Crimson Falter as Penn Men Are Mightiest With the Sword

In a sad close to a disappointing 7-4 season, the Harvard men's fencing team placed tenth in the 13-squad ECAC meet that ended in Princeton's Jadwin Gym Saturday. The University of Pennsylvania finished in first place, having demonstrated in record-breaking fashion that Penn is indeed mightiest with the sword.

The Crimson's poor performance had few redeeming features, as even captain John Chipman, a Canadian junior Olympic sabreman, had a losing record, winning only five of 12 bouts. No Harvard fencer made the nine-man individual finals in his weapon and only one Crimson swordsman, sabreman Richard Gillette, escaped with an even 6-6 record.

Epeeman Robert Kaplan had perhaps the best day of any Crimson fencer, as his 5-7 performance included an enthralling come-from-behind, one-touch victory over the epee national champion, New York University's Leonid Drvobinsky.

Kaplan only found out two days before the tournament that he would be fencing in the number-one position for Harvard as Bob Tillman, the Crimson's number one throughout the year, quit on Wednesday to work on his thesis.

But despite his pre-tournament fear "that I would lose every bout" against the other schools' best epeemen, Kaplan rose to the challenge. Against Drvobinsky he quickly fell behind, 3-0, but then fought back as the overconfident NYU fencer relaxed.

With the score 4-4 the fencers came together for three consecutive double touches before Kaplan drove Drvobinsky to the end of the strip, feinted high and then disengaged his blade. While running forward, he rammed his blade into his opponent's stomach for the victory.

Kaplan's respectable showing in the best pool of epee fencers qualified him for the national championships at Wisconsin next weekend. Two other Crimson fencers, Chipman and number-one foil fencer Gene Vastola, who finished 4-8, also qualified for the nations. Vastola squeaked his way into the nationals as the 12th and final foil qualifier.

The tournament champions, the University of Pennsylvania, won a record 90 out of 108 bouts and outdistanced second place NYU by 11 bouts. In the individual weapons, Penn finished first in epee and second in both foil and sabre.