Fencing squads go 2-1 in Philadelphia

The men's and women's fencing both had their first three dual meets of the season on Saturday in Philadelphia, and both squads opened 1996 with 2-1 records. In both the men's and women's competition, Duke defeated Haverford and Brown and lost to the University of Pennsylvania.

The men's squad was led by a strong performance by its foil fencers. In particular, junior Paul Palmeri went 8-1 in his bouts over the weekend. Junior G. P. Aroldi and freshman Bob Manchen also fenced foil for Duke.

In dual meet, each school fences nine bouts in each of three weapons: epee, foil and saber. In order to win the match, a team must win 14 of the individual bouts, which are contested in a round-robin format.

Duke's starting epee team consisted of juniors Jeremy Kahn, Jon Stieber and David Olsson. Freshman Brian Hartman filled in for a few bouts for the Blue Devils.

"I think our foil and epee [teams] are fairly even," said Kahn, who is the team's captain. "[Saturday], foil did better, but that could change from week to week."

Although saber is not Duke's strongest weapon, freshman Amy McDowell performed well for the Blue Devils. McDowell helped Duke's sabers remain competitive by going 4-5 on the weekend. Since there the saber is not used in women's collegiate fencing, McDowell fences with the men's team.

Overall, the Duke men were pleased with their performance in their first three dual meets of the season.

"We were pretty happy with how we did," Kahn said. "We were pretty dominant over the other two teams, but we felt we could have done better against Penn. I've heard that they are ranked fourth [in the nation], and they have a fairly balanced team [among their three weapons]. I think we could be a top 10 team right now."