NEW YORK--The Royal Manhattan Hotel is located at 42nd Street and 8th Ave. So after the Harvard fencing team checked in here Thursday, all the squad really wanted to do was unwind a little and take its mind off the next day's IFA fencing competition.

Since the immediate vicinity offers a wide variety of film and cinema, the squad decided to take in a movie. For those who choose "A Hard Man's Good to Find", yesterday's IFA competition could be nothing but anticlimatic. And, with the exception of Phillipe Bennett, it was.

Because, in yesterday's fourteen hour marathon tournament, Bennett was the sole bright spot, grabbing a spot in the foil finals which will be held this afternoon. Meanwhile, the Crimson foil squad took 5th place with 21 point total.

The freshman foil man, who has had his troubles at times this year, was something to see. Fencing in the meet's second pool, he took 10 of 12 bouts, and lost only to James Bonacorda of NYU and Peter Vaisavy of Navy, both of whom challenged strongly for the two spots in the finals in the second pool.

Bennett was firmly supported by Dave Fichter, the on-again-off-again Harvard number three man. Fichter, had he not tired in the second half of the twelve bout meet, would have come up with one of the strongest performances of his career. Fichter won three of his first four contests but could only gather 3 triumphs the rest of the way.

To the Crimson epee team, memories of "A Hard Man" must have still been too great of a distraction yesterday morning, because Harvard was little short of pathetic in the weapon, finishing third from last with a scant fifteen points, fourteen behind weapon leader NYU.

Eugene White was the most effective performer for the Crimson, taking 6 out of 12 bouts, but none of the other Harvard starters would have been able to hack their way out of a paper sack had the need arisen. Freshman Eric Read, who replaced Ken Bartels after the senior had lost three of his first four contests, was as effective as White percentage wise, taking four of eight, but couldn't really boost the Crimson epee standing.

The first day team standings showed NYU leading all challengers with a 55 point total, 19 ahead of Harvard which placed 6th. Penn finished second with 48 points.