SPORTS BRIEF: Tuesday, February 16, 1999

Fencers spend weekend at the Junior Olympics "There were about 150 guys [competing]. First they put us into pools of six or seven," said freshman epee Scott Eriksen, one of the four Quaker men who competed. The fencers played everyone in their pool and then received seeds. "It started out with direct eliminations -- we fence one guy and if we win, the other guy is out," Eriksen said. The original group of 150 male fencers was cut down to 64 and then 32. Once in the top 32 group, the fencers could lose two bouts before they were eliminated. The group of 32 then dwindled down to eight, and finally to four. After the first seeding pool, Eriksen was seeded first and made it to the top 32, before ending up in 25th place. Freshman epee James Benson was seeded 10th after the first round of pools and ended up 10th overall. "James Benson started out great, and he kept up his good fencing for the rest of the day," sophomore epee Eric Epstein said of his teammate. Epstein, who was out after the second round, still enjoyed the experience. "I was pretty disappointed with my results, but I wanted to go have f un and I did," he said. "I'm happy enough with the team's success that anything I did by myself would be an extra bonus." Freshman epee Mindy Nguyen and sophomore foil David Cohen competed yesterday and were due to return to Penn this morning. -- Nicole Nordlicht