The Harvard fencing team travels up Mass Ave today for the three-day International Fencing Association championships at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The 12-squad meet features clashes with powerhouse teams NYU, Army and Navy.

The contest begins today with the epee competition at 9 a.m. followed by the foil at 1 p.m. The sabre event will be held at 9 a.m., Saturday, with the final playoffs at 1 p.m.

Sick of Defeat

"We're sick of narrow defeats," captain Gordon Rutledge said yesterday, "and we have a lot of proving to do."

In addition to facing the favored Eastern powers, the meet also gives the Crimson a chance to avenge its heart-breaking one-point defeats against Cornell, Penn and Columbia.

All Americans Phillips Bennett and Rutledge will be seeded first in the foil and sabre events respectively.

Tom Lochonsky of Columbia and Dave Uffelman of Princeton are expected to be Bennett's sharpest foes while Rutledge is favored in the evenly matched foil event.

Strong Epee

The epee competition is strong, NYU champions Horme and Wiesegren are expected to be formidable adversaries for the Crimson epee swordsmen. Mac Simmons, John Hirschfeld and Sam Anderson.

Completing the field for the Crimson will be Larry Tu and Mike Payne in the sabre and John Major and Nick Tepe in the foil.

The IFA contest will be the last team event for the Harvard fencers until the NCAA tournament to be held in California later this year.