The Penn men's fencing team's season drew to a close Sunday when it recorded a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Championships in Parkside, Wisconsin. The Quakers improved from last season's ninth-place mark. But they finished behind rivals Columbia and Princeton, who finished fifth and sixth, respectively. The Quakers, Tigers and Lions had finished tied for the regular-season Ivy League title. "We'll take the improvement," Penn coach Dave Micahnik said. "Of course we'd have liked to finish higher, but we'd have needed some spectacular finishes." Penn (85 points) finished just ahead of eighth-place Ohio State (82). St. John's dominated the meet, winning by a decisive margin over second-place Penn State. Penn epeeists Charles Hamann and Scott Eriksen, along with foilists Yaron Roth and Yale Cohen represented the Quakers in NCAAs. In his first trip to the championships since his freshman year, Roth paced the Red and Blue with a seventh-place finish, earning him a spot on the second team All-America squad. Roth missed the last two NCAA tournament due to injuries. The senior foilist highlighted his weekend by sweeping Stanford star Felix Reiching, the two-time defending foil champ, in a five-touch bout. "[Roth] is going to be hard to replace for us and we're going to miss him a great deal," Micahnik said. "He's just a powerhouse fencer." Roth, however -- who was sick for the second day of the tournament -- was not quite as pleased with his final collegiate performance. "I felt I could do better than that," Roth said. "Anything less than first is a disappointment to me." Eriksen (12-11), a junior, and Cohen (13-10) each finished in 10th place, receiving All-American honorable mentions in the process. Cohen, who will be fencing with the junior national team in April, was distracted throughout by the preparation for the impending competition. "He's had a good year, and it's not easy to concentrate through 23 matches," Micahnik said. "I won't say I'm thrilled with his finish, but I understand it." Hamman, meanwhile, was the only one of the four competing fencers from Penn not to earn All-America honors. The senior and team captain placed 17th, finishing with a 9-14 record in the tourney. "It just wasn't flowing for him, Micahnik said. "But he's had a nice career for us."
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