Cornell women’s fencing achieved a milestone on March 20 by finishing ninth at the NCAA Championships, setting new program records for both team placement and total wins in the modern era.
The team’s ninth-place finish marks the first time Cornell has entered the top ten at the NCAA Championships. The Big Red recorded 42 victories, surpassing their previous record of 39 set in 2019. This is only the sixth occasion in recent history that Cornell has reached or exceeded 30 wins at a single NCAA event.
Senior Ketki Ketkar led Cornell’s efforts, going 7-1 on Friday in epee to reach the semifinals before falling to Columbia’s Hadley Husisian. Ketkar earned All-American honors for the third time, becoming just the third fencer in program history to do so. She joins Peggy Walbridge and Christine Hamori as three-time All-Americans from Cornell.
Junior sabers Isabela Carvalho and Samantha Marsee each secured nine wins during the competition. Carvalho finished 16th overall in saber after her second appearance at nationals, while Marsee placed 19th overall. Freshman Lana Lee contributed seven victories in foil, placing 20th overall in her first NCAA Championships.
Cornell qualified four athletes for this year’s championships—the most since 2022 and only the fifth time ever that four or more athletes have represented the program at nationals. Earlier this season, Ketkar became Cornell’s first Ivy League individual champion in any weapon, and four sabre fencers advanced to regional finals for another program first.
Previously, Cornell’s best team finish was 13th place in a combined men’s and women’s ranking in 2024. The program had only recorded a top-10 women’s score four times before, with its best prior performance coming in 2022. This year also marked the inaugural awarding of an NCAA Championship Title specifically for Women’s Fencing.
Notre Dame won this year’s team title with 102 points, narrowly defeating Columbia’s 99 points. Princeton, Penn, Harvard, and Yale rounded out the top teams.
