Sophomore fencer Non Panchan beat the odds on Sunday and won the NCAA men's foil individual championship, leading the Nittany Lions to its seventh team title in eight years.
Panchan, a Thailand native, stormed onto the collegiate fencing scene last season, going 22-6 in dual meets en route to an All-American campaign. He had an excellent NCAA tournament, but fell in the final to Columbia's William Dupree.
One of the toughest things to accomplish in sports is to follow a strong performance with another success the next year. That's why the "repeat" is such a big deal in any collegiate or professional sport. Panchan didn't repeat his past success — he did one better.
Panchan battled through the round-robin portion of the competition on Saturday and Sunday morning, posting a 21-3 record, earning him the No. 1 seed in the medal rounds. He easily disposed of Stanford's Steve Gerberman 15-6 in the semifinals, and earned a trip to the final match.
Sunday afternoon's foil final featured Panchan fencing against Jonathan Tiomkin from St. John's, the defending national champions. Panchan started the match with a flourish, at one point opening up a five-touch lead against the No. 2 seed.
But Panchan had difficulty closing out the victory, letting the St. John's fencer back into the bout. At one point, Panchan lost his footing and stumbled into his opponent, drawing a yellow warning card from the official.
Leading 14-10, with the championship within his grasp, Panchan faltered, giving up two quick touches. Then, in a bizarre turn of events, an audible scoring beep sounded on another fencing strip, even though the foil final was the only bout going on at the time.
Panchan heard the beep, and thinking an off-target touch had occurred (which would halt play), dropped his guard. Tiomkin capitalized, cutting Panchan's lead to 14-13. Panchan would not be denied, however.
With Penn State's team victory already decided and the crowd in pandemonium, Panchan focused for one final point. He parried his opponent's attack, and counter-attacked for the deciding touch, earning him the 15-13 victory.
Panchan's Penn State teammates rushed the strip in elation, and carried him on their shoulders off the floor.
"This kid is unbelievable," assistant coach Wes Glon said. "He deserves every inch of it (the celebration)."
Glon went on to say that Panchan was one of the hardest workers on the team. After last season's second place finish, Panchan trained hard during the off-season, and continued his intense training into the season.
The exhausted Panchan was elated, but visibly fatigued following his championship bout. He said that competing with such high expectations placed upon him by himself and others was a tough thing to do. He talked about his fellow foil-team members Ian Schlaepfer, Jake Clark and Joe Brown, and how much they have helped him. In practice, they are constantly pushing each other to perform their best. Penn State head coach Emmanuil Kaidanov was thrilled with Panchan's remarkable performance. He said that Panchan's gold medal was one of the highlights of the competition. Five months ago, Panchan talked about his expectations for the season with prophecy-like accuracy.
"I have been training all summer, getting stronger, and improving my defense," Panchan said. "I want to win both team and individual titles this season."
Talk about keeping a promise.
