The development was announced by the official athletics website of the Penn State University on Friday.

“I am very happy, it’s a blessing for me to be in the finals,” Catantan said in an interview with Manila Bulletin.

“As a foreign athlete, I also represent the Philippines here in the US NCAA and I’m very proud of that. I hope to do well when the competition begins,” she added.

Catantan is a freshman at Pennsylvania State University and is the first homegrown Filipina to play for a Division 1 school in the United States National Collegiate Athletic Association (US NCAA).

She made a historic run in the 2019 Asian Under-23 Fencing Championship when she clinched the country’s first women’s gold medal. 

The 19-year old freshman at Penn State is among the 12 Nitanny Lions who have qualified in the annual championships of the league.

Catantan will be competing in the women’s foil tournament along with her senior and four-time NCAA qualifier Lodovica Bicego.

After her stint in the US NCAA, the Filipina fencer will be preparing for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) along with the national team and will be competing in the World Junior/Cadet Fencing Championships in Cairo, Egypt as part of her preparation.

She will be seeing action in the OQT for Asians for the Tokyo Olympics in South Korea in April and in the Asian Championship penciled in June.