The NCAA Championships were held in Houston this weekend and not one basketball was shot nor bracket busted.

The National Championships in fencing were held from March 17-20 at Rice University and the Penn State fencing team came in as a favorite to win the title after finishing second the last two years.

For any other team, finishing fourth in the country would be something to celebrate, but for this team, it was its worst finish since taking fifth place in 1985. Senior captain Meredith Chin was on the last championship team in 2002 and was hoping to win it again in her senior year.

"I felt some pressure to use my results as an example for the team," Chin said. "I wanted to leave to end on a positive note without any regrets."

The Nittany Lions came into the third day of competition in fourth place and though the women's team was steady, it wasn't enough to pass third place St. John's University.

The eventual winner and national champion was Notre Dame, as the Fighting Irish finished with a combined score of 173, passing third-day leader Ohio State by two points.

Penn State scored 145 points.

"There was no sense of panic that we were too far down to come back," Chin said. "We always felt that we had a chance."

The team was competing without top epee fencer Katarzyna Trzopek, who led the epee team overall throughout the year. Junior Andrea Wine and sophomore Case Szarwark finished in ninth and 20th places, respectively, in one of the toughest epee competitions in years.

In the women's saber, sophomore Sophia Hiss finished fourth, while Laura Hillstrom finished 22nd.

Chin ended her career in ninth in the foil, in which Annekathrin Donath finished 14th.

Chin qualified for Nationals for the fourth year in a row.

"I was really proud of our team throughout," Chin said. "No one stopped fighting the entire time."

The men were led by strong performances by senior Nonpatat Panchan, who finished fourth in foil. Freshman Jeffrey Chang finished 11th.

"Jeff competing was wonderful to see," Chin said. "As a freshman, he can now see what it takes to compete on this level."

In the men's saber, freshman Franz Boghicev finished fourth, while sophomore Ian Farr finished 13th.

Freshman Arthur Urman finished eighth in the epee.

The Lions, though disappointed with a fourth-place finish, see hope for the future.

"Our hunger should now get greater," Chin said. "In the future we have a great chance to win because we have a lot of good, young fencers."

The team now goes into the offseason and will begin preparing right away to regain national championship status in 2006.

"The weekend was a wake up call for all of us," Chin said. "People now want it more."