Underclassmen leading fencers

Fencer David Lidow's success in the North American Circuit tournaments this year has been a work in progress that reached its goal over the weekend.

The men's foil fencer has improved his results in nearly every NAC event this season, and with his third-place finish in the NAC Junior Championships in Louisville, Ky., this weekend, he improved his chances to earn a spot on the junior national team.

"I think I did pretty well," Lidow said. "I met my goals."

He also took sixth place in the open division, which has the best fencers from across the continent. The Nittany Lion sophomore has constantly improved. In October he took 23rd in the NAC at Rockford, Ill., then he slipped back to 26th in the Designated Canadian in Montreal on the last weekend in October.

From there, though, he only got better, with a 14th-place finish in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., in November, which he followed up over semester break with a seventh-place showing in the NAC Open in Palm Springs, Calif.

"Passion," Lion coach Emmanuil Kaidanov gives as the reason for Lidow's improvement. "Great desire. His fencing is definitely improving."

On the women's side, Carla Esteva led the Lady Lions with a second-place finish in foil. The freshman has made a case for a starting position when the dual-meet season begins this weekend.

Just like Lidow, Esteva has been getting better and better as the year rolled on. Her best finish prior to this was at the Ft. Lauderdale competition in November.

"I'm very happy," Esteva said. "The best result I had before was eighth. I'm very happy because I know I'm prepared for this season."

The semester break hurt many of the fencers because they didn't get as much practice time as they would have liked. The team only had one week to prepare for one of the toughest tournaments of the year.

"Well, with the vacation, I haven't been training as much as usual," said Wes Waldron, who took 20th in men's foil. "I'm not happy with (the result), but with the amount of training, I'm satisfied."

The Lions and the Lady Lions now have today, tomorrow and Friday to prepare for their biggest dual meet of the season. They host seven dual meets at White Building on Saturday, including ones against Notre Dame, last year's runner-up in the NCAA tournament, and St. John's, the third-place national finisher from last year.

Former Lion and current coaching assistant Thomas Strzalkowski took fifth in the sabre competition, which helps his chances of qualifying for the national team.

"Actually, it's kind of early conditions," Kaidanov said. "We had a few outstanding results. David and Cecelia (Carla Esteva) did superbly well. The goal was to give fencers experience. If results were not the very best, the timing was not the very best."