M. Fencing flips Lions the bird

The Penn and Columbia men's fencing teams have unusual statues that are exchanged at the end of their meets. The victorious team is given a statue of two fingers making a victory sign, and the defeated team receives a statue too -- but theirs only has one finger. The middle one. The fact that the coaches of both teams forgot to bring the statues to Saturday's multi-meet at Temple was of no consequence, since the Quakers -- who were already in possession of the winning trophy after last year's victory -- edged Columbia, 15-12, marking their third consecutive victory over the Lions. "It's easy to be cheerful when you win," Penn coach Dave Micahnik said. "The fencers need to learn that it's important to be as intense as you need to be in a competition, but the other thing that goes with that is sportsmanship." After the Quakers' victory, each coach made a little speech to lighten the intensity of the meet. "It shows that when you're all done fighting, [fencing] is a sport," Micahnik said. While the meet with Columbia had the Red and Blue in a lighter mood, the Quakers couldn't hide their disappointment at not holding onto the Ivy title, which slipped away when currently undefeated Princeton beat Yale at Old Nassau on Saturday. Despite falling short of the Ivy crown, Penn junior David Cohen believes the meet with Columbia was a good way to end the season. Cohen claimed that because the Quakers' only shot at the title depended on beating Columbia, Penn was especially motivated for the meet. Penn senior captain David Liu noted that the Quakers' win wasn't definite until the second round, when they were up 13-5. When Liu fenced Columbia as a freshman, the Lions went on a nine-bout winning streak in the third round that won the meet. "We were getting a little worried at points," he said. "[Columbia has] a weird team. They have their superstars, but they also have really basic fencers who aren't as good." After their meet with Columbia, the Quakers moved on to fence two of their toughest opponents of the season -- Penn State and St. John's. For the past two years, the five-time defending national champ Nittany Lions have edged the Quakers, 14-13. On Saturday, Penn fell to their opponents by the same frustrating score. After Penn lost the first round, 7-2, not even its impressive 5-4 defeat of the Nittany Lion's epee squad could save them. "We were kind of daunted by them in the beginning," Penn junior Mike Golia said. "They're definitely beatable, but we didn't get off on the right foot." Although the Quakers had been optimistic going into their first two meets of the day, they knew that it would be a stretch to beat the still-undefeated St. John's team. "Their epee team is the Israeli national team," Micahnik said. "They have the personnel to pull off the NCAA championships." Even without the help of their many fencers who took the year off to train for the Olympics, the Red Storm still clobbered Penn's epee and sabre squads, 8-1, while the Quakers' foilists managed an impressive 7-2 finish. Penn foilists and brothers David and Yale Cohen defeated their longtime opponent and St. John's top fencer, Joe Fisher. Penn junior epeeist Charles Hamann also logged an impressive victory when he overcame NCAA champion Alex Roytblat. Saturday's multi-meet marks the close of Penn's regular season. This weekend, the Quakers' top nine fencers will head to Yale to compete in the IFAs, while the NCAA regionals and championship will be held later this month.

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