Fencers Foil Corsairs, 18-9

Harvard's fencing team started its uphill climb to respectability Saturday when the squad outdueled the Corsairs, 18-9, at Southeastern Massachusetts University (SMU).

The Crimson's inexperienced sabre squad opened the match with a surprising 6-3 win. Steve Hobbs led Harvard's weakest weapon with a convincing three consecutive wins.

Crimson coach Edo Marion was pleased with the winning endeavors of sophomore Larry Tu, 1-1, and freshman Mike Szymonifka, 1-0, of the sabre squad.

Marion yesterday described Hobbs's performance as "a determined effort not to lose even though he was a bit too emotional."

The unexpected sabre win enabled Marion to experiment with less-experienced fencers for the remaining weapons. "I saw the match wasn't critical after the sabre win, so I put in some fresh blood," Marion said after the match.

Despite the number of second stringers, the foil and epee units triumphed in 5-4 decisions.

Howie Weiss's three wins in the foil division highlighted the victorious afternoon. Marion said, "Weiss fenced brilliantly. He was two classes above the rest of his opponents and the rest of his own team."

Despite Weiss's brilliance, Marion said he was not overly excited with his team's overall performance. The team is down on power but has more homogeneity than in previous seasons, he said. "Everybody is anxious to do the best."

Crimson captain Eugene White, who had a 1-1 record against SMU, concurred with Marion's appraisal, and added that the scores didn't reflect the true potential of the squad.

"We didn't try to bulldoze them, we just fenced a lot of guys, and tried to get the spirit of things," he said.

Both White and Marion agree that the team is going to have to learn more about strategy and tactics to enable it to compete in the tough second-semester Ivy-League schedule. "Our foil will be one of the good weapons in the Ivy League, but the other units [epee and sabre] are still not trapping our opponents, and giving the proper feints," Marion said.

Marion foresees lots of work between now and the Wednesday home match against MIT.

"They've got some good fencers from Sweden and New York, including a nationally ranked performer who could easily sweep three bouts," he said. "Unlike the past, we'll have to do some worrying about them this year," he added later.