On her way to defending her national title, sophomore Katarzyna Trzopek shot down the sophomore slump, overcame an ankle injury and won 40 of 43 bouts this season.

On Saturday at the Mid-Atlantic/South Regionals at Drew University, she had to deal with all the other women's epee fencers that wanted her title. She handled it rather well, beating everyone and assuring everyone that it wasn't going to be easy to wrestle that title from her next year.

Trzopek, along with freshman Ian Farr and junior Ian Schlaepfer, led the No. 2 Penn State women's fencing team and No. 3 men's team at Regionals.

"Katarzyna was certainly a favorite," Penn State fencing coach Emmanuil Kaidanov said. "You cannot say that about [Farr and Schlaepfer], but they both did tremendously well."

Penn State had 22 fencers qualify for the national championships on March 25. With only two fencers from each weapon able to move on to the national championships, the competition was not limited to opposing teams.

In men's saber, Farr outdid three other qualifying Nittany Lions. Sophomore Marten Zagunis earned third place, while senior Amir Rahimi got sixth and freshman Axel Reblewski placed as an alternate.

"I knew that basically it would be a struggle between the four of us," Farr said. "I didn't know what really to expect, but I knew that I could get into the top four."

Following right behind Trzopek in women's epee was junior Andrea Wine, who finished second. Freshman Case Szarwark took the sixth spot.

In the women's foil, Annekathrin Donath finished second and Meredith Chin was third.

Marta Grochal, a top foil fencer, was forced to sit out of the competition due to an illness. Despite the loss, the rest of the team stepped up and showed something to its coach.

"They did much better than anyone expected, including me," Kaidanov said.

Another reason Kaidanov did not expect such a big result was because of an ankle injury to senior Heather Brosnan that has kept her out most of the season. Brosnan finished eighth, and if she is healthy enough in two weeks Kaidanov said that she would get the nod in the championships.

Brosnan finished behind freshman Sophia Hiss, who got fourth place, and Laura Hillstrom, who was sixth.

For men's epee, Adam Wiercioch had already qualified for the national championships. Sophomore Alexander Bruscke finished fifth and junior Ryan Wangner got eighth.

Junior Ryan Clark earned the sixth spot in men's foil, behind Schlaepfer.