Jonah Shainberg, 19, a freshman at the University of Notre Dame, has qualified for the USA Fencing Junior National Team and will compete at the Junior World Fencing Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, next month.

 

Jonah Shainberg, 19, a freshman at the University of Notre Dame, has qualified for the USA Fencing Junior National Team and will compete at the Junior World Fencing Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, next month. Shainberg is a sabre fencer. The top 3 ranked American male and female sabre, epee, and foil fencers age 19 and under, plus one alternate for each group, comprise the team. Fencers will compete in both individual and team events.

Shainberg’s season began last July with silver and bronze medals in the Junior (age 19 and under) and Division 1 (all qualifying elite fencers) North American Cup tournaments. Over the past fall and winter, he represented the USA at Junior World Cups in Bulgaria, Germany, and Hungary, and North American Cups (NAC) in Salt Lake City and Kansas City, and at the Junior Olympics in Richmond. He won a silver medal in the Junior event at NAC in Salt Lake City, and a bronze medal at the Junior Pan American Championships held in Toronto in February.

He completed the competitive fencing season with a 7th-place finish at the USA Fencing National Championships on February 28th in Reno, NV.

 

His strong results overall earned him enough qualifying points for a 3rd place National Ranking by the end of the international and national season. He is currently ranked 24th in the world junior men’s sabre standings.

Shainberg, a 2014 Rye High School graduate, is also a starter on the varsity fencing team at Notre Dame. He was honored as an Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Fencer of the Week after his strong performances at the St. John’s University and NYU Invitational Tournaments in January.

 

In February, Notre Dame won the 2015 ACC Fencing Championships, held at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Shainberg won a silver medal in the individual tournament.

At the NCAA Mid-Atlantic regional tournament held earlier this month at Northwestern University, Shainberg had an 11-2 overall record, and a second-place individual finish. He is one of ten Notre Dame fencers who will compete at the NCAA Fencing Championships at Ohio State University in in mid-March.