Daniel Friend joined the Harvard men's and women's fencing programs for the 2025–26 season.
In his first year with the Crimson, both programs placed fourth at the inaugural split-gender NCAA Fencing Championships. The men's team captured the Ivy League Championship with two individual title winners and seven top eight individual finishes, while the women's team finished as conference runner-up and recorded nine top eight individual finishes across the program.
Prior to Harvard, Friend served in both coaching and administrative roles at the Tim Morehouse Fencing Club in New York City. There, he worked with youth, collegiate, and elite-level athletes, managed tournament logistics and performance-tracking systems, and contributed to the development of emerging fencing analytics technologies. He also assisted USA Fencing National Team staff in organizing and supporting training camps for the U.S. Men's Saber National Team in New York.
Friend earned an A.B. in Mathematical Sciences from Smith College, complemented by a focus in Exercise and Sport Studies. During his undergraduate career, he conducted research in the Neuromuscular Control of Human Movement Laboratory and completed a year-long independent project through the Smith Human Performance Laboratory examining the kinesiology of high-level fencing and patterns of human movement across developmental stages of sport participation.
As a student-athlete, Friend served as president of the Smith College Fencing Team, helping guide the program to several of its strongest championship performances in more than a decade. He earned Northeast Fencing Conference All-Stars Second Team honors and was recognized with both the Sachs Award and the Elliot Lilien Award for his contributions to the program.
