Even when an questionable call mars a bout at a critical point, Vastola, practicing what he preaches, manages to keep his lid on. "A good fencer should be like a horse with blinkers, concentrating on the fencing, not the director."

Vastola's tenacity on the strip, his mental alertness and poise all derive in large part from his fierce pride. For him, losing, especially losing when you don't fence your best, is humiliating. He describes fencing as "more crushing from an ego point of view" than most sports and says. "When someone clobbers you, you have the joy of groping around on the strip with a pair of tweezers to pick up your ego."

Vastola has spent very little time searching on his knees this year. In fact, he has brought a couple of fencing giants to their knees on his victory rampages in the East. A couple of months ago he crushed the number-three-ranked foil fencer in the country, MIT's Mark Smith, 5-2, in a local tournament.

Then, in February, Vastola turned strategy into victory against Princeton's Richard Pantel, a 1978 second team All-American. He noticed that Pantel had been gathering touches on counter-attacks made as he, Vastola, prepared his own attack. Using a "second intention attack," that is, by pretending to prepare to lunge then waiting for Pantel to commit himself, Vastola collected the crucial fifth touch.

Vastola's performance and approach to the game have been an inspiration to the rest of the squad. Coach Zivkovic gives Vastola enormous credit. "In each sport the captain is the right-hand man of the coach. Gino is such a captain that I feel like I am his right arm instead of he mine. He is by far the best captain I've met in the U.S. and I've been involved in intercollegiate fencing for 20 years."

Zivkovic even says Vastola has made the difference between a winning and losing year for the 6-4 fencers.

The individual season is not over for Vastola. This weekend at the ECACs and then the week after at the NCAA s he will be thoroughly tested for the first time this year. Although he may have suffered from the infrequency of his battles with topnotch competition so far this season, Zivkovic still regards him as the foil favorite in the Easterns. "I'm pretty sure every other school is thinking about Gino, thinking that this is the year the number one fencer comes from this school."

Vastola also believes he has "at least a shot" at becoming the first Crimson All-American since foilsmen Felipe Benet in 1974.

When Vastola decided to attend Harvard, which is five hours driving time from New York, the capital of American fencing, his coach and other acquaintances warned him he might well be sentencing himself to fencing obscurity. Gene Vastola is a fighter. Gene Vastola has proved them wrong.