UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Haverford College men's fencing sophomore Eric Chen took to the strips on the first day of the NCAA National Collegiate Fencing Championships at Penn State University on Thursday, competing in the first three rounds of round-robin, five-touch bouts in men's epee.

At the end of the opening day, Chen sits in 20th place with six wins, positioning the Fords in 22nd overall in the team standings.

Chen secured victories over Samuel Imrek of Saint John's, Niels Ruobailo of NJIT, Brayden Gyure of North Carolina, Maruan Osman-Touson of Notre Dame, along with Sanil Sharma and Dayus Gohel of UC San Diego.

His impressive wins came against an extremely strong national field, including Imrek, the 2024 Junior Fencing World Championships bronze medalist and the senior Pan-American champion, and Osman-Touson, the 2022-23 ACC Men's Epeeist of the Year and an All-American.

Chen will return to the strips for the final two rounds of round-robin competition at Penn State beginning at 9 a.m. with coverage on the PSUtv YouTube page.

Upon completion, the top four finishers in each weapon will advance to the semifinals, beginning at 1:30 p.m. The semifinal and final bouts will be streamed live on ESPN+.