While most Penn State students were relaxing during Spring Break, the Penn State fencing team was taking care of business.

The fencers moved one step closer to another national championship over the break when they qualified the maximum 12 competitors for the NCAA Tournament.

The fencers dominated the Mid-Atlantic/South Regional competition held at Drew University on Saturday, as the Nittany and Lady Lions had at least two athletes finish in the top eight at every position.

In the women's epee, former national champion Jessica Burke and senior captain Stephanie Eim performed very well, finishing at second and third, respectively. Last year, Burke was sidelined for the second half of the season, and only Eim qualified for the NCAAs, where the team fell short to St. John's. This year, Burke is healthy, and both qualified for the Championships.

Eim was very happy with the team's performance this past weekend.

"We had great team spirit," she said. "Everyone fought, and we all performed really well."

The women's foil featured dominating performances by freshman Meredith Chin and sophomore All-American Marta Grochal, who has fully recovered from injury. Chin said that she was nervous going into her first regional competition, but she finished first and qualified for nationals.

"I went in not thinking about qualifying, but just winning as many bouts as possible," Chin said.

All-Americans Stephanie Tam and Heather Brosnan both easily qualified for the women's sabre, rounding out the Lady Lions that will be competing for the national title. Rachel Smith in foil and Meredith Steyer in sabre will serve as alternates.

The men's epee featured strong performances from veteran Lions. Captain Daniel Landgren and All-American Adam Wiercioch both did what they set out to do and qualified. Landgren has struggled for most of the year while looking to regain his form of the 2000 season, when he won the individual and team national championships.

"At the competition, something clicked, and he was his old self," Penn State fencing coach Emmanuil Kaidanov said.

Landgren credited his time spent with a sports psychologist and good team chemistry for his recent turn-around.

"When you went up on the strip, you knew that the entire team was behind you," he said. "You felt secure."

The Lions had a very strong showing in men's foil, where All-American Non Panchan, freshman phenom Ian Schlaepfer and sophomore Joe Brown all finished in the top four. Only two (Panchan and Schlaepfer) can compete at Nationals, so Brown will go as an alternate.

In the men's sabre, the Lions took the three top spots, as Alex Weber, Wyatt Kasserman and Amir Rahimi finished first, second and third respectively. Weber and Rahimi will compete at Nationals and Kasserman, despite peaking in the last few weeks, will serve as an alternate.

Kaidanov was very happy with his team's performance at the regional qualifier.

"The kids did well, we qualified all 12," he said. "I wish we could have qualified more."

All that remains for the Lions is the NCAA Championships, which will be held at Drew University on March 21-24. Penn State will be looking to reclaim the national title after finishing runner-up to St. John's last season.