Fencers Cetrulo, Keller and Berstein Highlight Easy Win Over Cornell, 18-9

After losing its first three Ivy matches, the Crimson fencing team faced a poor Cornell team Saturday afternoon in the IAB. and notched its first Ivy win, defeating the Big Red, 18-9.

"Basically, Cornell was schooled but untalented. All in all, it proved to be a pretty boring match," co-captain Mickey Irvings said yesterday.

The highlight of the match happened near the beginning of the third round when all the equipment broke down, and the foilers and epee squads could not fence. "It's a tradition with Cornell. The last time they were here, the machines broke down, and we couldn't fence for an hour and a half. There was improvement this year; we waited only thirty minutes," Irvings said.

The thirty-minute wait didn't help the epee team, however, and once again they lost twice as many bouts as they won. Irvings took two of his bouts, losing the third to a fencer who didn't use his legs. The atrophied Big Red fencer defeated all his Crimson opponents.

Style Change

Tom Keller, as usual, won all three of his foil bouts. The big surprise at foil was Ron Berstein's change of style which helped him win all three of his bouts. "He stopped his frenetic fencing style, and started to use his opponents' mistakes to his advantage. It was a return to basics," Irvings said.

At the saber, Ken Hetzler and Rick Tolbert combined to win four out of six bouts. Tolbert, who has had his troubles in the last few weeks, looked much sharper, and was moving much more quickly. Co-captain Larry Cetrulo easily won all three of his bouts again, but the high point in his afternoon did not happen on the strips.

Cetrulo is known for his highly-charged style of fencing, and in the past, many coaches and opponents have complained to him about it. But since fencing is a gentleman's game, the complaints have usually been expressed in gentleman's words. On Saturday, however, this gentleman's play world was intruded by a person who did not know the rules.

Wully Bully

After humiliating his last Cornell opponent, Cetrulo walked up to the Big Red manager, a female, and asked for some fencing statistics. "You're a bully, Cetrulo, just a bully," she said.

Undaunted, he asked for the information again, and again he was rebuffed, but this time the manager used some very terse language. "Fuck off, Cetrulo, fuck off," she said, and walked off, leaving the Crimson's top saber openmouthed.