STATE COLLEGE, Pa., March 23, 2004 ¨C The No. 4 Penn State men¡¯s fencing team and the No. 3 Nittany Lion women¡¯s squad will invade Waltham, Mass., later this week to compete in the 2004 National Collegiate Men¡¯s and Women¡¯s Fencing Championships. The Championships will be held at Brandeis University¡¯s Gosman Sports and Convocation Center from Thursday, March 25 through Sunday, March 28.

The Championships will begin with round-robins of 24 fencers in five-touch bouts. After the round-robins, the top four fencers in each event will fence direct elimination 15-touch bouts for first, second, third and fourth place. Absolute ties for the seeding will be broken as follows: for positions one through three, by a coin toss; for position four, by a fence-off. Each school¡¯s overall place finish in the Championships will be based on points earned by its individual representatives. A team will be awarded one point for each victory by its student-athletes for the duration of the championships.

The Championships will kick off at 10 a.m. on Thursday with the first four rounds of the women¡¯s portion of the event, which features 72 of the nation¡¯s top female fencers. Rounds five through seven of the women¡¯s event will begin at 10 a.m. on Friday. The women¡¯s Championships will conclude with the women¡¯s Gold Medal Bouts at 2:30 p.m.

The 72 male Championship qualifiers will take to the strips for the first four rounds at noon on Saturday. Rounds five through seven are set to begin at 10 a.m. on Sunday, with the Gold Medal Bouts scheduled to follow at 2 p.m. The Combined National Champion will be determined by adding up the points scored by each team¡¯s male and female representatives.

The Penn State men¡¯s team qualified the maximum of six competitors and four alternates, while the women¡¯s team also qualified six competitors along with three alternates. The 12 competing athletes will attempt to score team points through individual victories while also striving for individual National Titles in their respective weapons.

In the men¡¯s foil, 2002 All-American Ian Schlaepfer (Rohnert Park, Calif.) and junior Jacob Clark (Waukesha, Wis.) will compete for the Nittany Lions. Schlaepfer went 29-10 in the dual meet season before claiming the Mid-Atlantic/South Regional title a couple weeks ago. Clark finished the season at 28-14 and earned sixth-place honors at Regionals. They will be joined by alternate Ian Hamilton (New York, N.Y.), who was close behind Clark all season, finishing the dual season at 20-10 and placing seventh at Regionals.

Three-time All-American Adam Wiercioch (Gliwice, Poland) and sophomore Alexander Bruscke (North Caldwell, N.J.) will lead the Nittany Lions into the men¡¯s epee competition. Wiercioch will be looking to improve upon his Bronze Medal performance at last year¡¯s Championships after posting a team-best season record of 31-2. Bruscke earned a trip to his first Championships with a 28-11 effort during the season and a fifth-place finish at Regionals. Wiercioch and Bruscke will be backed up by alternate Ryan Wangner (Garden City, N.J.), who 24-15 through the season before finishing 10th at Regionals.

In the men¡¯s saber, Oregon natives Ian Farr (Portland, Ore.) and Marten Zagunis (Beaverton, Ore.) will represent a very talented Nittany Lion saber squad. Farr, a surprising freshman, finished at 15-6 in dual meet action and stormed through the Regionals to claim the Regional title. Zagunis, and All-American last season, won 12 of his last 14 regular season bouts to finish at 26-7 before placing third at Regionals. Senior Amir Rahimi (Plano, Texas) and Axel Reblewski (Les Molieres, France) will serve as the alternates after placing fourth and sixth, respectively, at Regionals.

Junior Co-captain Meredith Chin (Wynnewood, Pa.) and All-American sophomore Annekathrin Donath (Touber, Germany) will lead Penn State¡¯s strong women¡¯s foil team to the Championships. Chin, an honorable mention at her two previous Championships, went 35-3 during the dual meet season and took third-place honors at Regionals. Donath went 38-6 in dual meet bouts and garnered second-place honors at Regionals. Freshman Tamara Najm (Morristown, N.J.) peaked at the end of the season, finishing at 19-2 and placing sixth at Regionals to earn a trip to the Championships as an alternate.

Penn State¡¯s representation in the women¡¯s epee will feature defending National Champion Katarzyna Trzopek (Warsaw, Poland) and freshman Case Szarwark (Nashville, Tenn.). Trzopek fought through an ankle injury to go 40-3 in the dual meet season and win the Regional title with relative ease. Szarwark made a big impact with the Nittany Lions during her freshman campaign, going 33-14 in dual meet bouts and finishing in fifth place at Regionals. Alternate Andrea Wine (Houston, Texas) made a strong push for qualification with a second-place finish at Regionals.

Penn State¡¯s women¡¯s saber squad battled through a season of injuries to qualify the maximum of two competitors and an alternate. Freshman Sophia Hiss (Oklahoma City, Okla.), whose best weapon is the foil, switched to saber mid-season to bolster the saber squad. She went on to qualify for the Championships after going 31-9 during the season and finishing in fourth place at Regionals. Three-time All-American Heather Brosnan (Portland, Ore.) fought through a nagging injury all year to go 17-8 in dual meet bouts and finish eighth at Regionals. Freshman Laura Hillstrom (Gaithersburg, Md.) went 26-10 during the season and placed sixth at Regionals to qualify for the Championships as an alternate.

The Penn State fencing teams are under the direction of highly regarded 22nd-year head coach Emmanuil Kaidanov. Since he started at Penn State back in 1983, he has guided the men's team to an astounding 291-21 overall record and the women's squad to an equally amazing 281-21-1 mark.

Penn State has won nine NCAA Combined Championships since the men's and women's combined scoring format was instituted in 1990. The Nittany Lions will be looking to reclaim the title they narrowly lost to Notre Dame at last year¡¯s Championships. A title this season would mark the eighth Combined National Championship for Penn State in the last 10 years.