Jan. 25, 2008
University Park, Pa. - The Penn State Nittany Lions men's fencing team has earned the #1 ranking in the first USCFA College Fencing Coaches Poll for this season. The Nittany Lions have made a strong attempt this year in trying to defend its national title from last year. Penn State's recent success came at the Princeton Duals and the Penn State Garret Open. The full top ten consists of the following.
1. Penn State 2. Ohio State 3. Notre Dame 4. St. John's (NY) 5. Columbia 6. Pennsylvania 7. Harvard 8. Princeton 9. Brandeis 10. Stanford
Head coach Emmanuil Kaidanov and his men's fencing team will host dual meets this weekend in the White Building at University Park. Teams making the trip to the meet will be Duke, Drew, Haverford, Ohio State, Cleveland State, Penn and North Carolina. The men's will look to maintain an undefeated record in dual competition into this Saturday's event.
Penn State's last dual meet came back on December 1 at Princeton. The men's finished a formentioned 5-0 in that meet including a victory over North Carolina, whom they will face again this weekend. In that matchup, Penn State had no problem taming the Tar Heels with a 21-6 victory (7-2 epee, 8-1 foil, 6-3 saber).
After the dual meets this weekend, the men's and women's teams will head to Brandeis for more duals next Sunday. They will take on Boston College, Haverford, Sacred Heart, Tufts, and M.I.T. Following the meet at Brandeis, Penn State will continue duals on February 23 at Northwestern. The NCAA Championships for Fencing are scheduled for March 13-16 in Columbus, Ohio.