Harvard Earns Split at Ivy Championships

In what could reasonably be called an epee-ic battle on Sunday, the Harvard men’s fencing team beat out injuries and expectations to once again take a share of the Ivy Championship for the third year running.

The Crimson men, who had the previous weekend fallen to the eighth-ranked Princeton team, swiftly dispatched Brown and Yale, 25-2 and 18-9 respectively, but found Columbia—ranked just above them nationally, at three—more of a challenge. The Lions narrowly took the sabre and foil events, 5-4 each, but the Crimson rallied in epee, putting in a 6-3 performance to take them to a 14-13 victory overall.

Head Coach Peter Brand described the competition as a “real thriller.”

“I think that considering what we’ve gone through this year it’s certainly much more than I expected,” he said. “Columbia have got much stronger, and it looked pretty dim coming into this weekend. We didn’t have Sam Cross, and in addition Dan Sachs’ knees have been bothering him for a couple of weeks, so I was worried about that.”

Junior Benji Ungar, who went 3-0 in his bouts in leading the stellar men’s epee performance, gave credit to the team overall for its support and attitude.

“I felt pretty good, but it was easy to do well cause we had a really good energy on the team,” he said. “We started off a little slowly and weren’t doing great right at the beginning of the match, in the first round, but everyone really brought it together later.”

Brand also mentioned senior sabre fencer Daniel "Zach" Sachs as having given his all on Sunday.

“I’ve got to give credit to our man Dan Zach Sachs, who got a lot better at just the right time,” he said. “He is the missing link. Losing David Jakus last year meant it really came down to him to win those games, and you’ve got to give him a lot of credit.”

The women’s fencing team also came out on top of Brown and Yale, 20-7 in both, but lost 22-5 to Columbia, dashing hopes of a second consecutive year of both Crimson teams holding the title.

Once again epee was their strongest suit, with a 5-4 success story thanks to sophomore Maria Larsson’s three and senior Jasmine McGlade’s two wins. Sabre fell 9-0, and foil 8-1.

Larsson, however, said the matches were closer than the final numbers showed.

“We fought very hard as a team and even though the numbers weren’t very close, they didn’t outscore us,” she said. “It was very close, and we were cheering and jumping around all the time.”

She added that Columbia was a formidable opponent, citing their sabre team, which contains several Olympic-quality fencers.

Brand agreed, and expressed doubt that the result would have been very different even had junior Emily Cross, erstwhile national foil champion, who has taken time off the team to pursue Olympic possibilities, and junior Carolyn Wright, who is studying abroad this semester, been there.

“Columbia have just got so strong,” he said.

The loss, though, did not get the Crimson women down for long, according to Larsson.

“Right after we lost to Columbia the men’s team were still fencing, and so we went across the room and cheered for them and were happy that they had done so well,” she said.

The Intercollegiate Fencing Association championships (IFAs) approach this weekend, representing another competition in which the Crimson has a winning record to live up to. And after that, the even more eagerly awaited NCAA national championships.

Brand explained that he was considering a possible strategic omission of his top fencers from the IFAs in order to have a better chance at the NCAAs.

“The IFAs are an interesting scenario for us this year, because looking at us right now, especially with these nagging injuries, on the women’s team too, I’m looking at possibly resting these people for the NCAA regionals,” he said. “So I’m looking at giving some of my subs some playing time instead.”

Brand expressed great optimism about several Crimson fencers for the upcoming NCAAs, including McGlade, Larsson, and senior Timothy Hagamen, who Brand described as “one of the best, if not the best sabre fencer in America.”

“With the NCAAs there are great expectations,” he continued. “But with all that’s going on I think it will be very hard to qualify twelve [fencers], but individually I have some great hopes.”

One of the things that has been “going on” in the team this year was senior men's captain Sam Cross' diagnosis with leukemia over the Christmas break.

Nevertheless, Brand says, Cross was there on Sunday to cheer the teams on.

“In spite of his doctor’s pleas that he should stay home he made it up here and he looked great,” Brand said. “And his presence really gave us a great boost, and a lot of energy.”

“This year has really been a great test for the character of the team, and they’ve really come through and I’m unbelievably proud of them.”

Whatever happens in the rest of the season for the Crimson fencers, whether they once again defy the odds and come out on top, or do not quite manage to repeat their exceptional NCAA win of last year, one thing seems clear: they will go through whatever comes their way together, not just as a team but a family.

—Staff writer Alexandra C. Bell can be reached at acbell@fas.harvard.edu.