CHAMINADE GRADS HELP PENN STATE FENCE IN NCAA TITLES.

Byline: Rizza Yap Daily News Staff Writer

Call them the modern-day Three Musketeers.

Four years after Jeff Feinblatt, Dean Jacobberger and Wes Waldron graduated from Chaminade High School in West Hills, their career as a trio of sword-wielding comrades has finally ended.

The San Fernando Valley natives, who fenced their way from high school to Penn State together, helped the Nittany Lions win their third straight NCAA title last week.

Head coach Emmanuil Kaidanov, who has produced 14 NCAA champs, said, ``They have shown a very highly developed desire to achieve marks. All are contenders to fence in the (individual) finals of the NCAAs.''

But only 10 individual competitors - six men and four women - can represent a single school in the finals, however. This year, Feinblatt and Jacobberger each earned a spot to fence epee in the tournament, held at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. Feinblatt improved his 1996 finish by two spots to sixth place, and Jacobberger finished 16th of 24.

``I'm still in the ecstatic state,'' Feinblatt said two days after the competition. ``The first (NCAA) win is always going to be the most memorable. But no matter how many times someone can go through this, it's still special every time.''

As freshmen, all three started out by competing in foil, in which only the torso is targeted. However, the team needed more epee fencers last season, and Feinblatt and Jacobberger switched over during their junior year. In epee, the whole body is targeted.

The move was an easy one for Feinblatt, who said, ``I can handle changes well.'' And that goes for the weather, too.

State College, Pa., welcomed the Southern California natives in 1993 with one of the worst storms in its history, a record-breaking winter in terms of snowfall. Temperatures fell as low as minus-30 degrees with windchill, and according to Feinblatt, ``I was loving it. I had 6 a.m. practice, and at 5:30 I'd be walking through the snow and ice, wide awake and laughing.''

For Waldron and Jacobberger, it's a different story.

``I'm still a West Coast kid, always have been, always will be,'' said Jacobberger, who goes back to his Canoga Park home every summer and winter break. ``I think I'm the only one tanning at the beach during the holidays.''

Waldron, who confessed he still makes the mistake of opening the door in a T-shirt during the winter, said, ``It's really cold, and it's a big pain in the butt, but it's pretty when it snowed. I like to look at it but hate to be in it.''

One of the worst memories Waldron and Jacobberger share is a bus ride home from Boston after a tournament last year. Early in the 10-hour drive, the heater broke, and the fencing team had to endure the rest of the trip with nearly an inch of ice inside the windows.

Although the cold climate was not a big deal to Feinblatt, Penn State's student population certainly required some getting used to.

``My high school was small,'' said Feinblatt, who hopes to apply to medical school. ``All of a sudden, I'm in a university with 35,000 undergrads. All of a sudden, I'm lost. I'm on my own.''

Maybe not so much on his own. After all, he did move across the country with two of his teammates. In fact, Waldron said he and Feinblatt ``hung out when were were teeny, little kids.'' Then at Chaminade Middle School, Waldron and Jacobberger became two of the fencing team's original members.

``In the seventh grade, Dean and I had a literature class, and we read a story about fencing,'' said Waldron, who won the Junior National championship in 1994. ``The teacher said there was a fencing club in Chaminade, and we thought it would be cool playing with swords.''

From that time until the end of their high school career, Rev. Lawrence Calhoun became their fencing coach. Feinblatt joined the group as a ninth-grader at Chaminade.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1) JACOBBERGER

(2) FEINBLATT