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Intercollegiate Fencing Association 48th Annual Championships
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June 1941
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6
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COLLEGIATE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Intercollegiate Fencing Association 48th ANNUAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
It was New York University all the way in the 48th Annual Championships of the Intercollegiate Fencing Association, held on March 28 and 29 at Princeton. For the seventh time in the last nine years, the Violet swordsmen dominated the three-weapon standings, scoring victories in the team epee and team foil, and tieing for third in the team sabre, only one point out of first place. In addition, Tauber of N. Y. U. successfully defended his individual epee title and placed second in foil. The remaining prizes were distributed among six colleges: Harvard and C. C. N. Y. shared the sabre team honors and each had one individual medalist in that weapon; St. John's and Navy captured the individual championships in foil and sabre respectively; Army won bronze medals in the individual epee and foil; and Columbia, despite its runner-up position in the all-around results, carried home only the silver medal in the individual epee.
The epee championship, first to be decided, produced a story-book finish. Before the final round, the team title seemed to rest between Columbia and Navy. N. Y. U. had a slight lead, 18½ points to Columbia's 16½ and Navy's 16, but the Violet had only Tauber in the finals, while Columbia had Metzger and Rogers, and Navy had Keeler and Walker. The midshipmen wilted early in the round-robin. Tauber kept N. Y. U. in the running by taking 6 of his first 7 bouts, losing only to Brua of Harvard. But Metzger had won 6 straight and Rogers had scored 2 victories so that N. Y. U. could not win without help. That help was forthcoming from the left-handed sword of Cadet Taylor of Army. In two crucial encounters, he defeated both of the Columbia men, clinching third place for himself and leaving N. Y. U. and Columbia tied with 24½ points. Thus the final bout, between Tauber and Metzger, decided both the team and the individual titles. Tauber won, 3–1.
In the sabre, a real dog-fight developed among four teams. Again N. Y. U. led with 18 points at the end of the semi-finals, with Harvard and C. C. N. Y. next with 17, and St. John's closely behind with 16. However, St. John's was in the favored spot, being the only college to qualify two men (Deladrier and Costarino), so that it had twice as many scoring chances as its rivals. It was a dramatic opportunity for the Brooklyn institution, which had been invited to compete as a guest of the Association this year to fill the vacancy created by Yale's temporary withdrawal from the Championships. Coach Marcel Pasche decided to shoot for the title by withdrawing Deladrier from the foil finals in order to concentrate on the sabre. But this logical maneuver failed, as the two St. John's men won only 3 bouts each, for a total of 6 points, while Tom Wright, of Harvard, and Herbert Spector, of C. C. N. Y., both matched this total in their individual performances. N. Y. U.'s Sol Gorlin, younger brother of the former Violet captain, could do no better than break even with 4 victories. Thus Harvard and C. C. N. Y. finished in a tie for first place, one point ahead of St. John's and N. Y. U. Since there was no way to resolve the championship tie, Harvard and C. C. N. Y. were each awarded possession of the trophy for six months, and duplicate medals were provided for the members of the two teams.
Meanwhile, an unheralded sabreman from Navy, Midshipman Stokes, who had squeezed into the finals on a fence-off, was running away with the individual championship. Fencing vigorously and in excellent choice of time, Stokes swept 7 bouts in a row before bowing to Greenbaum of Penn. Wright and Spector finished in a tie for second, and Wright won the silver medal on a fence-off.
N. Y. U. crushed all opposition in foil to retain possession of the famous Iron Man Trophy, oldest intercollegiate sports trophy. At the end of the semi-finals, N. Y. U. held a commanding lead, 24 points, to St. John's 19, and Columbia's 16. In addition, it had qualified its complete team of Tauber, Monzeglio, and Levy, thus retaining 3 scoring chances to St. John's 2 (Goettlicher, subbing for Deladrier, and Steinhardt) and Columbia's 1 (Mascia). With the team title virtually decided before the finals, the main interest centered on the individual results. A triple fence-off for the championship, involving Steinhardt of St. John's, Tauber of N. Y. U., and Cadet Moody of Army, was not finished until the early hours of Sunday morning, and placed the contestants in the order mentioned. Steinhardt outgeneraled Tauber to win the bout that proved decisive. Both men were guilty of infractions of the rules, Steinhardt because of his illegal times out through repeated trips to the waterbucket and Tauber by stepping off the side of the strip. But the jury was lenient in view of the lateness of the hour and the long strain to which both fencers had been subjected.
Under the new scoring rules for the Alumni Three-Weapon Trophy, N. Y. U.'s low of 51½ was far ahead of the field. The next six places were closely bunched, but the Violet was never threatened. It had only one of last year's four stars, but Tauber was the hero of the tournament, accounting for 14 points in epee and 15 points in foil. In addition, the N. Y. U. lineup was strong in every position, all 9 men surviving the first-round eliminations, so that the team as a whole matched its winning total of last year, 83½ bouts. Furthermore, in this tournament there was no rival comparable to last year's Navy squad, which finished 10 points behind. The Violet's margin over Columbia was 25 bouts.
While the performances of Spiselman in foil and of Conomikes in epee were disappointing to the Columbia rooters, Rogers did better than expected in epee and Armand Mascia earned a creditable fourth place in foil, only one point behind the three medalists. Therefore it was Columbia's weakness in sabre, usually its best weapon, that prevented the race from being close. St. John's was powerful in foil and sabre, but fatally weak in epee, failing to place a single man in the epee finals. C. C. N. Y.'s strong sabre team suffered an unexpected setback when Mendelson was eliminated in the first round, and its three finalists, Spector in sabre, Lazar in foil, and Strauch in epee, were not strong enough to lift the team into a contending position for three-weapon honors.
