LA JOLLA, Calif. ? The UC San Diego fencing team heads to Penn State for the 2009 National Collegiate Fencing Championships, with five student-athletes looking to improve upon the Tritons 13th-place finish from last season.  Head coach Heidi Runyan will lead the contingent that includes Pilar Alicea and Alicia Trigeiro for the women and Benjamin Dorn, Michael Fong, and Jonathan Ott for the men.

At last year's National Championships, the Tritons finished with a team total of 44 points, just four behind 11th-place Duke University and ahead of 14 other schools, including Temple, NYU, and Yale.  Dorn finished 18th in the foil after receiving an automatic berth in the event following his first-place finish at the NCAA West Regionals.

During this year's West Regional competition, held in Palo Alto, UC San captured four second-place and two third-place finishes.  The foilists carried the team, with freshman Fong and sophomore Dorn finishing 2-3 on the men's side and juniors Alicea and Razan Faraj repeating the second-third finish for the women.  Ott, a sophomore in his first season at UCSD, and Trigeiro, a junior, were both runners-up in their respective saber divisions, with junior Bryan Kim placing third on the men's side.

Fong and Alicea each head to Nationals having compiled a perfect 36-0 regular season record during their inaugural UCSD campaigns.  Both were also named conference champions, with Alicea adding the title of Bladerunner Tournament women's foil champion to her resume.  Dorn was also a Bladerunner Tournament champion, defeating two UCSD alumni in defending champion Tedd Padgitt and 2007-08 MVP Cameron Sprowles on his way to the men's foil title.

Highlights of 2008-09 season thus far for UCSD also include overall conference championships for both the men and women and kicking off the season by winning 13-of-24 possible medals, including 3-of-6 gold medals, at the Collegiate Open in Irvine.

The 2009 NCAA National Championships take place Thursday, March 19 through Sunday, March 22 at the Ashenfelter Multi-Sport Facility in University Park, Pennsylvania.  Highlights of the National Collegiate Men's and Women's Fencing Championship will be shown on CBS at 10:00 a.m. pacific on Saturday, May 2.