SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Brandeis University senior Lev BenAvram of Bethesda, Maryland, earned second-team All-Division All-America honors in men's saber today at the NCAA National Collegiate Men's Fencing championships at the University of Notre Dame. He finished in fifth place with a 16-7 overall record.
 

BenAvram entered the day sixth in the standings. He improved by one spot and just missed a spot in the Final Four by one victory and one additional touch. Four of his seven defeats in the tournament came to the four finals qualifiers, and the other three all came by 5-4 scores. Eight of his 16 wins came with him allowing two or fewer touches, and he picked up three 5-4 wins to finish 3-3 in one-touch bouts.

"It's a testament to Lev's abilities and his mindset as a competitor, and the planning and training plan devised by [assistant coach] Matt Zich," said Brandeis head coach Elif Sachs.

"What's amazing about this weekend's results is that Lev suffered a wrist injury at the Regional meet [two weeks earlier]. It was hard to watch him fence, because you could see how much pain he was in with every cut and parry. He hadn't touched a weapon for a week and hadn't properly warmed up until Saturday before he started fencing."

On Day Two of action from Notre Dame, BenAvram opened with a 5-4 win over Neil Lilov from Penn State. He dropped a 5-2 decision to fourth-place fencer Adham Moataz from St. John's next, but bounced back to defeat a second Red Storm fencer, Vlad Covaliu, 5-1. BenAvram closed out the first round with another 5-1 win over LIU's Andrew Gefell, improving to 13-6 overall. He improved to fifth place overall, four points ahead of Penn's Antonio Heathcock on indicator, and two wins out of a spot in the top four. 

In the final round, all eight fencers ranked in the top 10 in the standings after Round 4. BenAvram opened against Columbia's William Morrill, dropping a 5-2 match to the fencer at the top of the table. He responded with a 5-3 win against the other Lion fencer in the group, Zeyad Nofal, who was ranked seventh. BenAvram bested eighth-place Elden Wood of North Carolina, 5-1, to exceed his win total from 2025, and wrapped up with a 5-1 result against Flavio Vinci of Wagner to secure a 16-7 record.

With his fifth-place finish, BenAvram clinched second-team All-Division All-America honors for the second year in a row. BenAvram's fifth-place finish is the highest by a Brandeis men's fencer since Tim Morehouse '00 reached the finals and placed fourth in 2000, and his 16 wins at NCAAs are the most by a Brandeis man since Morehouse won 20 that year.

The 16 points earned by BenAvram put Brandeis in 18th place in the team standings. The Judges tied with rivals NYU on team points, despite the Violets having two representatives in the field, but BenAvram's superior winning percentage put them one spot ahead in the standings.