. In the one-day event the Nittany Lions will battle Ohio State, Columbia, Harvard, Notre Dame, and St. John’s. All five of these teams are ranked in the top ten in the first poll of the season. Action is set to begin this Saturday (Jan. 26) at 10 a.m., and complete results will be posted on gopsusports.com at the conclusion of the event. The invitational will air on ESPN3.com beginning at 2 p.m.
The complete rankings for the CollegeFencing360.com Fencing Coaches Poll are listed below.
Men
1. Ohio State – 123 voting points
2. Penn State – 121
3. Notre Dame – 116
4. Princeton – 108
5. St. John’s – 105
6. Harvard – 96
7. Columbia – 83
8. Penn – 75
9. Duke – 60
10. Stanford – 49
Also Receiving Votes: Sacred Heart 38, Yale 30, North Carolina 18, Air Force 11, MIT 6, UC San Diego 3, Boston College 2, Johns Hopkins 2, and Brandeis 1
Women
1. Princeton – 147 voting points
2. Notre Dame – 137
3. Columbia – 121
4. Ohio State – 120
5. Penn State – 111
6. St. John’s – 105
7. Northwestern – 88
8. Harvard – 85
9. Temple – 67
10. Penn – 60