Valenzuela Wins Five in NCAA Finals, But Bennett Collapses in Foil Fencing

Friday night in Baltimore isn't much to celebrate over, especially if you've had a drawn-out and disappointing day fencing in the NCAA Championships. So last night, the Harvard fencers taking part in the national competition decided to watch a little television to while away the boredom.

When "Love American Style" and a re-run of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" failed to provide the meaning of it all, (or at least a little solace) Terry Valenzuela, Phillipe Bennett and Eugene White turned to "The Partridge Family."

The plot was fairly simple (aren't they always?) and what is more, pertinent to the Crimson performers. David Partridge was running for student president of San Pueblo High School and was on the verge of losing to a brilliant girl who had the support of David's sister. David sat down in the face of impending doom and had a heart-to-heart talk with Mom.

"David," she said. "You have to learn how to lose." And for Valenzuela and Bennett, that was also the message of the second day's NCAA action.

Big Lesson

For Bennett, it was a big lesson. Entering the foil finals seeded 15th (and thereby facing the top 12 foil seeds), he plummeted from an impressive 7-3 first-day performance to lose 10 out of 12 bouts in yesterday's action. Bennett had virtually nothing going for him, beating only such non-luminaries as Paul Nagorney of Case Western Reserve College in Cleveland and Bill Luce of Michigan State.

"Phillipe was a little tired today," White said, who, because of his elimination in the epee preliminaries, had plenty of time to observe the foil competition. "And his tiredness heightened his worst tendencies, which are to remain passive, to cut in, and to do big movements. He was getting hit pretty badly."

Valenzuela, seeded 19th in sabre and also fencing the top 12, fared a llttle better, winning 5 out of 7. During the course of the day, though, Valenzuela knocked off a number of quality fencers, including Steve Danosi, who finished fifth in last year's NCAAs, Dave Huntoon from Army and Dave Jacobson from Yale. Valenzuela's triumph over Danosi was the only loss of the day for the title contender and knocked him out of first place at the end of yesterday's action.

In the tournament as a whole Valenzuela could still end up with a strong showing in the final individual standings. Today he will fence against the 12 bottom seeded fencers in sabre, and if he can win all or most of his bouts, he could sneak into the top six and achieve All-American standing.

The NCAA individual weapon title races show NYU's Peter Westbrook, (who won the Easterns) one bout ahead of Danosi Westbrook is undefeated and Danosi has only the loss that Valenzuela inflicted on him and the two leaders will meet today.

In foil Brooke Makler is one bout up on last year's NCAA champ Ty Simmons (U. Detroit). Makler has yet to lose, and Simmons has only dropped one contest. They will also meet today.

In epee, Risto Hurme from NYU and Ernesto Fernandez from Penn are in a hotly contested race for the individual title. Hurme has lost once, Fernandez twice, and the two epee men will meet in today's competition. The match should be a classic. Both fencers are Olympians, Hurme for Finland and Fernandez from Mexico. They are outstanding fencers of completely different styles. Hurme is a "tempo-rhythm" type of fencer, who always keeps moving; Fernandez is basically a point man, working around the arms and going for the feet.

Ivy League champ Penn looks very strong in the team championship competition. With Makler and Fernandez both challenging for individual titles and sabre man Bill Hamlin's 10-2 performance in the second-day action, the Quaker contingent has accumulated a substantial number of points toward the team title. Barring a complete collapse today, they could take everything.