With the deck stacked against them, Fencers still beat the house

MADISON, N.J., March 25 - Competing shorthanded against anyone is difficult, but with the way the NCAA Fencing Championships are set up, it can spell disaster for a team's chance at a title.

The Quakers faced just this predicament during the past four days in Madison, N.J,.

With just nine fencers competing instead of a full team of 12, Penn had little hope of winning the title.

Coach Dave Micahnik stressed that the quantity of wins was important, saying, "Quality wins make you feel good inside, but you have to go beat everyone else too."

Behind the strength of some of those "quality wins" and junior Ron Berkowsky's silver medal run in men's foil, however, the Penn squad finished in seventh place overall in a field of 28.

"We have by far the best result of all the teams that weren't in contention for the NCAA title," sophomore Matthew Kolasa said.

Berkowsky finished the strongest out of the Penn competitors, losing in the finals to Andras Horanyi of Ohio State 13-12. His second-place finish was the best of his three-year career at the NCAAs.

Berkowsky was pleased with his finish, noting that since he and Horanyi had fenced many times before, the close result was expected.

Although the Quakers finished well, there were some complaints about the format of the tournament. Kolasa believed that the five-touch format made fencing very fast-paced and difficult. There was less strategy involved, he said, and the bouts were more scripted.

"With the five-touch format, . you're not allowed to blink. If you blink, you're done," Kolasa said. "If you start on the wrong foot, this tournament goes by so quickly, it's really hard to get back in there."

Kolasa attributed that fact to his 13th-place finish, mentioning that he did not feel on top of his game on the first day.

Senior Michael Galligan also suffered from starting off on the wrong foot. He ended up in 22nd place after the first day, which automatically put him out of contention for the top four.

But the quick matches helped the Quakers as well.

The lightning-fast bouts allowed the Quakers to pull some sneaky upsets, including Alexis Baran's stunning defeat of 2004 Olympian Emily Jacobson of Columbia and freshman Andrew Bielen's victory over eventual saber champion Tim Hagamen of Harvard.

The rest of the men carried the Quakers to a sixth-place standing after the end of the second day, when the men's competition finished. In saber, Bielen ended up 10th and Kolasa finished 13th. Sophomore Ben Wieder brought home 17th place in epee. Finally, Galligan finished in 17th place in foil.

On the women's side, sophomore Abby Emerson finished in sixth place in foil, behind 14 victories in 24 bouts. Sophomore Ilana Sinkin took 13th place in foil. In saber, freshman Alexis Baran ended up 14th and sophomore Cassandra Partyka finished in 20th.

"It was definitely an extremely tough tournament," Baran said. "There was nobody that you could just fool around with."

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