Here's an overview of the top Ivy League men's fencers, who will be competing today at Columbia in part-1 of the league's Round-Robin Championship (see previous blog post for women's fencers overview):
• MEN'S SABRE – Columbia junior Jeff Spear is the defending champion from both the NCAA Championships and the Ivy League Round-Robin (14-1) … Penn has an impressive collection of men's sabre talent: junior Jonathan Berkowsky (11th at '08 NCAAs; tied for Ivy League runner-up at 13-2), senior three-time NCAA participant Matthew Kolasa (13th in '07, 16th in '08, 17th in '06; also 6th at '08 Ivy meets, 11-4) and veteran Andrew Bielen (10th at '07 NCAAs) … the only other Ivy League men's sabreist with NCAA Tournament experience in Princeton's John Stogin (20th in '08) … beyond Penn and Columbia, it will be interesting to see how the men's sabre bouts shake out in matches involving the other four teams.
• MEN'S EPEE – This weapon also features an elite Ivy League talent, as Princeton sophomore Graham Wicas placed third at the 2008 NCAAs while Harvard fifth-year senior Benji Ungar won the 2006 NCAA men's epee title (also 7th in '05, but did not fence past two years due to bid for U.S. Olympic team) … another 2008 Olympic hopeful has returned to Ivy League fencing, in the form of Columbia two-time All-American Dwight Smith (4th at '07 NCAAs, 7th in '06) … Wicas was fifth in the '08 Ivy League Round-Robin (8-4), with four current seniors finishing above him: Columbia's Max Czapanskiy (13-2) and Lorenzo Casertano (11-4), and Yale's Michael Pearce (10-2) … Pearce is a three-time NCAA participant, earning All-America honors in 2006 (5th; also 21st in '07 and 13th in '08) … Czapanskiy earned All-America honors at the '07 NCAAs (12th) … three other current Ivy League men's epeeists competed at the 2008 NCAAs: Columbia's Casterano (15th), Brown's Adam Yarnell (20th) and Penn's Benjamin Wieder (23rd, also 17th in '07).
• MEN'S FOIL – Penn's older Berkowsky brother, four-time NCAA top-four finisher Ron, has moved on, after finishing as the 2008 NCAA runner-up … Columbia junior Kurt Getz also was a 2008 NCAA semifinalist (3rd) and finished atop the '08 Ivy Round-Robin standings … several other top fencers return from the '08 Ivy elite: Yale junior John Gurrieri (11-4), Penn sophomore Alex Salsman (10-5), Harvard senior Kai Itameri-Kinter (10-5) and Columbia senior Sherif Farrag (10-5) … Itameri-Kinter was a 2006 All-American (6th; also 15th at '07 NCAAs and 19th in '08) while Gurrieri is a two-time NCAA participant (13th in '08, 18th in '07) … five other current Ivy League men's foilists competed in the 2008 NCAAs: Columbia's Farrag (16th), Brown's Adam Pantel (17th), Yale's Nathaniel Botwinick (20th), Harvard's Long Ouyang (21st) and Princeton's Clayton Flanders (24th) … one key newcomer to watch is Princeton's Alexander Mills (Penn State Open runner-up; bronze medalist at Jr. NAC in Colorado Springs).