Harvard Swordsmen Finish Eighth N.Y.U. Captures Eastern Crown

Experienced New York fencers dominated the Easterns this weekend as Harvard closed out the season in a blaze of mediocrity, finishing eighth in the eleven-team tournament.

No Harvard fencers advanced as far as the finals. Dan Isaacson, with seven wins in the third foil pool, and Bob Damus, with six victories in the second sabre pool were the only Crimson swordsmen to take more than half their bouts.

In the first epee pool, Harry Jergesen met Rutgers' Paul Pesthy, national epee champion, but dropped seven of ten bouts.

Harvard's foil team placed fifth, its epee team ninth, and its sabre team in a tie for eighth.

Each team entered its best man in each weapon in the first pool, its second man in the second pool, and its third man in third pool. In each weapon, the top three men from the first pool round-robin, two from the second, and one from the third, to the finals Team titles are based on total wins in the pool round-robins.

Winning 69 of 90 bouts, N.Y.U. claimed the three-weapon team championship for the fifteenth time. Columbia, last year's winner, took second with 61 bouts; Penn third with 58; and Navy fourth, with 56. Harvard was eighth with 40, one point behind seventh-place Cornell.

Columbia captured two of the individual weapon titles. All-American Steve Weinstein won the foil crown while Frank Lowry, who was originally entered in the second pool, upset teammate Mark Berger for the sabre championship. In a fence-off with Richard Holzman of Columbia, Penn's Ron McMahan took the epee title.

N.Y.U.'s Al Davis, Howie Harmatz and Mike Gaylor won an unprecedented 29 of 30 bouts to place first in the team foil competition. Edging Columbia by one point, N.Y.U. also captured the team sabre crown with 23 victories Navy was first in epee, winning 21 bouts.