COLUMBUS, Ohio – Brandeis University junior Tony Escueta (Grand Prairie, Texas/Abeka Home School Academy) finished in eighth place today in the men's sabre competition at the 2024 NCAA National Collegiate Fencing Championships. In the process he earned All-Division All-America honors for the second year in a row.
 
Escueta entered the day seventh in the standings after going 9-6 on Day 1 of men's action and Day 3 of the championships. In Round 4 of competition today, Escueta went 2-2, sweeping opponents from Princeton while falling to foes from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of North Carolina, with the latter coming by a 5-4 score.
 
In the fifth and final round, Escueta again went 2-2, with his wins coming over a pair fencers from UC-San Diego. His losses in the final round were against two fencers, Luca Fioretto of Ohio State and Eyad Marouf of Wayne State, who reached the semifinal round after finishing in third and fourth place in the round robin standings.
 
With his eight-place finish, Escueta turned in the highest finish by a men's fencer at the NCAA Championships since 2008, when Will Friedman '09, placed seventh. Escueta's 13 wins were the most since Friedman won 14 during his junior year. Escueta, who finished in 12^th place last year to earn Honorable Mention honors at the NCAA Championships, becomes Brandeis' first male two-time All-American in fencing since Tim Morehouse '00 finished sixth and fourth in 1999 and 2000.
 
With Escueta's 13 points at the NCAA championships, coupled with graduate student Maggie Shealy's 18 wins on the women's side – en route to a national championship – Brandeis finished in 15^th place in the final team standings. It marks the second year in a row the Judges finished in the top 15 and the third straight year in the top 20. Brandeis finished two points behind rival NYU for the top Division III team in the standings, despite the Violets qualifying four fencers compared to the Judges' two. The Judges were third among New England schools, behind Harvard, who won the national championship by eight points over Notre Dame, and Yale, who finished in ninth place. Brandeis tied with Boston College (coached by alumnus Brendan Doris-Pierce '06) in total victories, but with one fewer fencer and a much-higher team indicator (+54 to -40). MIT (20^th place, 24 points) and Brown (25^th place, 12 points) also placed among the 27 schools.