Upset of the Year: Men's Fencing Upsets Reigning Ivy Champs

“I don’t think anyone on our team really thought we had a chance to win before the meet started,” said freshman epee Julian Rose.

Don’t worry Julian, you weren’t alone. Neither did anyone else—least of all Columbia.

On Nov. 24, the Harvard men’s fencing team upset the Lions, the defending Ivy League champions and the all-time winningest program in NCAA history, with a 14-13 come-from-behind victory in the season opener.

“It’s the biggest surprise of the year in college fencing,” said senior Derek Lindblom.

The Crimson had not defeated Columbia since 1978. And over the past 16 years, Harvard’s record in the Ivy League has been an embarrassment. The Crimson is 1-63 during that span against current Ivy teams, while Columbia has won 11 Ivy titles during that same time.

The Lions (13-2, 3-1 Ivy) returned all its top fencers from its championship team of a year ago, but Harvard (14-2, 2-2) was more than ready with arguably its most talented recruiting class in school history.

“Had they know the talent in our freshman class, they would have taken us more seriously,” Lindblom said. “Columbia is known as a bunch of arrogant guys. They’ve been rulers of one of the best Ivy teams for a long time and Harvard has been at the bottom for so long, they just didn’t give us any respect. I think we earned their respect Sunday.”

Rose and fellow freshmen Tim Hagamen and David Jakus led the charge. Hagamen and Jakus finished 2-1, while Rose was the only fencer from either side with a perfect 3-0 mark.

The final match came down to Rose. With the Lions leading 13-11, the Crimson needed to sweep the final three bouts to complete the comeback and the improbable upset. Sophomore Michael Soto and freshman Jonathan Carter, who each finished 2-1, both took their final bouts, knotting the match at 13-13 and putting all the pressure on Rose in his first ever collegiate meet.

“Fencers wait their whole collegiate careers just to be in a bout like that,” Lindblom said. “And in his first collegiate dual meet, Julian not only gets the opportunity, but he goes and wins it in the toughest meet of the season.”

Rose went on to defeat Columbia junior Michael Yalbon, 5-1, after the Lions fencer was penalized two touches for having three consecutive swords fail to meet inspection.

“I felt really bad for the guy,” Rose said. “He ended up having to just borrow someone else’s sword, and I think it really shook him up. But it was probably a mismatch to begin with.”

Although Columbia went on to win a share of the Ivy title and Harvard is still looking for its first share of a championship in 26 years and its first outright title in school history, this single meet will likely be remembered as the moment when the Crimson turned the corner on its way back to Ivy League prominence. Led by a fearsome core of world-class freshmen fencers, the team already expects bigger and better things to come next year.

It is a testament to Harvard coach Peter Brand, who in just four years has turned the program around and into a rising powerhouse. As a result, it will be impossible for the Crimson to score an upset nearing this magnitude anytime in the near future. The rest of the college fencing world now knows what to expect, and anything Harvard does next year will not be completely unexpected.

—Staff writer Timothy Jackson can be reached at jackson2@fas.harvard.edu.