Fencing Places 2nd

All for one, and one for all. The members of the Harvard fencing team symbolically clashed their epees, foils and sabres in a display of team unity a la the three musketeers.

The men's and women's teams pulled together to take a combined second place overall at the Intercollegiate Fencing Association (IFA) tournament at MIT last weekend.

The competition drew several teams from the New England area including Yale, Columbia, Brandeis and Cornell. The tournament consisted of bouts for team scoring on Saturday and individual bouts on Sunday.

The men's foil team tied Yale for first place, giving it a share of the men's foil trophy, familiarly known as the "Iron Man" trophy.

"This is the first time in fifteen years that we've had the Iron Man," men's captain Paul Baez said.

The men placed a collective fourth with their performances in epee, foil and sabre.

Harvard's women tied for first with Yale with their foil and epee results (women do not fence sabre).

"The team has improved a lot, especially the women's epee team" sophomore Katrina Lundberg said.

"We were supportive of each other; that was instrumental for the team victory," sophomore Jill Katz said. "We shut out St. John's, which is a good team. Everything was going our way."

For the second day of competition, Harvard had numerous fencers qualify for the individual round.

"Greg Chang fenced very strongly, and Brian Osserman, a freshman, was undefeated on the first day. He was just phenomenal," Baez said.

Chang ultimately placed second in the individual foil competition, with Osserman coming in fifth.

Baez was eighth in epee, and sophomore Lee Scheffler was sixth in sabre.

On the women's side, foil team members co-captain Brindisi Chan, junior Viki Danics, junior Sara Crasson and Katz qualified for the individual round. Danics placed seventh and Chan was tenth.

Epee team members co-captain Mallory Stewart and Valerie Uzzell also qualified for the individuals, placing fifth and ninth respectively.

The men are a young team, with Baez the only senior starter.

"The men's team had a slow start this season but has been picking up the pace ever since," Baez said. "With experience we've been getting better and better."

The improvement was evident in the last meet of the regular season, a close loss to Yale.

"It was a closer match this year than it was last year," sophomore Tom Moore said. "We put up a good show."

The women have had a strong season and recorded an impressive IFA showing in spite of unexpected bouts with illness and injury.

Though all four Harvard foilists were invited to the individual round, Katz and Crasson could not compete.

"A lot of members are sick and haven't been able to practice," Katz said. "We're all taking some time off."

But strength in team unity was a recurring theme that helped to carry the fencers through all obstacles.

"We were all cheering for each other," junior Drake Pusey said. "The teams held together very well, and morale was high."

The next step is the NCAA regionals to be held this weekend.

For the men's team, the regional qualifiers are sophomore Tony Greenberg, Chang and Kim for foil; sophomore Andrew Prihodko and Baez for epee; and junior Seth Goldbarg and Scheffler for sabre.

Chan, Crasson and Katz have all qualified for women's foil. The only exception is Danics, who has not fenced in enough matches due to a semester off.