Columbia Match Crucial To Fencers' Ivy Hopes

With several Olympic fencers and old pros on hand to test them the Crimson swordsmen last night warmed up for tomorrow's encounter with traditionally powerful Columbia. Both sabre and foil showed increasing strength last night, but the troublesome epee floundered once again.

A Harvard fencing team hasn't finished in the first division of the Ivy League in the last eight years, but this year's squad has provided hope that Harvard can become a fencing power for years to come. An upset victory over Columbia tomorrow might do just that.

Columbia regularly recruits the top New York City high school fencers and is thus the perennial Ivy League championship team. The Crimson has already beaten one of the strong New York teams, City College, and lost a close one to N.Y.U. Here's how the three weapons look for tomorrow:

SABRE--Columbia's number one man, Reuel Liebert, was an All-American last year, and their number two Mark Berger has scored impressive victories over C.C.N.Y. and N.Y.U. fencers. But Harvard's sabre men, once a question mark, are packed with power, and Jon Kolb, Paul Profeta, and A1 Makaitis should win.

FOIL--All-American Steve Weinstein is backed up by a very deep Columbia roster here. The event should be a real battle, since Columbia beat C.C.N.Y. by a somewhat larger margin than the Harvard combination of Dave Dooley, Tom Musliner, and Dan Isaacson did.

EPEE--This is the weakest weapon for both teams, and the outcome here will probably decide the entire contest. Rich Kolombatovich, Brian Keidan, and Paul Mundie will probably represent Harvard: Bill Neaves left fencing and Coach Edo Marion withdrew other starters in epee in favor of this new group recruited from foil. Kolombatovich is recovering from a broken ankle and also fencing a new weapon, so the others must do well to bring a Harvard margin in this event.