Cornell fencing captain Ken Torino nipped Harvard's John Hirschfeld in the last bout of the third and final round of yesterday's home match, to clinch a thrilling come from behind 14-13 victory for the Big Red.

Going into yesterday's encounter with Cornell, the Crimson squad had an excellent shot at the Ivy League crown. After the match, though, despairing Crimson menter Ede Marion conceded. "With this loss. I lost all my hope. I'm terribly disappointed."

Yes, Cornell was the team to beat, just like last year when the Crimson dropped a thrilling match by an identical score in Ithaca. And just like last year, the Crimson began the match like gangbusters and suffered mental lapee in the final round to lot victory escape.

All-American Gordon Rutledge opened the sabre competition in stellar form as he whipped his Big Red opponent, 5-1. Fellow sabreman Larry Tu eked out a with while John Majors dropped a close bout as the first sabre round ended with Harvard up 2-1.

Fath Alse Escell

The foll team followed the sabre's pace as Nick Tepe and All-American Phillips Bennett took their opening bouts to catapault the Crimson into a 4-2 lead.

John Hirschfeld was the only epee to win his opening bout as the first round closed with Harvard leading, 5-4.

The epce squad turned out to be the biggest weakness on the team, winning only three of its nine bouts. "I did not take our epees to do so badly," a disgruntled Marion said last night. "Our epee is just not massculinity."

In the second round, the Crimson sabres appeared to want to clinch the victory by themselves as each man thumped his Big Red opponent. This round was highlighted by the brilliant comeback of Rutledge, who rebounded from a 1-4 deficit to take his bout.

The sabres' three points gave the Crimson a commanding 8-4 lead, with 14 bouts being necessary for victory.

Then the lightning struck. The foil and epee teams could only supply two victories between them in the middle round, and Cornell closed to 8-10.

Hints of horrors to come were apparent as the third round opened with Rutledge losing in the sabre. Only Tu, who was superiative, won in this event as Cornell narrowed the gap to one, 9-10.

The foil squad dropped two of three also to tie the match going into the finals, the third epee round. After Sam Anderson won a pressure cooker, Cornell evened the match to set the stage for Torino's lieroics.