In the 61 years of Penn State's fencing program, the men's fencing team had only one male individual champion. In the three days of this past weekend's NCAA Championships, the team tripled its number of individual titles.

Sabre fencer Peter Cox and foil fencer Ed Mufel won individual championships to lead the Lions to a second-place team finish behind Columbia, which won its third consecutive NCAA title.

"The results were outstanding," Coach Emmanuil Kaidanov said. "I am very happy and very fulfilled with the accomplishments of this team. Everybody's tired, but we're also very happy."

Cox, the team captain, became Penn State's first sabre individual champion and the school's first four-time fencing All-American. He finished eighth at the NCAAs his freshman year, placed fifth in his sophomore campaign, and third last season before marching through the entire field Thursday, to reach his dream for a sabre championship.

"(After the winning touch) I just screamed, waved my sabre in the air, and saluted the crowd," Cox said. "There was so much inside that I just had to let out."

"(Peter) dreamed about it," Kaidanov said. "An All-American four times in a row and the first sabre champion for Penn State in 61 years. It is very exciting."

After losing to Marc Kent in last year's finals, Mufel redeemed himself with a 10-7 rematch win over the Columbia fencer for his first national foil championship. Mufel joined Adam Feldman (1986) as a Penn State foil champion.

"I was feeling very confident," Mufel said, "(Kent) didn't want to fence me. He was like, 'get away from me, you're always standing in my way.' "

In the team championship Penn State once again succumbed to Columbia, 88-85. The Lions were in the driver's seat for the first two days of competition, but Columbia edged ahead to win on the tournament's final day. The second-place performance broke a three-year string of third-place finishes for Penn State.

Thirty fencers competed in each day's competition, so points ranged from 30 collected for a first place finish, to one point awarded for a last-place result. Cox got the tournament rolling for Penn State by gaining the maximum number of points with his first-place win. Columbia's David Mandell lost to Cox in an early round bout of the double elimination tournament, but advanced with one loss to meet the unbeaten Cox again. Mandell won the pair's second meeting, forcing a sabre "fence-off" between the two.

Cox took control in the showdown with a 10-7 win that gave his team a slight advantage after Day 1, 30-29. David Cox, Peter's brother, placed fourth in the tournament to keep the brothers' All-America record perfect, with his second top nine finish in as many years.

Mufel continued a perfect tournament score for Penn State by dethroning Columbia's Kent on Day 2. But Kent's second-place decision kept the pressure on. Penn State narrowly increased its lead, 60-58. John Orvos also competed for Penn State, just missing an All-America showing with an 11th place finish.

In an intense and electrifying last day of action, Penn State could have secured a national championship with a second-place finish from either epee fencers Jim Marsh or Geoff Russell. In a bout that Coach Emmanuil Kaidanov said came down to it all, Marsh faced Columbia's Jon Normile, the defending epee champion.

Each fencer had lost a bout and was climbing back up the points ladder through the loser's bracket. Marsh had to fence teammate Russell on his way to meeting Normile.

In a hard-fought and emotional bout with much of the Welsh-Ryan Arena crowd rooting for Penn State, Normile got past Marsh, 10-8, and went on to repeat as epee champion. The loss dipped Marsh to a sixth-place finish worth 25 team points. Russell's seventh-place finish meant he and Marsh both earned All-American status.

"I think I fenced him with everything I had," Marsh said. "Looking back I wish I had done a few things differently, but I think I pushed the bout correctly. Both of us wanted it bad and weren't giving an inch. (Penn State) didn't win, but there's no shame in taking second."

The University of Pennsylvania finished a distant third with 70 points Notre Dame (69), Yale (64) and NYU (60) rounded out the top six.

The tournament success capped off one of Penn State's finest seasons in which the Lions finished undefeated at 16-0, including a 17-10 drubbing of Columbia. Penn State also beat Penn and Yale in runaway fashion during the season by counts of 20-7 and 18-9.