Harvard's swordsmen placed a dull seventh in overall team competition, yet dueled their way to a very respectable second spot in foils competition at the 79th Annual Intercollegiate Fencing Association tournament at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland this past weekend.

The University of Pennsylvania, Ivy champs, upset highly touted New York University, which finished second, and took home the tradition laden "little iron man" trophy.

The foils team, cold at the start of the competition Friday, began to catch fire after their alloted bye. Freshman Eugene Vastola collected nine victories against three losses. John Major sliced out seven wins in twelve matches, while team captain Phillipe Bennett scored eight strategic victories to go on to Saturday's finals.

"The best thing of the whole shooting match," John Majors chuckled, "was the performance by Phil on Friday. We then expected him to go on to place first or second." Bennett was narrowly edged from the third spot, finishing fourth with a 5-3 record in the finals.

The saber pool stood in eighth position and the epee contingent had a seventh place finish to their credit.

Major also said that Bennett has a "clean, most classical style, he lost faith in it and went to hacking like the rest of the field Saturday. Not being an experienced hacker, he lost control."