It was about as exciting as watching the Nixon-McGovern election returns. For the handful of fans that sat through last night's Harvard-MIT fencing mismatch, there was never much doubt about who would come out on top. Harvard took 1 7-2 lead in the first round, and coasted to an overwhelming 22-5 win over the Engineers.

The triumph wasn't nearly as impressive as the score might indicate. The MIT squad soon discovered it was in way over its head as Crimson coach Edo Marion, because of a J.V. match running simultaneously, stayed with his first nine performers throughout the match.

"This sounds big," Marion said after the match, "but it really isn't that big. We fenced a very weak team."

The Crimson coach said that he was still not really satisfied with Harvard's performance, because his squad still hasn't rounded into the forms that he would like to see. "We're not yet mature," Marion said. "I want us to ripen a little more."

The Harvard performance was highlighted by the work of the sabre squad which lost only one bout all might, while winning eight. Number one man and team captain Terry Valenzuela and number three Walt Morris each swept three straight from the Engineers. Gordon Rutledge also won two, but two sophomore spoiled Harvard's chances for a shutout in sabre by losing to MIT captain John Tsang, 5-2.

The foil squad, led by Howie Weiss, who won three, also looked impressive taking seven out of nine bouts from the Engineers. Weiss, fencing in the number one position in place of Phillipe Bennett, showed a good deal of poise in the first spot, especially in winning his second round bout, 5-4, after being behind, 4-2.

Another strong performance in foil came from Dave Fichter, who rebounded from a first round 5-2 loss to put together two shutout wins in the last two rounds. At number two, Bennett came within a touch of a flawless record, losing his third round bout, 5-4.