State College, Pa. - April 7, 2001 - The Penn State men's and women's fencers were honored at the annual Penn State Fencing Banquet, held today at the Toftrees Resort and Hotel. The young Penn State team was NCAA runners-up to veteran and favored St. John's this year, snapping a string of six straight national championships for head coach Emmanuil Kaidanov and his team.
The Most Valuable Fencer for the men was freshman Nonpatat Panchan (Bangkok, Thailand). Panchan placed second at the NCAA Championships two weeks ago at Wisconsin-Parkside. He also ended the regular season with a 22-6 dual match record.
The Most Valuable Fencer for the women was junior Stephanie Eim (Hendersonville, Tenn.). Eim earned her third straight All-America honor with a third place finish in the Epee. She ended the year with a 30-4 dual match record.
Most Improved Fencers went to Omar Bhutta (Pittsburgh, Pa.) for the men and Stephanie Tam (Coram, N.Y.) for the women. Bhutta, a senior, placed 19th at nationals in the foil and went 12-16 in duals. Tam, a junior, earned All-America honors by placing seventh in the sabre and was 28-5 in duals.
Penn State is coming off a superb season that went 20-3 overall (12-1 women, 8-2 men) and was national runner-up. The Lions battled injuries throughout the season and used a young but talented line-up to push heavily favored St. John's to the brink in the NCAA meet. Penn State sent 11 fencers to the national championships and an outstanding nine of them earned All-America honors.