Jennings Wins Second, Fourth Places In Los Angeles Foil and Epee Action

Chris Jennings, individual winner of both the foil and epee titles in last year's National Under 19 Fencing Championships, took second in foil and fourth in epee last weekend in a U.S. Under 20 World Team qualifying tournament held in Los Angeles.

Jennings, who was suspended from the Harvard fencing team when he opted to compete in the tournament instead of in the Crimson's regularly scheduled Cornell and Columbia matches, actually tied for first in foil, but lost the title in a fence-off with Indiana's Dave Littel.

Jennings's bouting record of 17 wins in 22 foil contests included seven of eight in the important final round action, despite an injury to his knee in the tournament's sabre competition. Jennings fenced in the sabre competition which ran simultaneously with foil, and after the injury was unable to lunge in the last foil round.

The former Harvard fencer's sub-par showing in epee, branded "a major disappointment," by Jennings himself, resulted from a collapse in the last half of the epee finals. Jennings, who had won his first four bouts in the finals, inexplicably lost the last four and dropped to fourth place in the standings.

Despite his disappointing performance, Jennings will be number one seeded man on the U.S. epee team when the Under 20 World Fencing Championships take place in Buenos Aires this April. Jennings won the top position on the basis of points accumulated in previous competition this year.

Also in Los Angeles for the foil competition was number one Harvard foil man Phillipe Bennett. Bennett came within an eyelash of making it into the finals, after sweeping through the preliminary rounds with a perfect 8-0 bouting record. In the semi-finals, Bennett ended up in a four-way tie for first (three go up to the finals) and was eliminated because more touches were scored against him than against the other three competitors. However, Bennett had already defeated Jennings twice, and had beaten all of the other people who made the finals at some time in the competition.