Jan. 18, 2012

EVANSTON, Ill. -- In advance of this weekend's east coast swing to Philadelphia and New York City, the Northwestern fencing team has been ranked No. 4 in the first CollegeFencing360.com poll of the season. The Wildcats will face four other squads that are ranked in the top-10 Saturday or Sunday.

Northwestern, which is coming off an eighth-place finish at the 2011 NCAA Championships, won its first set of duals this season in resounding fashion. The Wildcats defeated Air Force, Stanford, Florida, Swarthmore, UC-San Diego and Cal Tech by a combined score of 153-9 en route to a Western Invitational championship.

The 'Cats will face No. 8 Temple and No. 9 Penn at the Philadelphia Invitational on Saturday. Sunday, NU will bout with No. 3 Notre Dame and No. 6 Ohio State at the NYU Invitational. Five more opponents, Columbia, Cornell, Yale, North Carolina and NYU received votes in the latest edition of the poll.

Here is the complete CollegeFencing360.com poll:

1. Penn State
2. Princeton
3. Notre Dame
4. Northwestern
5. St. John's (NY)
6. Ohio State
7. Harvard
8. Temple
9. Pennsylvania
10. Duke

Others receiving votes: Columbia, Cornell, Brown, Yale, North Carolina, Sacred Heart, NYU, MIT, Boston College

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