O'Neill Snares Gold

After more than 30 years of disappointment in national fencing competition, the Harvard fencing team finally struck gold.

Junior Jim O'Neill captured the individual epee fencing title yesterday at the NCAA Championship held in South Bend Ind. His first-place finish made him the first Harvard athlete to garner a national individual championship, since pole vaulter Geoff Stiles nabbed the gold in 1979.

The epee title places O'Neill on the first-team All America squad.

Ranked fourth at NCAAs after compiling a 29-4 regular season record, O'Neill breezed through the national competition with a 17-1 record in the three-day tournament, including a tough one-point victory over defending champion Chris O'Loughlin of Penn.

The only other Harvard fencer to qualify for the championships was Captain Kevin McCarthy in sabre. McCarthy finished in 16th place in the field of 30 fencers.

Harvard finished seventh in team scoring with 45 points despite competing with only two fencers. O'Neill's title accounted for 30 points and McCarthy the other 15.

Columbia finished in first place with 80 points to capture its ninth NCAA team title, followed by Penn, Penn St., and Notre Dame, with Princeton and Yale tied for fifth place.

The key win for O'Neill was his close victory over O'Loughlin in the championship bout.

"I have fenced him a lot. I knew his style, he knew mine," O'Neill said.

Midway through the match, it appeared that it would be O'Loughlin taking home the gold. The bout was nip-and-tuck with the Quaker holding an 8-6 edge--only two points shy of his second-straight NCAA title.

"He got a couple of cheap points," O'Neill said. "I knew what I had to do."

O'Neill ran off three consecutive points to take a 9-8 advantage. From there, he scored the winning point on a double-touch-a move in which both fencers connect at the same moment.

The double-touch gave both fencers a point, pushing O'Neill to the 10-point mark and locking up the NCAA individual title.