PHILADELPHIA, Pa., November 3, 2002 ¨C The Penn State men¡¯s fencing team had six members post medalist performances today in the final day of the 23rd Annual Temple Collegiate Open at McGonigle Arena. As a combined team, Penn State garnered 10 medals over the weekend, as the Lady Lion fencers notched four honors in their competition yesterday. The two-day tournament featured hundreds of the East Coast¡¯s premier collegiate fencing talent.

Senior Matt Gillig (York, Pa.) registered the best performance of the day for the Nittany Lions, as he dueled his way to a silver medal finish in the men¡¯s saber. Classmate Noah Jacobson (St. Paul, Minn.) rounded out the podium with a bronze medal effort in the draw.

In the men¡¯s epee, sophomore Ryan Wangner (Garden City, N.J.) matched Jacobson¡¯s feat with a bronze medal finish of his own. In just his first season competing in the epee, sophomore Matt Speckenbach (Southampton, N.Y.) looked comfortable en route to an eighth place finish.

The Nittany Lions claimed two more medals in the men¡¯s foil, with junior Joe Brown (Herndon, Va.), a national championships alternate last season, leading the way with a fifth place finish. Fellow junior Chris Dickson (Rye, N.Y.) also made his way into medalist contention with an eighth place finish in the event.

Penn State 21st-year head coach Emmanuil Kaidanov was satisfied with his team¡¯s performance in the early-season tournament. ¡°It was a good warm-up, and we had an opportunity to fence a number of bouts,¡± said Kaidanov. ¡°We saw some things that were done well and some things that we need to work on, and that is the goal of this tournament.¡±

The Penn State fencing team will return to action this Friday at the NAC Junior/Cadet Tournament in Denver, with the event scheduled to continue through Monday.