The gym was scattered with just a few fencers earlier this week. Ask anyone where all the top-ranked fencers were, and you'd have heard one of two answers:

"Jet lag" or "flu."

The flu may be a common excuse; it's just one of those seasonal things. But jet lag?

Last weekend, six fencers flew a red-eye flight to Portland, Ore., and competed in the North American Circuit Events. Although they returned exhausted from the long weekend, the effort paid off in their success stories.

Geoff Russell, Ed Mufel and David Cox placed in the top 20 and Mufel qualified for the national fencing team.

"They are quite tired," Coach Emmanuil Kaidanov said. "(But) overall it was a good weekend."

Stephen Flores, Lisa Posthumus, and Katie Kowalski also competed in the meet, which featured fencers from all over the United States and Canada. Unlike local meets, they also saw many new faces from the West Coast.

Mufel, the defending NCAA foil champion, jumped from ninth to sixth place in the national rankings by finishing 10th. He also qualified for the national traveling team. Mufel has been ranked in the top eight before, but -- because of his non-citizen status -- was not able to travel with the team.

"I couldn't go anywhere," said Mufel, who gained his citizenship earlier this year. "But now it's all changed and that's why I'm excited.

"Before, it meant nothing to me to make Olympic teams (because) I couldn't go anywhere. I wanted to just wait until I got my papers and then fence."

Mufel will now have a chance to travel and participate in various tournaments around the globe. His ranking is also just one shy of world team status, which he may gain if he continues to win.

Russell also moved up in the national epee rankings. He struggled through the first three rounds, but gained confidence as he entered the direct elimination round.

He has suffered a bit of a dry spell, losing at last month's Circuit event in Denver, but his 12th place performance this past weekend lifted him to 13th in national rankings.

"I haven't had a good result in a while," he said. "It was good to get back up on top."

In sabre action, Cox finished 20th after placing eighth in last month's NACE competition and earning his Class A status.

"My head just wasn't in it," Cox said. "I beat my toughest opponents and lost to the easiest ones. Maybe I underestimated (them) or just put myself on their level and didn't fence at my own level."

With the new NCAA rule requiring fencers to finish in the top 25 percent of the field to earn points, Cox did not gain any points for his national status.

Flores, fencing foil, completed the first round and was eliminated in the second. Flores made a dramatic improvement earlier in the season, but the competition in Portland was tougher than he had ever faced.

"His performance was very good," Kaidanov said. "He just lacks the necessary experience."

In women's foil, both Kowalski and Posthumus were eliminated early in the tournament. Both were disappointed with their performances but seemed to learn from the experience.

"I worried more about going up (in eliminations)," Posthumus said. "I was looking ahead to see how to move up. I should have thought about every bout, take one step at a time."

Kowalski attributed her loss to nervousness.

"I was fencing really well in warm-ups," she said. "(But) then I started fencing (in competition) and everything was off."