Sophomore Eric Chen made history for Haverford College’s fencing team by being the only Division III fencer to qualify for men’s épée at the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) 2025 Fencing Championships.
The competition occurred on March 20 at Penn State University, where Chen secured 22nd place. Out of more than 144 fencers, he also received the Elite 90 award, which goes to the student with the highest cumulative GPA.
To get to know the student behind the headlines, however, The Bi-Co News sat down with Chen for an interview. Fencing for about 10 years now, Chen is an anthropology major on the pre-med track from Ellicott City, Maryland.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
What drew you to fencing, as well as to your particular style, epee?
So, I actually started off doing foil, and I guess what drew me to it was [that] it was offered at my Chinese school and there were kind of like two choices for the “cool kids.” There was Chinese sword dance and there was fencing. And then as soon as I learned that, yeah, I can’t actually hit people in Chinese sword dance, I chose fencing.
And I did it casually for a long time, until middle school when I switched to épée because there was a lack of coaches in my club and there was a new épée coach. I started fencing competitively, and you know, it was fun.
I heard that you received the Elite 90 Award, and I’m sure many would be curious, how do you balance being an athlete with maintaining such high grades?
In terms of balance, it’s more so [that] you do things that don’t drain you, and you only do things that you want to do. I feel like I tell a lot of my friends this advice, even for school and like the subjects you take, you gotta be invested in it. You gotta be having fun. And for fencing, it’s like a break from school stuff, but I really, really enjoy it. I don’t see myself as a super competitive athlete, and of course I get competitive, but my point is I don’t fence to win. I fence because I love it.
I think if you’re always having fun, then you never feel like you’re getting burned out and having to do things you don’t want to do. So, yeah, just having a great time.
And speaking of what it takes to be an athlete, how did you prepare for this event?
You know, honestly, I was more prepared last year. I was very fit near the end of the season, and I didn’t do as well at the regional event as I wanted to. And qualifications for nationals is like 40% of your normal season of ranking, they’re called SVI, and then 60% of your regionals standing, like the tournament.
I got shut down pretty hard and I lost early on. I got 26th place, and I think I was ranked like Top Ten or something going into regionals. So, I was definitely disappointed because there are like 7 seats per region to fence at nationals. And I was definitely excited to go, I was like “Oh my gosh, I’ll just fence really well, it’ll be my chance.” It didn’t come, and honestly, this year, I didn’t really have any expectations going in.
As soon as I realized that I got into nationals, like I qualified, I really just did a lot of bouting and a lot of thinking about how I’m going to do, like what mindset I’m going to have, because everyone there is really good. I think there were like 3 Olympians or something.
How did you feel on the day of the event?
The day of the event, like the day before when I got there to check in equipment and everything, I was telling my coach like, “Oh, I’m feeling a bit jittery,” but usually that’s not really the case because I’ve been competing for so long, even [at] other national level events.
But I guess it’s because they have all the NCAA posters and decorations and [there was] the idea that everyone at Haverford was watching me.
The day of, I felt great, because I was, you know, the only D3 fencer here. We don’t even [have] an épée coach this year. If anything, I guess I was sort of acting as an épée coach. You know, a lot of my training was just me, by myself … we also have great coaches, but everyone here has world class épée coaching. Their épée coaches are there telling them technical advice, and I didn’t necessarily have those resources. So, I didn’t necessarily feel like I should be expecting anything, but you know, I still wanted to give them a very hard time. Maybe I’ll make some D1 kids cry.
I’ll say though, my coaches — coach Christine — did a wonderful job keeping my head above the water.
Could you tell us about your future goals in fencing?
Honestly, it’d be great if I could make nationals again, like in my next two years of college.
And I do want to see improvements for Haverford fencing in terms of our epee team. Right now, it’s really small. It’s like three people and one person is leaving.
I really want to focus my efforts into bringing everyone up, giving everyone room to fence the best that they can.
