"This is the best Harvard men's team that I've seen in 25 years — maybe longer," Harvard assistant fencing coach Elliott Lillian said.
These words, which are not surprising with Harvard's superiority complex, actually ring true this year. Harvard fencing, which has been the joke of the Ivy League for years, is experiencing a bit of a renaissance beginning with their astonishing win against Columbia in November, their first since 1978.
This weekend the men and women's fencing team travel to a city which sees no such renaissance in sight — New Haven — to compete in the Harvard-Princeton-Yale tri-meet in Payne Whitney Gymnasium. This meet will mark the end of Princeton fencing's Ivy League season.
While the Tigers (4-4 overall, 0-2 Ivy League) handily beat the Crimson last year, 2003 has been a surprising year for fencing all over the Ivy League. Harvard's men are now 13-1, with the lone loss coming to Penn. The Crimson have come to sit atop Ivy League fencing this year primarily thanks to an incredible recruiting class, with sabre fencers David Jakus and Tim Hagamen, as well as foil fencer Jonathan Carter.
Last weekend the Harvard men found themselves at the Northeast Fencing Conference Championship (of which Princeton is not affiliated), where a decisive, 19-8, victory over Brandeis gave the Crimson sole possession of the NFC championship title. Hagamen went undefeated in saber and both Michael Soto and Steve Milder were a perfect 3-0 in the epee.
"Harvard is no longer the doormat it was for the last 25 years or so," Princeton sophomore foil Scott Sherman said.
Still the Tigers plan to foil Harvard's dreams that have been over a quarter of a century in the making. While the Princeton men are essentially out of championship competition for the year, they have no intentions of letting down their guard.
"There's no reason why we shouldn't win both matches," Sherman said.
While the bouts against Harvard will no doubt be the most challenging of the day, home field advantage will certainly help a struggling Yale team who stands at 0-3 in the Ivy League but undefeated in non-league play. Yale's rousing defeat of Brown last weekend, 20-7, will not count towards its Ivy statistics under League rules. This being Brown's first year in Ivy League fencing competition precludes the Bears from bolstering anyone's record. Despite Yale's less than stellar record, Tiger veterans will no doubt remember last year's unexpected loss to the Bulldogs going into Saturday's competition.
"Yale has a foil fencer who was one of the best in the world last year, so they're going to be hard matches," Sherman noted.
The women (10-3, 2-1) head into Saturday's meet with optimism and drive to keep Ivy title hopes alive. Harvard and Yale, as is the case in many sports, stand as Princeton's biggest rivals. This weekend is even more important as the outcome in New Haven can very well decide this year's Ivy Championship.
"Harvard has the best team that they have had in a long time," Senior captain Mindy Rostal said. "They got two really good freshmen foil fencers, Chloe Steindorf and Ann Austin. So the foil squad will have their work cut out for them. However, we should get a strong showing from our epee squad and sabre should be able to hold their own so I think we will be fine."
The Harvard women, like the men, have had an amazing season with a 15-1 record. Despite an opening day loss to Columbia, the Crimson have fought their matches. The women, too, garnered last weekend's NFC championship against Brandeis. The foil squad lost only once with Austin and Stinetorf both winning all three of their bouts. In epee, both Sarah Park and Rebecca Cantu won their three bouts. Cantu is one of this year's amazing stories in the world of fencing, as she never fenced before entering Harvard.
While last year saw the Elis sail through their Ivy season undefeated, they now stand at 1-2 and are fighting to simply enter into post-season play.
All things being equal, the girls hope to end the weekend with a decisive win against the Elis and with the Crimson seeing red.
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