At the end of a grueling four-day competition, the Penn State fencing team walked away with 194 points and its 10th national title at the 2007 NCAA championship at Drew University in Madison, N.J.

St John's followed Penn State to a second place finish with a score of 176, and Columbia finished third with a score of 169.

This was the team's first national title since 2002. Following that championship, the Nittany Lions came in second place every year except 2005, when they fell to their lowest finish, fourth place.

The women's team sealed the win for Penn State yesterday with a total of 105 bout victories and several top-5 finishes. Freshman Doris Willette's exceptional performance earned her a first place victory with a 24-1 record in women's foil. Senior Tami Najm placed fourth in foil and earned first team All-America honors. Sophomore Caitlin Thompson earned second place in women's sabre and freshman Anastasia Ferdman earned fourth place in epee.

On the men's side, outstanding performances in the foil division by freshman Nicholas Chinman, No. 5 and junior Jeffrey Chang, No. 8, helped Penn State jump into second place on Friday. In men's epee, freshman Steffan Launer finished in fifth place, while junior Arthur Urman finished sixth. The men's saber fencers, junior Franz Boghicev, No. 8, and senior Ian Farr, No. 9, helped the men finish strong with a score of 89.

"Everyone on our team really performed up to expectations and everyone worked together to achieve this," Najm said.

The team started out shaky on Thursday with the men's competition. Najm said everyone was nervous, thinking too much about the title instead of fencing. But as the tournament went on, the fencers picked up the pace and showed the effort it took for them to get to this point, she said.

"A huge challenge was overcoming the pressure," Najm said. "We knew we could win, but we weren't guaranteed anything because we were still fencing against really hard competitors."

Najm said this win means a lot to the team because last year was the first class to graduate without an NCAA title.

"We couldn't ask for a better way to end our collegiate career," Najm said. "We are just in joy and really excited."