M. Fencing wins first Ivy title since '83

The Penn men's fencing team beat Columbia 14-13 in Ithaca to complete its first undefeated Ivy League season in 16 years. The Penn men's fencing team is making a habit of bringing its bouts down to the wire. The way things have gone this year, however, that's not necessarily bad. The Quakers men won enough of those bouts this season to claim their first Ivy League title since 1983. Penn traveled to Ithaca, N.Y., this weekend, where the men defeated Columbia for the Ivy title before losing to Penn State. The women beat Cornell but were edged by Penn State, Columbia and Temple. Heading into the weekend, the Quakers had already clinched a tie for the Ivy title, but they knew they needed a victory over the Lions to win the title outright. "I knew we were capable of it, but it was far from guaranteed," said Penn coach Dave Micahnik. The 25-year coach was shocked to discover the length of the men's title drought. Penn started slowly, falling behind the Lions 5-2. "We had to get everybody to wake up," senior captain John Wright said. "We had a lot of time on our hands; we weren't as fired up as we were for Princeton. [Falling behind] brought us back to reality." The Quakers (10-4, 6-0 Ivy) then responded to tie the match at six at the end of the sabre. Penn eventually pulled ahead 13-12 with two bouts remaining, meaning the men needed to win only one more for the win. Sophomore foil Yaron Roth supplied the 14th point with a 5-4 victory over William Dupree, an under-20 national team member. Roth and teammate David Cohen were each 3-0 against the Columbia foilers. "I won't tell you it was a calm day of fencing," Micahnik said. "It definitely wasn't." As is men's fencing tradition between Penn and Columbia, Micahnik was presented with a trophy of a hand showing the "V for victory" and gave the losing Lions their award, a trophy of a hand with its middle finger extended. Two weeks ago, Penn defeated Princeton by an identical 14-13 score to fuel the fire for a league title. "Princeton was the team to beat this year and it was a home meet and a close victory," said freshman epee Scott Eriksen, who won two bouts on the day. "I think that was the point that we realized there was no reason we shouldn't win the league." Against Penn State, the men then came up on the wrong side of yet another 14-13 decision. The women fencers (11-7, 2-4) managed only one victory in their four matches, beating Cornell 20-12. "We should have won that, and we did, but Cornell is not a pushover," Micahnik said. The Quakers lost to Temple 17-15, Columbia 18-14 and Penn State 26-6. "A couple of key bouts got away against Temple and Penn State is a little beyond us," Micahnik admitted. Overshadowed by the women's disappointing day were outstanding showings by sophomore Kari Coley and senior captain Meredith Galto, both in the epee. Coley finished 13-3 while Galto posted an 11-3 mark. The fencers have three weekends of "post-season" action, with the IFAs next weekend before the NCAA regionals March 6-7 and the NCAA championships March 18-20.