Penn Subdues Fencers, 15-12, To Capture Ivy Championship

When Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote that "the pen is mightier than the sword," it's unlikely that he had the fate of the Harvard fencing team in mind. But nevertheless, the Penn that Harvard came up against last weekend was far mightier than any sword the Crimson could raise in resistance and handed Harvard its fourth straight Ivy loss, 15-12, Saturday in Philadelphia.

The Quakers, rolling to their fifth straight Ivy win, utilized a 12--6 domination in point weapon competition to sew up undisputed possession of the Ivy fencing championship and push Harvard one step closer to the other end of the Ivy standings.

Disappointing Season

While the loss added one more measure of humiliation to an already disappointing season for Harvard, the Crimson could have come out winners rather than losers if it had been able to come up with any kind of performance at all from its foil team.

Crimson foil fencers were little short of pathetic, losing five straight bouts at the beginning of the match and taking only two of seven for the entire afternoon.

Dave Fichter and Phillipe Bennett each gave Harvard solo wins, but both lost two other bouts, as did usually reliable Howie Weiss. Weiss dropped his first two contests, by 5-0 scores, causing Crimson coach Edo Marion to lift him in favor of John Wilinsky.

As was the case in last year's Penn match, the real story for Harvard lay in the performance of the sabre team. Led by Terry Valenzuela, who won three, the sabre squad triumphed, 6-3, over Penn, which, except for a misinterpretation of the final touch in Gordon Rutledge's final bout, could have been 7-2. Even so Rutledge won two out three bouts for the afternoon.

The epee team, which was not expected to produce much against a strong Penn contingent, pulled off a relatively surprising performance. The Crimson epee men lost, 5-4, to the Quakers, but in the last round, when the outcome of the match was still in question, Harvard swept three straight.

Fernandez Beaten

Freshman Eric Read continued to be a pleasant surprise, wining two out of three bouts, including a third round 5-3 trouncing of All-Ivy and Mexican National Team member Ernesto Fernandez.

"Our team is like dead wood that looks good on the outside, but has no caloric value when you put it in the fire," Marion said yesterday. It has been that kind of season.