LA JOLLA, Calif. - The UC San Diego fencing team hosted the 15th Annual Bladerunner tournament over the weekend, welcoming a total of 265 fencers to campus for the two-day event. Part of the Regional Open Circuit, the individual U.S. Fencing competition featured fencers from all over the country, including representatives from Mexico.

This year's field was the largest in the history of the tournament and featured the strongest competition to date. With that said, the Tritons gained a tremedous amont of experience from the competition and several fencers achieved impressive results. 

UCSD's Brennan Louie was the champion in the men's foil event, working his way to the gold medal bout in a direct elimination field of 48 as the fourth seed. The freshman from Los Angeles fought off severe cramping in both legs to soundly defeat his opponent 15-4.

UCSD also got great results in men's epee. Freshman Luc Ginestet was the second seed out of pools and proceeded through the direct elimination table, before finally losing in the championship match and taking home the silver medal. His secondplace showing came in a field of 64 epeeists, which had a strength rating of A4 or the highest possible rating category for a U.S. tournament.

Other noteworthy results included squad captain Michael Fong's peformance in men's foil. He was the second seed out of pools and went on to earn a bronze medal in the event. Nalin Desai also medaled in men's foil with an eighth place finish, while team captain Nicholas McGuinness fought his way to a fifth place result in men's epee. Because of the strength of the weapon, both McGuinness and Ginestet earned an A rating, which is the highest rating in the U.S. Fencing system.

The women achieved thier strongest results in foil, with squad captain Jia Jie Wu finishing in third place. She was accompanied on the medal stand by teammate Rose Forcier, who finished in seventh, and Amrit Khalsa, who placed eighth.

The Tritons return to action next year when they host the West Invitational on January 8 at RIMAC Arena. UCSD will square off with Division I regional rivals Stanford and Air Force, among onthers, during the event.