Fencers Scare Lions, But Lose, 14-13

The predictably unpredictable Harvard fencing team pulled off its wildest caper of the season yesterday, coming within an eyelash of upsetting perennial Ivy champion Columbia before losing in the final bout of the match, 14-13, at the IAB.

The Crimson, tied with the Lions at nine-all going into the third and final round of action, saw its chances for victory ebbing, as the sabre squad, which had an abominable afternoon, lost two of three and epee man Ken Bartels lost another to drop Harvard two points behind, 12-10.

With five bouts to go, Harvard was faced with the task of winning four. Then, Eric Read and Eugene White triumphed in epee, to pull Harvard even and set the stage for the dramatic final round foil action.

Dave Fichter immediately jumped out to a 3-0 lead before a 15-minute delay because of electrical difficulties, only to lose, 5-4. However, Phillipe Bennett, who finally seems to have found himself after a disappointing first half of the season, came back to win a gutsy 5-3 contest.

This set the stage for Howie Weiss. Weiss had already won both his bouts in the first two rounds. In his first-round triumph he came back from a 4-1 deficit with less than a minute to play to triumph, 5-4.

But this time the stars were not in Harvard's favor and Weiss, falling quickly behind 3-0, was not able to repeat his first-round comeback performance. Weiss lost the bout, 5-1, and Harvard once again was frustrated in its bid to upend the Ivy champs.

The dramatic impact of Weiss's loss notwithstanding, the Crimson setback can really be traced to the failure of the sabre team to produce against Columbia. Harvard was unable to pick up more than one sabre win in any single round. Crimson captain Terry Valenzuela accounted for two triumphs, coming back from a first-round loss to All-Ivy Lion, Tom Losonzy, to take 5-3, 5-4 wins.

"You can't fault the foil or epee teams," Valenzuela said afterwards. "They did the job for us. We [the sabre squad] had to split 5-4 either way with them, and we could only pick up three wins. We're the bums this time."

Speed and Experience

Individually, Bennett and junior epee man Eugene White stood out for Harvard. Bennett, utilizing his speed and bouting experience for the first time this season, swept three straight and never allowed more than three touches against him. White, coming back after a two-week bout with the flu, also won three and his performance was instrumental to the epee team's 5-4 win.

Close behind Bennett and White, Valenzuela and Weiss took two out of three each in sabre and foil, respectively.

While this year's Columbia squad is not a vintage combine, a victory over the Lions would have given Harvard something to savor in a disappointing year. For a while it looked like Harvard might pull it off. But instead of an upset win, the Crimson had nothing but a third straight 14-13 loss in Ivy League competition.

Harvard is now more in danger of challenging for last place in the Ivies than first, but the Crimson must certainly lead the league in defective equipment. Yesterday, in three rounds of foil action the contest was delayed four times, from anywhere from ten to 25 minutes.

The inexcusable delays forced the match to drag on for four hours, causing the Columbia team to miss its Kirkland House dinner, holding up two rounds of intramural basketball, and tarnishing what was an otherwise exciting contest.