M. Fencing foiled by St. John's

Penn's sabre and epee fencers could not match their foil counterparts. Despite a superb effort from the foil squad in the opening meet of the year, the Penn men's fencing team came up on the losing end against a more-balanced St. John's team on Friday. Foil freshmen Cliff Bayer and James Lyons each won all three of their bouts for the Quakers, while team captain Adam Brown finished with two wins and the foil squad's only loss. A bright spot for the Quakers was senior epee Alex Edelman, a 1996 All-American selection. Edelman led the epees, winning two of his three bouts. However, with the match all tied up at 13 bouts each, Edelman lost the decisive match to give the St. John's team a 14-13 victory at Weightman Gymnasium. The impressive showing from the foil squad, however, was not enough to ensure a Quakers victory as both the sabre and epee squads struggled, winning a combined five out of 18 bouts. Penn coach Dave Micahnik was optimistic despite the loss. "I think we established ourselves as a potent team," Micahnik said. "We just need to get more balance from the sabres and the epees." The weak showing by the sabre team is a bit deceptive. The St. John's sabres were extremely talented. Led by freshman standout Keeth Smart, there was little the Penn team could do. Sophomore sabre Alex Platt performed well, winning two of three bouts. Junior Sanjiv Agashiwala and sophomore Jeff Allen each had a difficult day, but should provide the Quakers with a strong sabre group in the future. The foil team lived up to its preseason hype. Cliff Bayer, a member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic Team was impressive in his first collegiate tournament. "It was very exciting, and very different," Bayer said. "Here, there are bouts going on simultaneously and you have to be a lot more supportive of your teammates." The youth and depth of the foils certainly create high expectations. Brown is the veteran among a group of highly touted freshmen, including Bayer, James Lyons, Rick Bernstein, David Liu and Hayong Kim. "Our foil depth is really great, but it creates a problem with who should be out there," Micahnik said. "But it's definitely the right problem." The match was also a debut of another kind. Highly sophisticated scoring machines were used to judge the matches. Penn recently purchased these machines for $2,100 each, and were the same machines used to judge Olympic fencing competition. The machines can accurately indicate the winner of each point, using sensitive electric sensors on each fencer's body and weapon. "It's amazing that coach can spend so much on these machines but won't spend $100 on a radio for the fencing room," Bayer said. The loss was the first of the season. Coming off of an 11-4 record last year, the Quakers look to rebound this weekend with important matches up north.