Bennett, Valenzuela Make Finals; White Falters in NCAA Fencing

Two of the three Harvard fencers competing in the NCAA Fencing Championships moved up to the finals yesterday, and the third narrowly missed advancing after losing a fence-off for the last qualifying spot in his pool. The three-day national competition opened at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md.

Crimson foil man Phillipe Bennett and sabre fencer Terry Valenzuela had little trouble making the finals for Harvard, but captain-elect Eugene White found the going in epee to be rougher than he could handle and did not qualify.

Bennett Impressive

Of the three Harvard fencers, Bennett put together the most impressive performance for the Crimson, winning seven out of ten bouts in his pool and coming back from consecutive losses in his first two bouts in win four in a row and seven out of his last eight. One of Bennett's losses came at the hands of last year's NCAA foil champion Bob Simmons, from the University of Detroit. Simmons, who went undefeated in the first day's action, topped Bennett, 5-0.

"I started pretty slowly," Bennett said last night. "I wasn't fencing as well as I should have. But after the first two bouts I did pretty well. The bouts I won nobody got more than three touches against me."

Picked Up Steam

While Valenzuela did not have as impressive a record as Bennett, the outgoing Crimson captain had no trouble making the finals. Valenzuela also started slowly, but he picked up steam as he went along in the competition. His 5-5 record in a tough pool, was easily good enough to qualify for the finals.

White, who was not seeded highly in the competition, had a lot of trouble in epee, winning only four out of ten bouts. Even so, he almost made the finals, as the ground rules of the NCAAs allow nearly half of all competitors to advance beyond the first day's preliminaries.

In NCAA first-day competition each weapon is divided into four pools. The top five finishers automatically qualify for the finals. Then the next two finishers in each pool--eight in all--fence off with each other for the last four positions. White tied with four other fencers for the last position in his pool and had to fence-off to make the final fence-off. He lost, and will not compete in the last two days of the NCAAs.

Round Robin Finals

Today the tournament's round robin finals begin with the top 12 seeds fencing the bottom 12. Tomorrow, the top 12 fence off off among themselves and the bottom will do the same insuring that all fencers in the finals will fence everyone before the meet is over.

White's failure to advance eliminates any chance Harvard had of achieving a high team standing. For the last two days of the tournament Harvard success will have to be measured on a purely individual level.