The NCAA Championships got off to a slow start yesterday for Penn State as the men's individual foil competition did not end in the results that Coach Emmanuil Kaidanov and assistant coach Wes Glon expected.

Yesterday, Ed Mufel was ninth, Anthony DuBose placed 22nd and Steve Flores finished 23rd.

The NCAA championship foil fencer was Ben Atkins of Columbia. Second was Noel Young of Notre Dame, third was James Borin of Yale and fourth was Lorin Thompson of North Carolina.

"Last night I made sure I did some mental training," Atkins said. "I knew coming into it foil was one of the strongest weapons."

This mental training focused on being aggressive, relaxed and focused.

"Being relaxed and aggressive is the key to fencing," Atkins said.

Mufel, DuBose and Flores qualified for yesterday's competition March 3 at the Mid-Atlantic/South Regional competition placing first, fourth and eighth respectively.

"We counted on much more," Glon said.

Mufel, who was undefeated in the individual qualifications at regionals and has a record of 14-4, spent the season 'on and off,' Glon said.

A bout with bronchitis left Mufel weak. The one-time NCAA men's foil champion and a two-time second place finisher's recovery is still not complete.

"Ed Mufel physically was not ready for such a long tournament," Kaidanov said.

"If he's on . . . he still can do well. Today things just didn't work so well," Glon said.

Mufel won 15 bouts before losing to Thompson.

DuBose also did not lose without a fight. He won three bouts in the first round of preliminaries. He advanced to round two, where he won one bout and lost three. The bout he did win was against Young, the second-place finisher. Two other fencers from DuBose's pool also made it to the finals, including Atkins and Frank Osborn of Yale, who finished seventh.

"Anthony DuBose is very inexperienced. It's understandable that he did not have the best results," Kaidanov said.

Flores also made it to the second round of preliminaries. He won two bouts in the first round. His two losses were against Borin and Stephen Schroeder of Wayne State, who was fifth in the finals.

In the second round of preliminaries Flores won one bout.

"Steve Flores was unusually nervous," Kaidanov said.

The men's foil team competition will be Friday.

"The beginning wasn't good for us. Hopefully the end will be," Glon said.

Kaidanov expects Mufel to recuperate by then and expects the team to make it to the final four.

Though the men's foil team did not do as expected, the No. 1-seeded women's foil team started with a strong showing

The women survived the preliminaries, defeating the University of North Carolina, 9-1.

Today the women will compete for the No. 1 position with a series of direct elimination competitions.

In addition, the men's individual sabre finals will take place.