Fencers Make NCAA Finals

They staggered to get there, but once they had arrived at the NCAA fencing tournament in Wisconsin on Thursday, Crimson sabreman John Chipman and foilsman Gene Vastola blazed through preliminaries and into the final fence-offs in their respective weapons.

Last weekend at the ECAC fencing tournament, at which Chipman, Vastola and epeeman Robert Kaplan qualified for the NCAA's, Chipman won only five of 12 bouts and Vastola captured just four, as he became the twelfth and final eastern foil qualifier for the nationals.

But Thursday in Wisconsin Chipman and Vastola showed their better sides in making the final 24 in high-quality fields of 55. Chipman's preliminary bout victories included a conquest of defending sabre national champion. Notre Dame's Mike Sullivan.

In the final round, which began yesterday, Chipman found the early going extremely tough as he lost five of six bouts--including a rematch against Sullivan. Then he regained his first round form and swept seven of his next nine bouts.

Chipman joked last night that he would wake this morning at 4:30 a.m. to start warming up and avoid the early problems he had yesterday. He will need to take almost all his bouts to move from his current tenth-place standing to sixth and earn All-America honors.

Southpaw Vastola finished the first day of the finals near the middle of the 24 foil fencers. He must also vanquish almost all his opponents to make the top six and become an All-American.

Rob Kaplan, the Crimson's third NCAA qualifier, fenced well in epee but failed to make the final round-robin fence-off because of several careless losses.

As a team the Crimson is almost assured of at least a 15th place finish among the 55 teams, and fine performances today from Chipman and Vastola could boost them to tenth or higher.