Late Sunday afternoon, both the Harvard men’s and women’s fencing teams were hoping for a little bit of help heading into the final matches of the Ivy League Round-Robins. With the Ivy League title for both teams coming down to bouts that did not include the Crimson, the Harvard men came away with a share of their second-straight Ivy League title while the women had to settle for second, despite freshman sabre fencer Adrienne Jarocki’s undefeated record.

MEN'S FENCING

Having lost a 14-13 nail-biter to No. 1 Columbia early on Sunday, the Crimson needed No. 5 Princeton to beat the Lions for a share of the title. But with the Tigers down, 12-10, with five bouts remaining, it seemed as though the Harvard men would come back to Cambridge empty-handed.

But Princeton, whom the Crimson had beaten, 18-9, the previous day, mounted an unlikely comeback, winning the next four bouts against the top-ranked team in the nation. The Tigers’ upset gave Harvard a share of its second-straight Ivy League title and eighth crown in program history.

“We went from a very dire mood—the guys were on the verge of tears when we lost to Columbia—to resurrection that occurred in basically the last event of the day,” Harvard coach Peter Brand said.  It was just one of those roller-coaster days.”

Though the team was ranked sixth in the country coming into the weekend, the Crimson needed to turn things around after a 1-4 showing at the St. John’s Invitational two weeks before. The men set the tone on Saturday with three convincing wins over top-flight opponents.

Harvard blew past Yale in the first round of the weekend, 22-5, with sophomore sabre fencer Duncan O’Brien, freshman épéeist Alexander Eldeib, and the foil trio of sophomore Michael Woo, junior Brian Kaneshige, and sophomore Jerry Chang each going 3-0 against the Bulldogs.

“[Duncan] was a walk-on for the Harvard team and fourth in [today’s] sabre event,” Brand said. “He even managed to defeat both the gold medal reigning NCAA champion and the silver medal winner. It was quite an accomplishment for him.”

The Crimson kept up the momentum against No. 5 Princeton, defeating the Tigers 18-9 on the backs of the sabre fencers’ 7-2 record for the match. The same three sabre fencers–O’Brien, senior Eric Arzoain, and junior Alexander Ryjik–went 8-1 against the Penn in the 19-8 victory over the Quakers.

On day two, Harvard stared down a Columbia team looking to avenge its 15-12 defeat at the hands of Crimson at last year’s Ivy League Round Robins. The groups began with the Lions taking the sabre portion of the match, 6-3, and Harvard bouncing back to win foil, 6-3.

But Columbia’s épéeists were not going to allow a repeat of the 2013 championship. Down 13-12 after Eldeib’s win over the Lions’ Justin Wan, Columbia won the final two épée bouts to take down the Crimson’s épée trio, 5-4, for the 14-13 win.

Though Harvard bounced back with a 17-10 triumph over Brown, the Crimson left their final position in the hands of the Tigers, who were facing then-unbeaten Columbia on different strips.

Upset-minded Princeton went up 10-8 with 5-4 wins in the sabre and foil parts of the match. Though the Lions won épée, 5-4, the final scorecard read 14-13 in favor of the Tigers, and Harvard clinched a share of the title. Chang, Ryjik and Woo were named to first-team All-Ivy, and O’Brien and Eldeib earned second-team accolades.

WOMEN'S FENCING