If this past weekend was any indication, the Penn State fencing team is in for an exciting season.
The 30th annual Garrett Penn State Open consisted of two days, 14 schools, 250 athletes, 17 hours of fencing and one gym.
With the tournament's founder, former Penn State fencing coach Maxwell Garret, looking on, programs from all over the east coast participated in one of the most prestigious open tournaments in the country.
The Nittany and Lady Lions fared well in the tournament, with two fencers claiming individual crowns. However, the up-and-coming Notre Dame squad was even more successful, winning four out of the six events.
The men competed on Saturday, beginning with large preliminary pools to see who would advance to the final eight of each weapon. After two series of round robin competition, the fields were narrowed to 16. After that, it takes two wins to reach the final eight, or two losses to be eliminated.
New Nittany Lion Alex Weber has many great accomplishments in international competition, including winning a bronze medal with the German Olympic team. But the sabre competition at the Open was still very important to him.
"In the fencing room, there is a plaque with the names of all the winners of past Garret Opens," Weber said. "There are a lot of famous sabre champions, and I wanted my name up on that plaque."
Weber was successful in his task, obliterating the competition. He cruised through preliminaries and straight into the finals, where he defeated Notre Dame's Matt Fabricant to win the gold.
Weber's sabre teammates also performed very well, placing four in the top eight. Sophomore Amir Rahimi took third, just missing a final bout against Weber. Juniors Noah Jacobson and Wyatt Kasserman placed seventh and eighth.
In the men's foil, sophomore NCAA runner-up Nonpatat Panchan advanced easily through the preliminaries to reach the final eight. After a series of competitive bouts, Panchan was in the finals against Notre Dame's Ozren Debic. He was on the brink of victory, but lost the match, 15-14.
"He is a great fencer, one of the best in the world," Panchan said. "But I am better than this."
Sunday's highlight was the women's epee contest, where senior captain Stephanie Eim met junior Jessica Burke in an all Penn State final. Throughout the day, you just got a feeling that the two were destined to meet in the final. Burke was last year's Garret Open winner, and Eim, a three-time All-American, had yet to win one.
Eim had a bit of trouble reaching the final, beating Princeton's Maya Lawrence 10-9 in overtime in the epee semifinal. In the final match, Eim beat Burke 15-10 to win her first Garrett Open title.
"It was one of those days when nothing comes easy, when you have to fight for all your touches," Eim said. "It was very special to win the Open in my senior year with Coach Garret looking on."
In the sabre, Penn State senior Stephanie Tam advanced all the way to the finals, where she met Notre Dame's Carianne McCullough. Tam was on the verge of victory, leading 14-12, but McCullough came back and won, 15-14.
"I had to fight for a lot of bouts today, but something went wrong on the last one," Tam said. "It was a frustrating loss, but the tournament gave me a lot of confidence for the rest of the season."
Head coach Emmanuil Kaidanov was pleased with the results of the tournament, but knows that his team can do better.
"The results were good, but not as good as they could be," Kaidanov said. "It shows that we have a lot of potential, a lot of resources. Our task is to refine these resources."
