Air Force Set To Compete At 2026 NCAA Fencing Championships

USAF ACADEMY, Colo. - Air Force fencing competes at the 2026 NCAA Fencing Championships, which runs Thurs.-Sun, March 19-22 at the Castellan Family Fencing Facility and Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center on the campus of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.

The Falcons have five cadet-athletes competing. On the women's side, senior Melissa Kline competes in women's foil and junior Christina Watrall competes in women's epee. The women's competition, runs Thurs.-Friday, March 19-20.

On the men's side, senior Jack Griffith leads the way with his third time competing in men's foil. Freshmen Ricard Li also competes in foil and Andrei Nazlymov will compete in men's saber. The men's competition runs Sat.-Sun., March 21-22.

The 2026 championship field features 144 fencers from 26 schools competing across six events: women's epee, foil and saber and men's epee, foil and saber.

Each individual event (Women's Epee, Women's Foil, Women's Saber, Men's Epee, Men's Foil, Men's Saber) consists of 24 fencers competing in a round robin of five-touch bouts. After round robin competition is complete, the top four finishers in each weapon advance to 15-touch semifinal bouts. The semifinal winners then fence for the NCAA individual championship.

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 during round-robin competition. New for 2025-26 will have standalone champions for both the men's and women's competitions, which enables a program with women's only fencing a chance at a national championship.

Early-round coverage will be available on Notre Dame's official livestream page. Championship-day coverage will then shift to ESPN+, with the women's semifinals and finals airing Friday and the men's semifinals and finals airing Sunday.

Air Force Fencers Competing
Women
Melissa Kline, Sr. - Foil
Christina Watrall, Jr. - Epée

Men
Jack Griffith, Sr. - Foil
Richard Li, Fr. - Foil
Andrei Nazlymov, Fr. - Saber

Order of Events (for Air Force) All times ET

Thursday, March 19
9 a.m. Women's Epée, rounds 1-3
11 a.m. Women's Foil, round 1-3

Friday, March 20
9 a.m. Women's Epée and Foil, rounds 4-5
1 p.m. Semifinals and Championship Bouts

Saturday, March 21
11 a.m. Men's Foil, rounds 1-3
1:30 pm Men's Saber, rounds 1-3

Sunday, March 22
9 a.m. Men's Foil and Saber, rounds 4-5
1:30 p.m. Semifinals and Championship Bouts

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