Penn State University freshman Samantha Catantan was named the women’s fencing Most Valuable Player following her memorable stint in the recent US NCAA Fencing Championship in Pennsylvania.

A former star fencer at University of the East, Catantan was included in the US NCAA All-America squad after she went unbeaten at 20-0 in pool play, which gave her the No. 1 spot in the semifinal of women’s foil.

Although the 19-year-old Catantan lost to Penn State teammate Lodovica Bicego of Italy in the crossover semifinal, the young student/athlete from Quezon City earned a bronze medal in the tournament.

Third year fencer Ryan Griffiths of epee was hailed the men's MVP, while senior Kelli Wokziak of women’s saber and sophomore Jonathan Piskovatskov of men’s epee captured Most Improved awards.

Amat Canlas, who nurtured Catantan together with his brother Christian, said that the latest award is a testament of hard work and dedication.

“We’re very proud of what she has achieved, and this MVP award is one of the results of what she has been doing as a fencer. Until now, she is working hard to improve her skills,” said Canlas.

Last week, Catantan won a bronze medal in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) for Asia-Oceania when she barged into the semifinal round of the event held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Though she fell short on her bid to earn a spot in this year’s Tokyo Olympics, Catantan became the first Filipino in 17 years to get a podium finish since former national team fencer Wally Mendoza settled with a silver medal in the OQT for the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Catantan is set to return to the US to continue her studies at Penn State and will come back here in the country for the national team tryout for this year’s 31st Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam.

As for the rest of the national team, they are coming back Friday morning.

Jylyn Nicanor missed a podium finish in women’s saber after she placed sixth overall, while Nathaniel Perez was ninth in men’s foil, Hanniel Abella was 10th in women’s epee, CJ Concepcion was 10th in men's saber, Noelito Jose was 11th in men’s epee.

Canlas said they will continue to work towards improving fencing in general, from developing new talents, and most importantly, to providing the best athletes for the national team.

“We’ll continue to build on what we have done in the previous years, during the 2019 SEA Games, here in the OQT. We’ll form the best team possible for the Vietnam SEA Games,”

“Hopefully, we’ll provide our fencers more international tournaments because only with these foreign exposure will they earn experience and confidence to be able to compete in the SEA Games, Asian Championships, Asian Games and the world championships.”