Penn's varsity fencers unexpectedly blitzed the Crimson Saturday, 18-9, to virtuatly clinch second place in the Ivy League behind Columbia.

The Harvard varsity's delicate psyche came unglued when two Quaker sabremen surpised Crimson fencers at the beginning of the first round with two 5-4 upsets. After Harvard's Al Makaitis nipped Norm Stillman, 5-4, in the first bout, Bob Damus and Dave Redmond dropped matches to Quakers Dan Cohen and Todd Makler by the same score.

Harvard coach Edo Marion predicted before the match that the Crimson would have to crush Penn in the first round to win. He was right. Harvard isn't the kind of team that slashes back after initial defeats. The Harvard bench was already gloomy after the sabre round, which the Crimson expected to sweep.

Captain Rick Kolombatovich quickly tied the score, 2-2, with a suspenseful 5-4 foil triumph over Mike Morgan, in the next bout, Penn all-Ivy Steve Permut beat Harvard all-Ivy Tom Musliner, 5-2, unnerving Musliner and the Harvard bench with his aggressive attacks. A quick lefthander with an unorthodox style. Permut looks like a caricature of Harvard's Chuck Lovell. Penn's Russ Goodman clipped Lovell, 5-1.

Sophomore Harry Jergesen, more impressive each time he fences, took three bouts in epee. In the first bout, he picked apart Penn's Mark Rosenberg with five touches in less than a minute. Harvard's Steve Shea followed with a slim 5-4 decision over Jay Miller, but Ron McMahan's 5-2 pasting of Brian Keidan gave Penn a 5-4 lead at the end of the first round.

When Penn swept the three second-round sabre bouts, the match was over. The only Harvard wins in the second round were by Kolombatovich and Jergesen.

Harvard is now 8-3 for the season and 0-2 in Ivy competition. The swordsmen will try for their second victory of the year over Holy Cross at 2:30 p.m. today in the IAB.

The Yardlings beat the varsity of Southeastern Massachusetts Technical Institute Saturday, 16-11. Captain Steve Amerikaner won three bouts in foil. William Theodore took three in epee. The freshmen record is 2-2.