Fencers head to Penn State for first meet

The men's and women's fencing teams are looking for a cheerful opening meet of the season this weekend when they travel to Happy Valley. The Penn State Multi-Meet, which marks the start of an intense stretch of five meets in the next three weekends for the Quakers, will match Penn against Stanford, Notre Dame, Duke and Haverford. In last year's meet, the Quakers came out victorious against NYU, Duke, Haverford and Air Force, but lost to Stanford. Due to the great diversity in competition, Penn coach Dave Micahnik expects to encounter mixed results this weekend. "We have two tough meets, one doable meet and one pretty sure win," Micahnik said. "Stanford will be threatening for the national championship this year and Notre Dame has strong fencers, but questionable depth. Duke we'll match up better with, and against Haverford we stand a very good chance." Penn will not be at full strength, with the men missing two foils, sophomore David Cohen and returning All-American junior Cliff Bayer. Sophomore Yaron Roth, who also earned All-American status last year with a second-place finish at the NCAA championships, will carry the Red and Blue in the foil event. Men's captain John Wright sees this meet as a launching point for a possible Ivy title season. "We'll see a good spectrum of skill level this weekend," said Wright, a second-team All-Ivy epee last season. "We expect to do well, and if we pull everything together this season we stand a very good chance of a league championship." "It will be important for the team to come together without relying on [Bayer and Cohen]," Wright added. "They would be a big bonus, but we don't have that luxury this weekend." Micahnik views the meet as a good opportunity for some of the younger fencers to compete. "We'll see what they can produce; it will be challenging for them," said Michanik, who has coached Penn for 25 years. "They're getting in a lot earlier than they expected." Among those seeing their first competition will be epees Eric Epstein, a sophomore, and freshman Scott Eriksen, as well as freshmen foils Blake Miller and Chris Semisch. The women will be doing without freshman epee Minh-Dang Nguyen, who is not making the trip due to illness. The Quakers women will travel with the minimum eight fencers from their already-small roster. "We know we're short-handed for the weekend, we just want to get as many wins as possible and keep spirits high," senior captain Meredith Galto said. "We have a fighting chance to beat Duke and Haverford. Stanford and Notre Dame are very strong, and we're just looking to gain experience from fencing them." Galto doesn't anticipate major problems despite a small roster. "It will be a cloud over our shoulder if we get more injuries," she said. "We're a happy little team. Whatever happens will be okay when it's over." Wright emphasized the tone which will be established by the season's inaugural meet: "Starting now, every bout counts for individual records for NCAAs, for the team and for the school. We want every single bout and every single touch. We're really turning on the juice."