Double down on the Ivy crown: Fencers cap perfect season

The 7 a.m. starting time began to sink in. The men's fencing team had just defeated Yale, 17-10, all but securing Princeton's second outright Ivy League championship in four years. Harvard, one of the weakest Ivy teams, was the only obstacle left.

But the Tigers were tired. They sat and they sagged as they waited for more than half an hour, trying to muster energy and smother yawns. Senior captain Jason Burrell studied his team as it stumbled into the first round against Harvard and felt "a step below worried."

So, he took charge of the team huddle in between rounds, flashed the championship ring that he and the other seniors had prudently slipped on before boarding the team bus Saturday morning, and jolted his wilting team back into action.

Two rounds later, the Tigers (12-3 overall, 4-0 Ivy League) emerged with their narrowest victory of the year, defeating the Crimson (2-7, 0-5), 16-11, capping off a stellar season with their third Ivy championship in four years.

Bright and shiny

While the men struggled slightly, the women's fencing team (15-2, 5-0) — also competing against Harvard (7-4, 1-4) and Yale for the Ivy championship — did not suffer any kind of letdown after efficiently dismantling Yale, 16-11. Princeton dusted off Harvard in its final match of the season, 19-8.

It was the first outright championship ever for the team, although it tied for first place last year with Columbia and Yale. Saturday, sophomore epee Maya Lawrence and freshman foil Melinda Rostal both went 6-0 in their bouts.

"It's wonderful. It's great," junior foil Lisa Leslie said. "I think we've come a long way since I was a freshman. It's kind of been building. Since then it's been one or two superstars, but now we have a really good, strong all-around team."

The women got their moment of panic out of the way immediately. In the first round against Yale, they lost all three sabre bouts. Although Yale's sabre team was strong, its dominance was unexpected. The next round, the Elis won two out of the three sabre bouts, bumping the team score to 12-6, Princeton.

With the target of 14 victories looming, the Tigers lost the next three sabre bouts and the first epee, but after winning the first foil it came down to Lawrence in her second epee bout. She won, and was nearly knocked over as her teammates scrambled over her.

The men operated in reverse, disposing of Yale with minimal discomfort. Then the problems started.

"We went into Yale with a lot of energy, a lot of excitement," said Burrell, who went 3-2 on the day, but 0-2 against Harvard. "And then after we beat Yale, the energy level slipped a lot. We were sitting around. We weren't moving."

But disasters were averted. And though the two Tiger teams took different routes to get there, the championship rings will look just the same in the end.