Terrific ten
Ten Lion fencers qualify for post-season tourney

By DON WAGNER
Collegian Sports Writer

In two weeks, 10 Penn State fencers will travel to South Bend, Ind., to represent Penn State in the NCAA finals.

In men's sabre, freshman Serge Lilov and sophomore Jason Levin qualified for the Lions with first-and third-place finishes, respectively, at the Mid-Atlantic/South regionals March 4-5 in Chapel Hill, N.C.

In men's foil, the qualifiers were sophomore Wes Waldron and senior Andy Gearhart, who finished first and second, respectively. In men's epee, sophomore Greg Gregor finished fourth and junior Kimo Quaintance finished fifth.

Although he qualified, Quaintance said he found it hard to concentrate at times during the tournamnent because of the upcoming spring break.

"The first day of individual competition wasn't really that hard," he said. "However, the second day's team competition was tough because this year there won't be a team competition in the NCAAs, and we were all anxious to get out and start our spring break."

On the women's side, there was a contrast for Penn State in the epee competiton. In her first try, freshman Polo Wagner qualified with a fifth-place finish. Senior Cecilia Youngblood qualified for her first and final time by coming in 15th.

For Wagner, the last few weeks have been full of anticipation about achieving her ultimate goal.

"The last couple of weeks I've been thinking, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah --it's almost here.' I know I can do it," she said. "I just really wanted to make NCAAs, and now that I have, I'm really happy."

In women's foil, junior Olga Kalinovskaya did what she has done all year -- she came in first. Sophomore Sibyl Goldstein finished fourth to round out the qualifiers for the Lions.

For most fencers, the final position in the rankings didn't really matter. All that mattered was that most had qualified for the championships.

"If you're first or you're eighth, it doesn't matter," Quaintance said, "as long as you qualify for NCAAs."