COLUMBUS, Ohio - Duke senior Tristan Jones placed 12^th out of 24 epee competitors on the final day of the NCAA Men's Fencing Championships and helped the Blue Devils secure a ninth-place finish at Ohio State University.

Bolstered by senior women's saber Becca Ward's third NCAA Championship, the Blue Devils notched their third consecutive top-10 finish at the NCAAs. With only six fencers at the competition, Duke had the fewest fencers of any team inside the top 10. Eighth-place Columbia, with eight fencers, and 10^th-place Stanford, with nine, were the only other top-10 teams with less than 10 fencers.

Jones, in his second trip to the NCAAs, finished with a 12-11 record and defeated top-10 epee finishers Nicholas Vomero and Kian Ameli. The native of Andover, N.H., scored 12 of the Duke men's 30 points to help the Blue Devils to their third straight top-10 finish. Jones concludes his career with a 186-79 record and amassed a career-high 58 wins as a senior.

Also contributing on the men's side were freshman epee Dylan Nollner, who claimed 15^th place with nine victories, and junior saber Anthony Lin, who also won nine bouts and finished 19^th. Nollner, who recently won the silver medal at the Junior Olympics and earned a spot on the US Junior National Team, improved on the 22^nd-place finish he recorded in his first trip to the NCAAs as a freshman in 2011.

The NCAA Championships conclude the 2012 Duke fencing season. Nollner will resume his training with the Junior National team this week in preparation for the Junior World Fencing Championship in Moscow.