The NCAA News - News and Features

March 31, 1997

Depth, strong start power Penn State to fencing title

Penn State started strong in the men's events and then held off a rally by Notre Dame in the women's competition to claim its third straight National Collegiate Men's and Women's Fencing Championships team title March 20-23 at Air Force.

Despite failing to claim an individual title for the first time since 1990, the Lions became just the third school to win three straight NCAA fencing championships. Wayne State (Michigan) won four straight men's crowns from 1982 through 1985, and Columbia won three men's titles in a row from 1987 through 1989.

Penn State finished with 1,530 points, 60 ahead of the runner-up Irish. St. John's (New York) and Stanford finished tied for third with 1,120.

Going into the final day of the four-day competition, Penn State held a comfortable 130-point lead over Notre Dame, the only other team to qualify the maximum 10 competitors. Only one of the six Penn State men finished lower than sixth in the individual weapon standings, and Lion teammates Serge Lilov and Brian Walther both advanced to the medal round in sabre.

Lilov defeated Walther in the elimination bout before losing to Keith Smart of St. John's, 15-14, in the title bout.

But Notre Dame made early strides in the sixth and seventh rounds of the women's foil and epee round robins, and the Irish pulled to within 80 points of the defending champions going into the eighth and final round. However, Notre Dame was able to score only 20 more points and had to settle for second place for the second straight year.

The Notre Dame women were led by Magda Krol in women's epee and Sara Walsh, the 1996 runner-up in women's foil. Krol emerged from the pool competition as the top seed, and she lived up to that billing by defeating defending champion Nicole Dygert of St. John's, 15-13, in the title bout.

Walsh, meanwhile, upset No. 1 seed Monique Debruin of Stanford in the elimination bout before falling to Yelena Kalkina of Ohio State in the gold-medal match, 15-11.

St. John's was boosted by Smart's championship, Dygert's runner-up finish and George Hentea's second-place finish in men's epee. But the Red Storm was hurt by failing to qualify a fencer in men's foil and a poor showing in women's foil.

Stanford's strong finish was due largely to the performances of Alden Clarke and Sean McClain in men's epee. Clarke earned the top seed in the medal round by losing only one bout in the round robin. He then defeated the fourth-seeded McClain in the elimination bout before disposing of Hentea, 15-13, in the championship.

Cliff Bayer of Pennsylvania entered the medal round as a No. 4 seed but pulled two upsets to take the men's foil title.