Fencing places second overall at IFAs

Competing in the longest running competition in all of collegiate athletics, the Penn fencing teams did not disappoint. But the weekend's most surprising performance came from one of its youngest competitors.

The Intercollegiate Fencing Association, or IFA, is a 12-team organization (11 men's teams) that has been in existence since 1894. Fighting in the IFA are some of the best fencing programs in the nation, including Ivy giants such as Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, and Yale as well as Penn.

The IFAs consist of both a team competition and an individual tournament, and the Quakers put up solid performances in each.

At the IFAs -- unlike in dual-meets where fencers square off against each of the opposing team's fencers -- each team ranks its top three fencers in each weapon "A", "B" and "C", corresponding to the first, second and third best on the team. The "A" fencer fights each "A" fencer from the other teams, and the same goes with the "B" and "C" ranked fencers.

The men's and women's squads placed second and third respectively. Overall, in the combined score, Penn earned a second-place finish, topped only by Harvard.

But the highlight of the weekend came in the form of freshman Ron Berkowsky's gold medal in the individual foil competition.

While Harvard took home a few more trophies, Berkowsky, a giant underdog, won an epic men's foil tournament to earn the top prize. He truly verified the saying that it doesn't matter how you start, but instead how you finish.

In the individual competition, the top of each weapon qualifies for a 16-person single-elimination tournament that consists of bouts lasting up to 15 points. While only two of the 11 C-ranked fencers qualify for the individual tournament, Berkowsky was one of them.

He started by beating Steve Gavalas, his fellow teammate, and next defeated a Columbia fencer to get to the semifinals. Berkowsky next faced Harvard's Enoch Woodhouse, but found himself down game point to 12 late in the bout. Berkowsky managed to pull out the last three points to move on to the final.

There he was in a close battle with Yale's Cory Werk, and was behind 12-10. But Berkowsky once again had a late surge, taking the next five points and the bout.

Coach Dave Micahnik insisted that he was not surprised by the gold medal performance.

"Oh he's very good," Micahnik said. "He's a freshman but he's no rookie."

In the team competition, the men were led by Berkowsky and their strong foil squad which captured first place in the weapon and boosted the team to second out of the 11 men's teams.

Micahnik was ecstatic with their performance.

"The men's foil was absolutely tremendous," Micahnik said. "I felt that I could rank any of our three guys first, second or third and get the exact same result. Gavalas had to fence every team's number one, but he did a terrific job."

For the Penn men's foil team, senior Gavalas was the top seed, with sophomore Michael Galligan second, and Berkowsky third. Gavalas took home seven of his 10 bouts against the best of the competition, Galligan won nine of his bouts, and Berkowsky swept all ten of his. The trio amassed a 26-4 record for the day.

The women's team also had a successful day. The Quakers received a surprisingly strong performance from the sabre squad, who carried the team to a third place finish out of the 12 teams competing.

The sabre team's strong showing came despite the absence of first-team All-Ivy fencer Annika Eiremo, who has been plagued all season with tendonitis.

"It's not a one-person team, the other fencers are very good," Micahnik said. "The team gave everything they had, and they were just plain marvelous."

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