With improvements in her style, top Filipina bet Samantha Catantan is getting ready to compete in coming regionals of the US NCAA Fencing Championships.
Catantan got to know where she is in her preparations after snaring a bronze medal in the 42nd Temple Open Fencing Championship recently in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“I’m happy with the way I fence as of now and I think I have enough time to actually be ready for December,” said Catantan, a former University of the East High School star under coach Amat Canlas.
The 20-year-old Catantan recently finished in a share of third and fourth places with Maia Weintraub of Princeton.
No. 1 fencer Zander Rhodes of Columbia won the gold, while No. 15 Sabrina Cho of University of Pennsylvania settled for the silver.
Catantan lost to Rhodes, a former world champion in the cadet category, 15-8, in the semifinal round.
She was ahead, 7-5 at one point in the second round of her semifinal bout, but struggled the rest the match when she accidentally stepped on the foot of Rhodes while trying to initiate an attack.
Catantan believes that she is now ready for the regionals.
“For now, I’d say I’m around 85 percent in terms of being ready for the NCAA,” she said.
Catantan only had one win out of five bouts during the pooling, which resulted in her being ranked 37th going into the direct eliminations of the tournament.
From there, Catantan disposed of no. 28 Lee Bethany of JHU, 15-2, in the round-of-64, before turning back Penn State teammate Arianna Proietti, 15-7, in the round-of-32.
She got past Rowan Park of Northwestern, 15-12, in round-of-16 and Evelyn Cheng of Columbia, 15-10, in the quarterfinals.
The Garrette Open at Penn State, a dual meet later this month, will be up next for Catantan.
A stint in the World Cup in Serbia is also in the pipeline, before Catantan plunges into action in the regionals for the US NCAA.
The US NCAA will have its national championship on March 24 to 27 at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.