Men Fencers Throttle Powerful Penn; Triumph, 15-12, in Startling Upset

Last night, in the newly renovated Indoor Athletic Building (IAB), the undefeated Harvard men's fencing squad swept to its sixth victory of the year, an exhilarating 15-12 upset of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the nation's premiere teams.

The Crimson had not defeated the Quakers--who boast a member of the Junior World team and several fencers who were former under-20 champions--in six years.

"It was just an unbelievable upset, an overall team effort," exulted Co-Captain Jeff Levy. "It was the most thrilling meet I've been in my four years at Harvard."

Luca Cicchetti, the squad's other Co-Captain concurred: "We thrashed them, and it was great. In the last four years we've lost some real close 14-13s [27 individual bouts determine the meet's overall winner], but this time we pulled it off."

In fencing, competition consists of three rounds of one-to-one play. Each round features three bouts in sabre, foil and epee, which are different types of fencing weapons.

The Crimson jumped to an early lead by posting a 3-0 first-round epee record, countering 1-2 shows in both foil and sabre. The fencers boosted their lead to 10-8 in the second round and held out for the 15-12 triumph.

"We just jumped on them early," Levy noted. "This was their first meet of the year and that was a big factor. We had a lot of team confidence, and everyone saw that we could beat them right from the start."

Jim O'Neil paced Harvard with a 3-0 mark at epee-including a 5-4 victory over Junior World player Chris O'Loughlin. "He [O'Neill] has traditionally been a great fencer, but to go 3-0 against Penn, that's fantastic," said Cicchetti.

Also registering a 3-0 evening for the Crimson was Ray "The Refrigerator" Carthy in foil.

Another of the Quakers' top fencers, Doug Powell--a first-team All-Ivy selection for three years--was upset by Harvard's Fred Eaton, who is normally the Crimson's fourth sabre man.

"We were too psyched about that," crowed Cicchetti.

Foil man Brian Schaffield--who went 2-1 on the night--won the clinching, 14th bout for Harvard.

"In general, we feel we're on top of the world," Cicchetti said. "Team spirit is way up."

The Crimson hopes to continue its winning ways when it hosts Columbia tomorrow at noon.