Disappointment

At the end of his last bout in the ECAC foil finals yesterday, Gene Vastola would shake his opponent's hand only after considerable persuasion from the director. As it turned out, a particularly unsportsmanlike knee to the groin (at least if it was deliberate) had provoked the Crimson skipper's unfriendliness.

But still, Vastola is a cool customer. A rather unwarranted knee, even in that particular place, would not usually ruffle him. Gene Vastola was disappointed.

Coach Ben Zivkovic scurried around after the end of the ECAC s collecting equipment, taking apart the six fencing strips and transforming the basketball floor of the IAB back into its original state. He seemed completely immersed in his work. But when asked about the performance of 1979's top Ivy foil fencer, he said, "Gene fenced well, but I really expected he would take this championship. This was his year." Ben Zivkovic was disappointed.

The 20-odd fans in the bleachers of the IAB watched intently as Ed McNamara of NYU and Rich Pantel of Princeton fought a see-saw battle. At the time--after six of eight rounds--they were the only two fencers ahead of Vastola. If--the crowd thought--Pantel beat the undefeated McNamara, Vastola could perhaps secure first or second by thrashing McNamara himself, then polishing off his last foe. Big if.

McNamara beat Pantel and Vastola, and then the Crimson captain lost his final bout against Cornell's Dan Budofsky. The crowd was disappointed.

Who knows what might have happened had it not been for Vastola's Achilles heel? His left heel had been inflamed before last weekend's Columbia meet, and the deep bruise had been aggravated in that meet. The heel made lunging painful for Vastola and forced him to change his style.

Fencing uncharacteristically defensively as a result of the heel, he had still managed to scrape through to the individual finals with a 7-5 record.

But he just wasn't himself. He wasn't the same fencer who won 26 of 30 dual meet bouts. Because of the pain in his heel, Vastola, especially in the early rounds of the finals, spent his time reacting rather than forcing reaction. "I tried to be defensive and use counter-attacks. You can't do that against good fencers. You're playing a cat-and-mouse game and preying on their mistakes," he said.

Good fencers don't make many mistakes. By the time he really began to come out of his shell, Vastola had dropped two of four bouts.

Against McNamara, Vastola, although he fell 5-4, hinted at what might have been, making quicker lunges than earlier in the day and trading touches until it became 4-4. He then hit off-target twice and looked for all the world like the dominant fencer.

The crowd responded loudly with each near miss, eager to see its favorite dispose of the foil champion and leave a suggestion, at least, that he, in fact, should have occupied the top spot. But just as Vastola prepared for a low attack, McNamara came in with his point high and jabbed the Crimson captain in the chest. The crowd was disappointed.