The Stanford fencing squad will look to improve on last year's ninth place finish when it travels to Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio to compete in this year's NCAA Championships. Competition begins Thursday and will run through Sunday.

The Cardinal will be sending five men and two women to this weekend's individual championships. Although there will be three individual championships for both the men and women in the three different weapon categories (foil, epee and sabre), the team will be able to combine its individual scores in contending for a team national title.

The men will be led by junior Clayton Kenney (epee), sophomore Phil Arredondo (foil), senior Richard Fulton (foil) and the freshman sabre duo of Lucas Janson and Max Murphy.

Junior co-captain Eva Jellison and sophomore Sarah Parker will represent the women. Both will be competing in the sabre.

The Cardinal will be at a disadvantage in trying to win the team national championship - many teams who qualified 12 fencers will have more opportunities to score points. That said, Jellison still has high hopes as her team prepares for the start of tomorrow's championships.

"The team has a very solid shot," she said. "[A] top-ten finish is very likely. We'll see if we can get ahead of some of the teams that have more qualifiers than us."

In particular, Jellison is eager to see the performances of freshmen Janson and Murphy in the sabre.

"I definitely [expect] a good, strong finish from our two freshman sabreists," said Jellison. "If they have an 'on' day they can both go really far. I'm excited to see what they can pull out."

The three events - sabre, epee and foil - all vary in their own ways and wield their own nuances. The sabre focuses most on agility, speed and quickness, emphasizing fast-paced action as opposed to the methodical and more premeditated type of action found in epee competition. As Jellison explained, the foil is, in a sense, a mix between the two extremes.

As a whole, the Cardinal boasts a very young squad; its three co-captains - Jellison, Brittany Leader and Dan Tucker - this season were all juniors. Further, two of the team's seven qualifiers for the NCAAs were freshmen.

"It's a relatively young team," Jellison said. "It was surprising how well the team was able to gel [this year], work hard and put up some really good numbers. It was a really good season over all - people worked really hard. It just shows that next season will probably be even better."

While an NCAA title this weekend is an improbability - "It's pretty impossible to win a team championship without a full team," Jellison said - because of the simple fact that the Cardinal qualified only seven players compared to the maximum number of 12, the team will be looking to gain valuable developmental experience for the coming years.

In any case, this weekend's NCAA Championships will mark the end of a successful season for Stanford. Whether in competition or outside of the sport - Jellison mentioned that the members of this year's team have been much more cohesive as a whole than those of years past - the Cardinal looks to cement its 2008 season with a strong showing this weekend.