Harvard's final hope for fencing glory flickered away this weekend at M.I.T. as the Crimson finished eighth in the Eastern Intercollegiates. With a spectacular sabre round. Penn upset co-favorites Columbia and N.Y.U. for the team title.

Crimson senior Tom Musliner, fencing the top foil men of the best teams in the country, barely missed the finals. Winning five of his nine bouts, Musliner dropped three duels 5-4. Another victory would have put him into a three-way fence-off for the finals.

Paul Profeta, competing against the second men of each sabre team, came even closer to the finals. After taking six bouts, Profeta landed in a four-way fence-off with men from C.C.N.Y., Navy, and N.Y.U., but they lost two of three bouts.

The only other Harvard swordsman who won more than half his bouts was Steve Shea, taking five of nine against third men in epee.

Harvard topped only M.I.T. and Yale, who finished ninth and tenth respectively. These were the only teams in the tournament which the Crimson defeated during the regular season.

Penn needed an exceptional sabre round -- 24 victories in 27 bouts -- to edge N.Y.U. by one point and Columbia by two points in over all team competition. The Quakers amassed 57 wins in 81 bouts, while N.Y.U. collected 56 and Columbia 55.

On the first day of competition, N.Y.U. took the team foil title with 21 points. Columbia and Navy tied in epee with 19. Until the next day's sabre round, Penn trailed N.Y.U. by five points and Columbia by four.

N.Y.U., last year's team champion, found revenge by sweeping the three individual weapon titles. In sabre, Paul Apostol took all five of his final round bouts. Apostol beat Penn's Todd Makler after losing to him in the team sabre competition. Another junior, George Masin, beat Navy's Frank Hewitt and Penn's Ron McMahan in two fence-offs for the epee crown. The foil titlist--Mike Gaylor--is also a junior. N.Y.U. should be invincible next year.