Ever taken a three-year test?
Most likely not, but Ivy League fencers are currently in year two of their three-year-long evaluation.
Two years ago, the Ivies agreed to implement a new schedule format on a "trial basis," as Associate Director of the Ivy League Chuck Yrigoyen described it. Instead of fencing multiple dual meets, the Ancient Eight teams would instead participate in two Ivy League Round Robins at two different schools every year.
The athletic administrators will hear feedback from the coaches and fencers and decide whether or not to continue the round-robin system. For the next season, however, the format stays.
"I think one of the big advantages is that it creates two events that . are appealing to the fencing community because you now have all seven women's programs and all six men's programs in the same spot," Yrigoyen said.
Furthermore, Yrigoyen explained that the coaches in the Ivy League "have a little more flexibility in scheduling," as they only have to schedule their non-conference meets around two Ivy League events as opposed to the multiple Ivy League dual meets.
There has generally been support from fencers around the conference.
"I think everyone really likes it," Penn senior captain Katelyn Sherry said. "We all have a lot of friends on other teams. It's nice to see them on two different occasions."
She also said the new format was "a lot more conducive to team camaraderie."
All is not perfect with the current system, however, and Yrigoyen is the first to admit it.
"For five other schools, they don't have a home Ivy fencing competition," he said.
Since only two schools per year host the round robins, those schools get an exclusive home field advantage. The host schools rotate every year - with one from the North division (Cornell, Yale, Brown and Harvard) and one from the South division (Columbia, Penn and Princeton).
But only seven teams in the Ivy League participate in fencing. Because of the imbalance of schools in the two divisions, Brown will never get a chance to host during the three-year trial.
There are also complaints about the long days that the fencers need to go through during the round robins.
Sherry mentioned that fatigue was definitely an issue. For example, in the Ivy League Round Robin 2, Penn's women's squad lost a difficult meet to Harvard, and then had to turn around and face Cornell. Although Penn won, the match was "closer than it should have been," she said.
However, when questioned about the issue, Yrigoyen said, "No one has mentioned that to me. We have not gotten that feedback in the office." But he was quick to add that because no one has mentioned this fact does not mean that it is not an issue.
Princeton coach Zoltan Dudas, who just finished his first year of coaching in the Ivy League, put forward different criticisms of the new format, asserting that "most coaches in college fencing prefer the dual meet format."
"The current Ivy League is a completely team-oriented system," Dudas said. "Fencing is not really a team sport in my understanding."
So now, with two years down in the test, the athletic administrators await the coaches' thoughts during a conference in early May. On it rests the future of Ivy League fencing.
