M. Fencing comes down to the wire

The Penn mens fencing team crossed seven mountains early Saturday morning, heading toward Penn State University and a full day of mixed bag competition. The Quakers breezed by three teams at this mega-meet while fighting down-to-the-wire against the other two. Penn was dominating against Duke, 21-6, Haverford, 20-7, and Air Force, 18-9 while edging NYU, 14-13, and falling to Stanford, 12-15. With freshman Yaron Roth suffering from an injury, Penn coach Dave Micahnik was unsure of his lineup going into Saturday's meet. Roth suffered a dislocation of the shoulder blade during winter break, which put his status as "questionable" earlier in the week. Roth, however, was examined and given full playing status by Saturday. Despite the injury, he was instrumental at Penn State, only dropping two bouts. The pressure of an all-day meet was new to Roth, who was participating in his first intercollegiate mega-meet. "I was not used to it," Roth said. "But it was not so difficult because we have interbouts between the competitions so there is plenty of time to rest. But still it is a long and tiring day." The Quakers were victorious against NYU, barely squeaking by with a 14-13 win. In contrast, a triumph over Stanford eluded the Quakers by three bouts (12-15), leaving Penn with a 4-1 record for the day. Stanford was the anticipated competition for Penn this weekend and proved worthy of this premonition. The Quakers met the Cardinals first thing Saturday morning. This may have affected the team, since the adrenaline was not yet flowing. "If we had [Stanford] later, not the first meet, it would have been much easier," said Roth. "Maybe we could have done much better. They were a good team, but the rest we just fenced very well; we fenced freely." Micahnik was wary of NYU going into the weekend, knowing that the Violets tend to have an unpredictable lineup. Penn was also surprised by NYU's competitive showing after the men's fencing team breezed by them at an earlier match this fall. Penn's foil team continued to lead the way, picking up a majority of the team's points, even going 8-1 against the Violets. But fencing at the college level is a team sport -- the success of the foil team is not enough, the epee and sabre must cover as well. "Each bout matters because it is an overall," Roth said. "So you have to cover your friends, if they do not do good. You have to do good to win the overall. This is what the team is all about."