Fencers take a stab at repeat Ivy championship

By Sharon Lin

Tomorrow afternoon, the Yale fencing teams will take to the strips on the seventh floor of Payne Whitney Gym to face off against Princeton and archrival Harvard in matches that will decide the H-Y-P title, as well as the Ivy Championship.

The Princeton men, still undefeated in the Ivies, will present a noteworthy challenge. Although Harvard is not a contender for this year's Ivy crown, the team is known to be strong. And as former Olympian Peter Devine, MC '99 said, "you never know."

Both Bulldog teams will need to deliver strong performances for this weekend's tri-meet in order to defend their dual Ivy titles. The women are presently 9-0 overall. The men are also undefeated in the Ivy League; Yale's only defeat came against St. John's.

The individual fencers compete in three weapons categories--the foil, where competitors touch the front of the torso, the epée, in which any hit on the body counts, and, for the men, the sabre, which involves a touch or slice above the waist. In all meets except for NCAAs, the men and women are scored separately. "The weapons are all really different," foiler Manushag Powell, ES '99 explained, and there is not much cross-over between weapons.

If the performance of Yale's younger fencers is any indication of the H-Y-P outcome, then the odds for repeat Ivy titles are excellent. According to women's captain Cherie Chen, MC '97, the, "freshmen recruits are very strong."

At last weekend's Junior Olympics National tournament, the premier event of the season for elite fencers under the age of 20, Yale's young fencers demonstrated that they will be a formidable force for years to come. Katherine Zuckerman, JE '99, led the women, taking seventh place in foil, followed by Esperance Schaefer, BR '00, in 10th, and classmate Sarah Weeks, TC '00, in 16th. Whitney Anderson, DC '00, also contributed a respectable performance, garnering 8th in the epée.

As for the men, rookie phenom Ayo Griffin, SM '00, won first place out of a field of 191 competitors in the foil. Griffin modestly said, "At JOs, I was very confident all day. It was an issue of knowing what I had to do." Stamina was a concern for Griffin, recently ill, during the twelve-hour long tournament. " I wanted my lungs to last. Thankfully they did," he said.

As for H-Y-Ps, Griffin asserts that Yale's foil and sabre teams are, "most definitely going to win. I personally think that we need a strong performance out of the epée squad to give us a big boost." Devine also regards Princeton as the team, which should test Eli endurance, to focus on. "Based on the few individuals that I know, I think they're the only team that can give us a challenge. The Princeton foil team is strong but I think that we should beat them pretty squarely. I think the meet's going to come down to the other weapons, though," he said.

The men's epée squad, despite a rough start, is improving due to great efforts across the board and has begun to build up some momentum. Erich Kaussen, PC '99, said, "Princeton has the best epée squad in the nation. It will be the hardest meet all year."

Looking ahead to the Intercollegiate Fencing Association tournament at St. John's in two weeks, Kaussen thinks that Yale has a good chance of winning and is also optimistic about NCAAs. Talent runs deep on the Yale fencing team; Yale can qualify two fencers per weapon for a total of ten athletes to send to NCAAs, which will be held during Spring Break at the Air Force Academy.

The men's team is captained by sabre fencer Tim Webster, SM '97, who walked onto the team as a freshman. Chen described him as being a "solid, powerful fencer, leading a very young team. Still, they're very strong--a credit to Tim and Coach," he said.

`Coach' is Harry Harutunian, now the senior coach at Yale, with 26 years of Eli experience behind him. Yale has no assistant fencing coaches, therefore Harutunian coaches both varsities as well as the JVs. He also armors himself, spending many late nights maintaining the equipment. "Coach is the heart of the program," Chen said.

The women are also confident about an Ivy win and the possibility of four NCAA qualifiers, depending on continued strong performances from the younger members of the squad: foilists Sarah Pollock, SY '97 and Alison Calabia, TD '98, and star epée Sharon Katz, MC '98.

It's a brand new era for Yale's fencers, an era full of promise. They're looking fine, thanks to the contributions of a dedicated coach, the strong leadership of high-caliber, veteran fencers like Katz and Devine, and the talented crop of newcomers, such as Griffin and Zuckerman, both Bulldog squads have reason to be optimistic.

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