Back to play for M. Fencing

The Penn men's fencing team kicks off its season this Saturday when the Quakers welcome the Haverford Fords and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights to Weightman Gymnasium for the Penn Invitational. The Fords --ÿwhom the Quakers will face first at 10:00 a.m. -- present significantly fewer challenges than the Scarlet Knights in this triangular meet. "Haverford should be relatively less competitive [than Rutgers]," Penn head coach Dave Micahnik said. "They compete in the Mid-Atlantic Conference, but they like to get some action outside before they go into conference play. [But] they will be difficult enough to make us fence hard." While Haverford is using this weekend's tournament as a chance to work against some much stronger programs, the Scarlet Knights will cross the Delaware intent on defeating the Quakers. "Rutgers is every bit [our] peer competitor," Micahnik said. "We won 14-13 in the last bout last year, so there's no reason to get cocky about them." Last year in the same meet, the Quakers defeated Rutgers, Haverford, Johns Hopkins and Duke. According to Micahnik, the Blue Devils will be back at this meet next year. "I think we're good enough to beat [Rutgers]," Micahnik said. "Our sabres are a little thin in terms of numbers, so on paper you think the Rutgers team might be a little stronger, but you don't fence on paper." While Micahnik likes Penn's chances in the foil, he says the epees are "a mystery." "I know what I have [in epee], and I don't know what they have," Micahnik said. "If everybody does what we know they can do, then we should be all right." Junior epeeist Jim Benson is confident the Quakers will handle the Scarlet Knights. "Rutgers is a good team, but there's no reason we shouldn't beat them," Benson said. "They're all clean, good fencers, but we have a higher level." Although many Quakers have competed in a variety of open meets throughout the year, this will be the first time the Red and Blue take to the mats with a full squad. Last weekend, sophomore foilist Yale Cohen won a gold medal in a North American Cup event in South Carolina in the under-20 section. Freshman foilist Jeff Breen also fenced well in the Cup event, making it to the finals. "I'm very happy with that," Micahnik said. "Plus, we had the week to get over that rather intense competition, which is good." Micahnik wants a strong performance because the Quakers will face some stiff competition a week from Saturday at the Penn State Invitational. "That tournament will have Stanford, Ohio State, Duke and St. John's, and that's a tough bunch," Micahnik said. "It's important for us to get off to a good start."

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