Swordswomen Capture N.E. Championships

Don't believe the hype.

The Harvard women's fencing team was not coronated as the champions of New England yesterday at Boston University. The Crimson had to fence 40 bouts just like every other team.

Maybe next year the New England committee will consider skipping the formalities and hand the title to the Crimson. Harvard won 38 of its 40 bouts to win the New England Championships for the fourth consecutive season.

Add in Harvard's 13-3 victory over Cornell Saturday at the Malkin Athletic Center along with the one-two finish of Kristina Perkin and Captain Penelope Papailias in the individual competition of the N.E. Championships and Harvard (12-2 overall, 2-2 Ivy) was celebrating a royal weekend.

"It was a really good weekend," Papailias said. "Actually, [the New England Championship got kind of boring because the level of competition was much higher in past years."

The most tense moment of the weekend came when Perkin and Papailias advanced to the finals of the individual competition.

The two seniors have taken turns sharing the individual crown in the past three years--Perkin nabbed the title as a freshman and Papailias grabbed the championship last two years. This year, Perkin evened the score with her second title.

In the team competition, Papailias and Neuhardt each finished 9-0, while Perkin finished 8-1 and Amanda Leness was 7-2.

The Crimson began the weekend by burying the Big Red. After dropping two of the first four bouts, the Crimson lost only one of its final 12.

Papailias and Amy Neuhardt were perfect against Cornell.