INDIANAPOLIS---The NCAA Men's and Women's Fencing Committee announced today the field of 144 competitors who will particpate in the 2005 National Collegiate Men's and Women's Fencing Championships (a particpant list is located in the Helpful Links box to the right). Rice University and the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority will host the championships at the George R. Brown Convention Center, March 17-20, in Houston, Texas.

The National Collegiate Men’s and Women’s Fencing Championships include individual events in each of the six weapons (women’s foil, women’s epee, women’s sabre, men’s foil, men’s epee, men’s sabre).

Fencers will compete in a round-robin of 24 fencers in five-touch bouts.  After the round-robin, the top four fencers in each event will fence direct elimination 15-touch bouts for first, second, third and fourth place.  Absolute ties for the seeding will be broken as follows:  for positions one through three, by a coin toss; for position four, by a fence-off. 

An institution’s place finish in the championships will be based on points earned by each individual.  A team will be awarded one point for each victory by its student-athletes for the duration of the championships.

Highlights of the National Collegiate Men’s and Women’s Fencing Championships will be shown on CBS at 1 p.m. Eastern time, Saturday, April 23.  The seasonal show will feature highlights of 15 different NCAA championships that took place during the winter.