The Navy team, weakened by mid-year graduation, received a severe blow when none of its foilsmen reached the final, and another when its two epee finalists between them won only 5½ bouts. Stokes' sabre victory, somewhat surprising inasmuch as he was rated second to his teammate Gooding, was the only bright spot of the tournament for the midshipmen. The Army succeeded in placing one man in each final, and two of them carried off bronze medals, but Pasciak unexpectedly bogged down in the sabre.
Harvard, pentagonal champion, had two topnotchers in Brua and Wright, but its failure to reach the finals in foil spoiled its chances in this tournament. Cornell's hope, Kelley, who came to the championships undefeated for the season, could do no better than a sixth place in foil. Pennsylvania showed its best prospect in years in Greenbaum, who fenced both foil and sabre. M. I. T. had two fair foilsmen in Sherburne and Adelson, but the latter was entered only as a substitute, after another teammate had already dropped two bouts, so that his own two victories in three attempts were not enough to qualify him for the semi-final. Princeton's Beatty and Rimbault, members of last year's epee championship team, failed to pass the first round, and with them went the Tiger's chances for success on their home strips. Hamilton managed to place only one man in the semi-finals, Gillmore of the epee squad.
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TEAM RESULTS
EPEE: Won by NEW YORK UNIVERSITY (Arthur Tauber, 14; Seymour Gross, 6½; Herbert Kane, 5). Total: 25½. Second: COLUMBIA (Marvin Metzger, 12; Sanford Rogers, 8; Peter Conomikes, 4½). Total: 24½. Third: NAVY (O. F. Keeler, Jr., 10; R. H. Walker, 9½; R. F. Sweek, 2). Total: 21½.
SABRE: Tie for first place between: HARVARD (Thomas W. Wright, 15; L. Winfield Alberts, 6; Robert R. Batt, 2). and C. C. N. Y. (Herbert Spector, 14; Neil Lazar, 7; Martin Mendelson, 2)
Total 23. Third: Tie between: ST. JOHN'S (Andre Deladrier, 11; Andrew Costarino, 9; Joseph Judge, 2) and N. Y. U. (Sol Gorlin, 13; Peter Tishman, 5; Anthony Lombardo, 4; Arthur Frank, 0).
Total 22.
FOIL: Won by NEW YORK UNIVERSITY (Arthur Tauber, 15; Roland Monzeglio, 13; Stanley Levy, 8; Stanley Klein, 0). Total: 36. Second: ST. JOHN'S (Charles J. Steinhardt, 15; Andre Deladrier, 8; E. Goettlicher, 2; Stephen Salat, 2). Total: 27. Third: COLUMBIA (Armand Mascia, 12; Herbert Spiselman, 6; Eaton Bayor, 3). Total: 21.
College | Epee | Foil | Sabre | Total
1. N. Y. U. | 25½ | 36 | 22 | 83½
2. Columbia | 24½ | 21 | 13 | 58½
3. C. C. N. Y. | 12 | 15 | 23 | 50
4. Harvard | 21 | 8 | 23 | 52
5. St. John's | 9 | 27 | 22 | 58
6. Navy | 21½ | 9 | 20 | 50½
7. Army | 18 | 10 | 18 | 46
8. Cornell | 12 | 14 | 10 | 36
9. U. of Penn. | 10 | 8 | 15 | 33
10. M. I. T. | 2 | 7 | 6 | 15
11. Princeton | 8 | 6 | 2 | 16
12. Hamilton | 7½ | 4 | 3 | 14½
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INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
EPEE:
(1) Arthur Tauber, N. Y. U., 7–1; (2) Marvin Metzger, Columbia, 6–2; (3) Cadet Victor V. Taylor, Army, 5½–2½; L. A. Brua III, Harvard, 5–3; James Strauch, C. C. N. Y., 5–3; Midshipman O. F. Keeler, Jr., Navy, 3–5; Midshipman R. H. Walker, Navy, 2½–5½; Sanford Rogers, Columbia, 2–6; Donald S. Kent, Cornell, 0–8.
SABRE: (1) Midshipman Griffith P. Stokes, Navy, 7–1; (2) Thomas W. Wright, Harvard, 6–2*; (3) Herbert Spector, C. C. N. Y., 6–2*; Robert Greenbaum, Penn, 4–4; Sol Gorlin, N. Y. U., 4–4; Andre Deladrier, St. John's, 3–5; Andrew Costarino, St. John's, 3–5; Kermit Lansner, Columbia, 2–6; Cadet L. J. Pasciak, Army, 1–7.
FOIL: (1) Charles J. Steinhardt, St. John's, 6–2*; (2) Arthur Tauber, N. Y. U., 6–2*; (3) Cadet Alfred J. F. Moody, Army, 6–2*; Armand Mascia, Columbia, 5–3; Roland Monzeglio, N. Y. U., 4–4; Daniel F. Kelley, Jr., Cornell, 3–5; Stanley Levy, N. Y. U., 2–5; Neil Lazar, C. C. N. Y., 2–6; E. Goettlicher (sub for Deladrier), St. John's, 2–6; Stanley Klein (sub for Levy), N. Y. U., 0–1.
*Places decided by fence-offs.
