Fencers aiming for title

By DON WAGNER
Collegian Sports Writer

After two days of women's competition at the NCAA fencing championships in South Bend, Ind., it was the men's turn to take center stage.

The men were led by freshman Serge Lilov, who in his first NCAA championships, garnered the No. 1 one seed heading into the finals today. Also competing in sabre for the Lions was Jason Levin who ended the first round seeded sixth.

Lilov was pleased with his first day results, but he stressed that most of his important bouts lay ahead in the finals.

"In order to be successful in the finals I must concentrate and I can't afford to be distracted," he said. "I'll be concentrating during every bout and every touch of every bout."

Lion head coach Emmanuil Kaidonov agreed that it is absolutely necessary for his team to be focused today.

Lilov said he feels the overall system in the competition is conducive to helping him concentrate. He said that because the fencers have so many bouts to fence they don't know which ones are more important. This forces them to treat each with the same importance.

The fencers don't find out their scores until the last couple of bouts of the competition.The competition will conclude today at which time a team champion will be decided from the combination of both the men's and women's scores.

In foil, senior Andy Gearhart was seeded fourth and sophomore Wes Waldron was seeded eighth. In epee, a minor surprise occured when sophomore Greg Gregor earned the third seed for the finals. Also in epee junior Kimo Quaintance made the cut by getting the 18th seed.

Kaidonov was impressed with Gregor's result calling it "quite a finish." However, he said he felt that his team's results could have been a bit better. He added that the competition up to this point has been tough, very close, and difficult.

The team standings still have the Lions in first with 168 points followed by St. John's and Princeton, both of which are tied for second with 140 points. Defending national champion Notre Dame is in fourth with 139 points and Yale is in fifth with 138 points.