Notre Dame Wins Men's NCAA Team Title, Ties Columbia for All-Time Lead
Published
Notre Dame won the men's NCAA fencing team championship in South Bend in the first year of a new format that scored men's and women's team titles separately.
Notre Dame won the men's NCAA fencing team championship in South Bend in the first year of a new format that scored men's and women's team titles separately.
The team standings
Men's bout wins:
- Notre Dame — 91
- Columbia/Barnard — 81
- St. John's — 63
- Harvard — 62
The men's title completed a sweep: Notre Dame had won the women's team championship two days earlier. The program entered the weekend tied with Penn State for second on the all-time list and left it tied with Columbia at 16 NCAA fencing team titles.
Individual men's champions
- Epee — Youssef Shamel (North Carolina), the first UNC men's epee NCAA champion and only the second individual fencing title in program history after John Friedberg's men's saber win in 1983
- Foil — Sam Kumbla (Columbia), who beat Chase Emmer (Notre Dame) in the final and became Columbia's first men's foil NCAA champion since Ashton Daniel in 2022
- Saber — Ahmed Hesham (Notre Dame), the latest in a line of Irish saber champions following Luke Linder in 2021, 2023 and 2024
Balance won it
Notre Dame's men's total broke down as 33 saber wins, 31 foil and 27 epee. No single weapon carried the title; all three scored at a championship level. That balance is what separates a team champion from a school with one great squad.
Across the full 2026 NCAA championships, five schools produced individual champions: Notre Dame (two), Harvard, Ohio State, Columbia and North Carolina.
What this means for a saber family
NCAA fencing is a real pathway, and saber is a real part of it. Hesham's title came the same season he met Will Morrill in the Junior Worlds semifinal in Rio — the collegiate and international junior circuits are fenced by the same athletes. Families planning a recruiting path should understand that coaches watch national and international results, and that consistent saber results across a season matter more than one strong weekend.
Related reading on Saber Nation
Train with us in Bethesda
Saber Nation coaches saber fencers from first lesson through college recruiting at 4701 Sangamore Road, Suite LL2, Bethesda, MD 20816. See our saber fencing classes in Bethesda or contact us.
Official USA Fencing source: Notre Dame Wins Men's NCAA Team Championship, Ties Columbia for All-Time Lead — published March 22, 2026.
Training options
Continue with Day 1 in Rio: Morrill's Junior saber silver or More USA Fencing news or Saber fencing classes in Bethesda, MD.