The New York University men's and women's fencing teams are on the road this weekend for their first competition of the 2025-26 season at the Coach Nikki Franke Classic in Philadelphia, PA.

The tournament is hosted by Temple University, with competition beginning at 8:00am each day, October 25-26. Named for Dr. Nikki Franke, the Classic honors Temple's longtime head coach who retired in 2022. Celebrating her career and role in founding the Owls' fencing program in 1972, the event brings together some of the top collegiate fencing programs in the country for two days of elite competition. 

Last year, the Violet fencers experienced a lot of success. Head Coach Ben Bratton led both squads to strong records, as the men went 20-11 and the women finished 21-12. Each team sent a representative to the NCAA National Championships, where the two teams combined to finish 21st out of 33 teams.

Sophomore Anup Banerjee, who finished the season with a 37-14 foil record, was the men's representative at the NCAA's. He won six bouts at the tournament and returns this year as one of Bratton's top fencers. Maria Stamos finished the season 23-10, also in foil, and was the women's NCAA qualifier. She finished in 12th place and earned All-America Honorable Mention. Stamos finished her NYU career with the fourth-most foil wins (127), and is now serving as a volunteer assistant coach.

Both rosters return strong performers, including some that set records last year. Farr Dickson is back for his senior year after entering the top five in most foil victories in NYU history (124). He needs eight wins to jump into third place. Another senior, Jerry Pan, also entered the NYU record book. He finished last year with a 53-23 record, tied for most wins ever in a season with any weapon. Another record was produced by sophomore Ajit Sivakumar, who finished with the fourth-most epee wins in a season (41).

Sophomore Ansh Ghayalod (36-15) and junior Adam Wong (31-9) also return to fence for the men after
strong seasons with the saber and foil, respectively. 

"Last year's men's team was especially young," Bratton said."With last season behind us, I expect to see a lot of maturity and growth in overall approach. We've added strong options in every weapon, and you'll see a team fielding lineups that can beat you from a variety of different ways on any given day."

On the women's side, sophomore Kayla Alcebar jumped into the top spot for most saber wins in a season with 48. The team is also returning sophomores Azniv Basralian (29-11) and Katherine Chen (39-19) in epee, while graduate student Claudia Meyer (33-20) returns to compete in foil. 

Sharon Ni, who graduated in May, finished her career with the fifth-most saber victories (113) in program history.

"The women's group is more balanced than we've fielded in years past with a strong cohort of incoming first-year team members," Bratton added. "We have experienced leaders setting the tone and younger fencers who bring energy and fearlessness. I'm excited to see what they can do."

Fans can follow the Nikki Franke Classic with live stats on FencingTime Live. Some of the tournament can also be watched on Temple's YouTube page.