Sports Wrap

For the third consecutive season, the Harvard women's fencing team captured the New England Championships.

While the team continued its dominance of the New England area, its looking forward to bigger and better things.

"We want to win regionals for the first time ever," junior Captain Penelope Papailias said. "We finished second last year, and we want to win it this year."

Yesterday at the New England Championships, the swordswomen sweeped through the 10-team competition, winning 35 of its 36 bouts.

Kristina Perkin and Amy Neuhardt and Papailias each finished with unblemished 9-0 records and sophomore Michelle Kosch finished 8-1.

Papailias also won the individual crown for the second consecutive season, defeating MIT's Linda Yseuta in the championship final. Perkin finished fourth and Neuhardt placed fifth in individual competition.

While the women were off winning the New England title, the men were blasted by Penn, 22-6, Saturday at Malkin Athletic Center.

The match was even early on as the two teams split the first four bouts. But the close match quickly turned into a rout as Penn won 20 of the last 24 bouts.

Harvard All-American Jim O'Neill closed out the Ivy season with a 13-2 individual record. In his toughest match of the afternoon, O'Neil overcame a 3-1 deficit to Penn's Chris O'Laughlin and took a 5-4 decision.