For the second consecutive year, the Crimson three-man fencing team finished in fourth place in the NCAA Fencing Championships, placing behind N.Y.U., Columbia, and the University of Detroit. The three-day competition was held at the Air Force Academy in Boulder, Colo.

Tom Keller and Larry Cetrulo became three-time All Americans as they fenced in their last NCAA match. Keller repeated his performance of last year, finishing in second place. Cetrulo became a second-team All-American with his fifth-place finish. Mickey Irvings, the Crimson's other entry, ended his college career with a 12th-place NCAA finish at the epee. some improvement over last year.

The eventual winner at the epee,

Up until the final five bouts on Saturday afternoon, Keller had won 16 of 18 bouts, and was battling the eventual winner of the competition. Tyrone Simmons of Detroit, for the lead. But all at once, Keller began to lose, and before it was over, he had lost four of his last five bouts, ending the competition with a 17-6 record. Simmons finished 19-4.

On the first day of the final round, Cetrulo lost three bouts to fencers he would have usually beaten. Added to the losses at the hands of fencers of his caliber, these first-day defeats gave Cetrulo a 15-8 record. Even if Cetrulo had won these doubtful losses, he had little chance of finishing higher than second place, as Columbia's Bruce Soriano went through the competition undefeated.

In very rough competition, Irvings managed to win five bouts on Friday and six more on Saturday. His record in the competitions this year showed N.Y.U.'s George Szunyogh, was stabbed in the neck in a freak fencing accident, but miraculously the blade missed his jugular vein and he was able to re-enter competition after receiving medical treatment.