Crimson Continues Third-Place Ways

Last year, Harvard was the overall winner at the Intercollegiate Fencing Association (IFA) championships, the oldest collegiate fencing tournament in the nation. This season, a rebuilding Crimson team could not reach the top spot, but still fought hard and earned a third-place finish behind Penn and victorious Columbia.

“It was a very strong performance by everybody,” Harvard coach Peter Brand said. “Frankly, we did much better than I expected. We had high energy and a very strong tournament.”

Harvard had played every one of the 10 male and 11 female teams in the IFA tournament previously this season. The Crimson men had compiled a record of 7-4 against yesterday’s competition, while the women had an 8-3 record against the field. Based on the standings, third place was a great showing for Harvard, which also took third place in the Ivy Championships two weeks ago.

The highlights of the weekend came from the first place ties in the women’s sabre and the men’s epee events.

The male epeeists drew inspiration from senior All-Ivy selection Teddy Sherrill, who earned a silver medal in the event. In a thrilling bout with Princeton’s Graham Wicas, Sherrill lost by the slimmest of margins, 5-4. The Tiger win gave Princeton a share of the overall men’s epee victory.

Sophomore Misha Goldfeder, also an All-Ivy performer, won the gold medal in women’s foil for the second year in a row.

“It was an exceptional performance since the women’s foil field is exceptionally strong here,” Brand said. “It speaks volumes for her strengths fencing-wise and her mental toughness. I’m very proud of the way she performed.”

The weak point that prevented the women from improving on their third place result was the epee weapon.

“We had a weak epee squad, but that’s been the story all year,” Brand said. “Overall, though, I give a lot of credit to those women because they kept us in the hunt. We will be resurrected next year.”

The weakness for the women was the strength for the men, as the epeeists powered the men to third place in their draw.

“It’s been our best weapon all year and they showed that today,” Brand said. “I was also surprised by men’s foil squad who came in second.”

Although the IFA championships have a rich history, the tournament has no influence on NCAA qualifications. Some coaches use the tournament to rest tired or sick players and give younger team members experience. Other coaches use the competition as a springboard for the major NCAA postseason tournaments.

Another bright spot for the Crimson was the team’s intensity and passion.

“Our team was the loudest and we had the most spirit of any team in that room,” Brand said.

The IFA championship served as a nice test for Harvard, which will look to get rested before the team travels to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. next weekend for the NCAA Regional.

“I’m not going to predict what’s going to happen, but we have strong individuals in every weapon,” Brand said. “I anticipate that we’ll qualify quite a few people to the NCAA championships this season.”

—Staff writer Jake I. Fisher can be reached at jifisher@fas.harvard.edu.