Penn State National Champions

by BSD on Mar 22, 2009 8:57 PM EDT in Other Sports Comment 20 comments

Gradulations are in order for the Penn State Fencing team for winning their 11th National Championship in the past 20 years beating out Notre Dame and Ohio State.

Anastasia Ferdman and Doris Willette also won individual National Championships in thier respective weapons.

Thanks to all the Nittany Lion Fencers for once again making us proud! WE ARE!

0 recs | Comment 20 comments | Share

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Yay

We are a fencing powerhouse, aren’t we?

by PizzaDelivery on Mar 22, 2009 10:20 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

powerhouse

Absolutely. 11 national championships in 20 years. We’ve never finished lower than 3rd since they went to the combined national championship for men’s and women’s in 1990.

by Laaaaazzz on Mar 22, 2009 11:36 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

4th in 2008

but I’m just the fencing reporter for the daily collegian.
http://www.gopsusports.com/sports/m-fenc/spec-rel/031608aaa.html

by DevonEdwards on Mar 23, 2009 12:19 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I stand corrected. I thought they were 3rd last year as well. 4th, man, that’s pretty disappointing.

by Laaaaazzz on Mar 23, 2009 12:25 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sweet

Beating out ND and OSU makes it even sweeter

"They ain't got the tradition to hold our nuts." - Deon Butler

by Roland86 on Mar 22, 2009 10:35 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I couldn't think of 2 teams I'd rather beat more for a NC

Gradulations fencers!!

"The sea was angry that day, my friends." G. Costanza

by NJ lion on Mar 23, 2009 8:45 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Fun stuff

I took that as an ESACT. Easy to learn, hard to master. Cool to practice under the gaze of a coach that has taught Olympic champions. Congrats to the PSU Fencing team.

by Cairo on Mar 23, 2009 12:01 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Sweeeeet!

Congrats, Lions! Always good to add more hardware to the trophy case.

by Tailgate Shogun on Mar 23, 2009 7:19 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Just Think....

It is comforting to know that if the campus was ever attacked by swashbuckling pirates, we’d all be safe.

by smashtheguitar on Mar 23, 2009 11:09 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Good thing the fencing team has better temperment than the FB team

A drunk angry dude with a sword could mess you up.

This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you're my only hope.

by psu on Mar 23, 2009 12:18 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Shhhhwwwiiiing!

by dawsonPSU10 on Mar 23, 2009 12:43 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I love when we win National Championships in the “minor sports”. Every so often, you get to pull that “we’re that national champs in ________” card on a Pitt fan, or any other Penn State-hating fan, and they don’t know what to say other than “who cares”, to which you reply “Thats easy to say when your a loser, you ignoramus.”

We Are Penn State.

God Created the World Out Of Nothing, Paterno Built A National Superpower On Cow Fields...

by fugimaster24 on Mar 23, 2009 3:06 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Totally

The argument of choice with Pitt fans lately when they start losing a football argument is to throw out the “How’s your basketball team?” line as if that is their trump card. (The other being 12-0.)

We should shoot back “How’s your fencing team? Or your gymnastics team? Or your volleyball team?” or my personal favorite, “I bet our women’s volleyball team could beat your mens team.”

And when the Pitt troll predictably says, “Nobody cares about those sports.” we should say, “No, YOU don’t care about those sports. Just like Penn State doesn’t care about basketball. Now should we go back to discussing football again?”

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

by BSD on Mar 23, 2009 3:38 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The Sports culture at Penn State

is so different than it is at Pitt.

I remember reading an article about what percentage of students at Penn State actively participate in sports, and that it is like the highest in the nation. At first I thought it was silly, figuring that that I didn’t play any sports and neither did my friends. Than I thought for five seconds and realized that I played on intramural, football, basketball, tennis, badminton, softball & volleyball teams in my time in school. And so did pretty much everybody else I knew. In my mind intramural sports didn’t count.

It’s just not like that at Pitt. Football is not even that big a deal there, they just think it is because most of their fans have no frame of reference. It sounds cocky as hell to say it, but the only similarity between the two programs is they play the same sport.

Believe it or not, neither is basketball. Sure they have the front running Oakland Zoo, but take a way their recent success, they’re not much more into basketball than we are. And keep in mind they were in the Big East for 15 years while we were in the Atlantic Ten, which is not an insignificant head start in building a tradition.

At the end of the day it’s not a crime to not be really into sports. A lot of people are actually turned off by how into sports everybody is at Penn State. Hell, I kind of liked going to a football game and not wanting to commit suicide after a loss. I’ve been to funerals that are more fun than the Rathskellar after a loss. And frankly, normal people don’t follow college volleyball. Zealots follow college volleyball; let’s call a spade a spade here.

Most Pitt arguments end with me telling the guy I went to Pitt, and that he has no idea what he’s talking about. But we get all wrapped up in our program being “better”, to my mind it’s simply different. I prefer Penn State’s brand of football to Pitt’s, but if somebody told me that they like Pitt’s version better, hey, it’s a free country.

At the end of the day the two schools just bring out the worst in each other. I’ve been embarrassed just as much by ignorant Penn State fans arguing with Pitt fans as vice versa.

Finally, Oakland may be a shit hole, but it’s a damn fun shit hole.

"I honestly think the "Spread HD" is going to work pretty well, and we’ll be just fine this year". - 8-27-2008

by jesse. on Mar 23, 2009 4:22 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I Agree

What I think makes most Pitt fans so irritating is that the majority of them never went to Pitt, and have no other affiliation to the school other than the fact that its in their city. They follow the “If you ain’t a Pittsburgh fan, you ain’t shit!” mentality. They don’t prefer Pitt’s brand of football. I could respect that. They prefer Pittsburgh simply because its Pittsburgh, and convince themselves that they’re superior. They get their news from the biased Pittsburgh media that makes money off making people think they live in the greatest place on earth.

The same thing can be said for Penn State. The culture at Penn State is such that the propaganda machine convinces you that State College is the greatest place on earth. My calculus teacher is a Pitt fan simply because his friends piss him off by always telling him they went to Penn State, and he went to Edinboro, somehow making them superior.

When the people that buy into all that garbage from both sides collide, thats when things get incredibly annoying.

I root against Pitt because I hate the ignorant people who root for them, and I’m sure the Pitt diehards would say the same thing about our ignorant fans.

God Created the World Out Of Nothing, Paterno Built A National Superpower On Cow Fields...

by fugimaster24 on Mar 23, 2009 11:36 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

But State College IS the greatest place on earth

I bleed Blue and White.

by Horse N Buggy on Mar 24, 2009 9:24 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It's a wonder that in today's world of "political correctness" that you can have a sport that uses a "weapon".

Of course that stupid Mountaineer carries around a muzzle loader. Just think if the Mountaineer was a member of Al-Qaida or something. He (or she) could really do some damage until a security guard took him out. I trust the Army Cadets shooting off the cannon, but that Mountaineer has me worried!

That aside…Way to Go PSU Fencers.

by PaJoe on Mar 23, 2009 3:36 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Woohoo, a National Championship!!!

Let’s give Curley a bonus!

by The JuggerNitt on Mar 24, 2009 10:52 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

ha

"I'm driven by greatness" - Derrick Williams

by HookMania on Mar 24, 2009 11:57 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The football coaches ought to take some recruiting tips from the fencing coaches

They got fencers from Israel, Sweden, Brazil as well as all over the US. Wonder what their recruiting budget is? When you’re at the top of the heap, as the fencers and volleyballers are, you get the cream of the crops from everywhere to want to “come to Penn Staaaaaate!”

by PaJoe on Mar 24, 2009 12:03 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs