Stanford’s regional rivals swooped in and claimed the 2003 Western Regional Championship this weekend, but the Air Force men still had to fly back to Colorado knowing they’d been beaten.

The Stanford men’s fencing team placed first at the 2003 Western Regional Championship on Saturday in San Diego. The Cardinal’s 68 points were enough to top second-place Air Force’s 65. The Cardinal women finished second behind Air Force (63-54) however, meaning that the combined scores left the Falcons as the overall Western Regional Champions.

Both the Cardinal men’s and women’s foil squads took first place in a pool that included Cal State-Fullerton, UC-San Diego, and Cal Tech. Men’s sabre also came in first. Women’s sabre and men’s epee finished second, while women’s epee struggled for a fourth-place finish.

Although the Cardinal men actually fell 15-12 to Air Force in their head-to-head match, Stanford performed better than the Falcons against the other three teams in order to eke ahead in the final standings. Stanford crushed Cal Tech (14-1), Fullerton (20-7) and San Diego (22-5).

The Cardinal women, meanwhile, also fell 15-12 to Air Force, but were unable to make up for this loss by winning as definitively against the other schools. Stanford women beat Cal Tech 7-5, Fullerton 18-9 and San Diego 17-10. This dual meet against Air Force improved upon last month’s 18-9 defeat at the Falcons’ talons.

The numerous individual standouts for the Cardinal included overall regional champions foilists senior Iris Zimmerman and junior Florian Reichling and senior sabrist Robert Owens. Foilist sophomore Eva Petschnigg finished second overall individually, and sophomore foilist Steve Gerberman and sabrists junior Meghan Everett and freshman Jonathan Pearlstein all took third in an impressive Cardinal showing.

Western Regionals were also important because they serve as the primary determinants for the NCAA Championships, held at Air Force March 25. Only two in each weapon automatically qualify from the region, so Zimmerman, Reichling, Owens, and Petschnigg are all probable qualifiers as a result of their first- and second-place finishes in this weekend’s competition, and Gerberman also has a good chance to be selected due to his third-place finish this weekend combined with his consistently strong performances throughout the season.

Coach Lisa Milgram expressed hope that other Stanford fencers would be selected to travel to Colorado at the end of the month.

“We are going to try to get Meghan, Jonathan and [freshman Martin Lee] in as wild cards,” she said.