Fencers face the best

As American sports fans nationwide engross themselves in b'zillions of consecutive hours of Olympic coverage, the finest young fencers on the east coast will head to MIT for the Intercollegiate Fencing Association Tournament. The Penn men's fencing team (11-4, 2-3 Ivy League), trying to recover from a fourth-place finish in the Ancient Eight, will send all three squads in order to prepare for the Regional Tournament during spring break. Nicknamed "Easterns" because it features only top programs from the northeast, the IFAs will feature three weapons from each of 12 schools. Despite their sub-par performance throughout the season, the Quakers are going in confident they will continue their tradition of successful competition at the IFAs. "There's no reason why the sabre squad shouldn't win," Penn senior captain Evan Glanz said. "As for the other two teams, they should place within the top four?. "The philosophy is not to worry about the entire team. If each of us goes in and fences each bout and tries to win it without worrying about everyone else, we'll do very well." The sabre squad, led by Glanz and sophomore George Kalmar, has paced Penn all season long, defeating most of its foes. The foil and epee units have had some trouble. "Sabre is our top squad," Penn coach Dave Micahnik said. "We have some young talent on the other units, but they have been coming along very well. Hopefully we'll see them blossom in time for the postseason." The IFAs are the first of three key postseason tourneys. Dependent upon their performance at MIT, the Quakers should travel to the regionals next weekend, where victories by each of the squads can lead to an NCAA Tournament berth. But before the Quakers can get ahead of themselves, they must perform well at the IFAs this weekend.