Team events may be over for the Penn State fencing team, but things are just heating up for the Nittany Lions.

With the NCAA Regionals just three weeks away, the team is sending several younger fencers to the Junior Olympic Championships in Hartford, Conn., this weekend. The events will start today and run through Monday.

Each fencer will compete in his or her own event, which takes place on a single day. Men's foil and women's epee will take place today, women's foil takes place tomorrow, men's saber takes place on Sunday and men's saber and women's foil will be held Monday.

On the women's side, the team is sending fencers from each weapon category except saber. Sophomore Megan Luter will compete in the women's epee. In the women's foil, freshmen Allison Glasser and Annie Jackson will compete. Sophomore Sarah Gonzalez will also be competing in the foil division.

The men's side will have fencers in each weapon category competing this weekend. In the men's foil, sophomore Alexander Goldenberg and freshmen Alexander Louton and Janos Gasparin will be participating. Sophomore Dennis Kraft, who won bronze at the Junior Olympics a year ago, and freshman James Moody will be fencing in the men's epee. And in the men's saber, sophomore Alexander Vongries will be competing.

Penn State fencing head coach Emmanuil Kaidanov said that several fencers have a good chance to place this weekend at the Junior Olympics.

"Ally Glasser and James Moody have a chance to place," Kaidanov said. "But this is a very good competition for experience. There will be strong individuals from all over the country competing."

Kaidanov also said that anything could happen at this event, as evidenced by Kraft coming out of nowhere and winning a bronze medal last year. Kaidanov added that while he is a better fencer this year, Kraft's competition will be watching out for him now.

As the younger members of the team prepare to compete in world competition, more experienced members of the team have been preparing for the NCAA Regionals on March 4 at Duke University.

"That is quite a challenge," Kaidanov said of Regionals. "The task is to not only qualify a full number of fencers for nationals, but to get used to the different qualifying system they are using this year."

The members of the team that are not participating this weekend at the Junior Olympics hope that the members that are competing represent the team well.