By ryan March 2, 2001
The fencing season culminates this weekend at Harvard for the Intercollegiate Fencing Association Championships. Being one of the oldest continually contested intercollegiate meets in the U.S., the IFAs have a long tradition of bringing together many of the most powerful fencing teams in the nation. Cornell has been competing in the annual event since 1896. Thirteen other schools join the Red at the IFAs; among them are all the Ivy League teams, Rutgers, Boston College, St. John’s, MIT, Brandeis, NYU, and Vassar. The Red women have seen the entire field except for the Scarlet Knights, Johnnies and Violets. Unlike the Ivies, most of the participating schools offer scholarships. Tomorrow the tournament begins, setting each fencer against every other fencer in her respective weapon and seeding. The team’s place is determined by the total amount of bouts that the team’s fencers win. “The hard part is you fence every 45 minutes and you have to develop concentration for each bout,” head coach Al Peters explained. This is a hard task considering each fencer will have to focus thirteen successive times during the all-day event. On Sunday, the top one-fourth to one-third of the team will compete in the individual championships. Cornell’s best hope for the individual contests are the co-captains — senior Ellyn Rajfer and junior Patty Blumenauer — and sophomore Roopa Rangi. Rajfer has been a mainstay for Cornell all year long. Her skills in the foil placed her second NIWFA Championships, but Peters said that the competition will be much stiffer this coming weekend. Bluemanauer and Rangi have also dominated in the epee events, ranked one and two respectively on the team. Junior Elinor Graznow is the best hope in the saber. The Cornell squad (12-8, 0-5 Ivy) has seen its best season results in a while. After graduating many players and losing more to injuries, Peters faced many uncertainties coming into the season. But the young team has exceeded all expectations, giving Cornell its first winning record for as long as Peters can remember. The fencers hope to get into Harvard by seven tonight so that they can help set up for the tournament tomorrow. From there the women will be competing individually in Regional Championships. All nine of the Cornell starters will attend the event in hopes of progressing to the National Championships.Archived article by Amanda Angel
By ryan March 2, 2001
It’s coming to an end. According to head coach Marnie Dacko — there is only one bad thing about this double-header weekend: It’s the last one! The women’s basketball team (14-11, 7-5 Ivy) feels like it is finally coming together. It has been working on its problems and adjusting to different line-ups. And finally, after months of ups and downs, weeks of winning and losing, it has become what it had the potential to be: a successful, dynamic, winning team. With a sweep this weekend, the women can clinch second place in the Ivy League. Last weekend, the Big Red repeated previous wins against Brown and Yale. Cornell won the double header at home to the pair Feb. 9 and 10. The women headed down and beat the Bears 65-60 in Providence, R.I. Capping off a tough schedule, with seven of its last nine games having been on the road, the Red played Yale in New Haven, on senior night, and facing injury and fatigue, the women pulled out a last second 67-66 victory. “We played hard, and we did what we needed to do get the ‘W,'” praised Dacko. “Last weekend was big for us. Some of us felt like they were trying hard, and coming up short. We fell short, we were kind of in a drought. Losing close games, to Harvard and Penn, and we were playing pretty good basketball,” Dacko mentioned. Topping off the weekend’s wins, the Red beat the standing record of most wins in the season. Finally, Cornell has figured out a way to play two good halves of basketball. Through most of the season, inconsistent play has hampered the team. “We have regrouped, as to what we have to do in the game plan, and we are going to come out ready to play,” said Dacko. Specifically, keeping the game even, rebounding, and improving shooting has led the Red to a three-game winning streak. Now the team has a tough task at hand. Harvard and Dartmouth sandwich Cornell in the Ivy standings. Dartmouth (10-14, 6-5 Ivies) beat the Red 65-49 Feb. 3. The night before, the Red fell to Harvard 61-58 in a close game. However, the lady cagers have improved by leaps and bounds since then, but the team knows what it is facing. “Both teams are physical, both like to run, both have a good inside/ outside game. Both have given us trouble in the past. Right now we are just happy to be playing at home, we like playing at home. Based on that we have been on the road three out of the last four weekends”, Dacko noted. “I know our team is ready to play, they are anxious, excited. It unfortunate that our season comes to a close at the end of this weekend,” continued Dacko. “We expect a lot from our players this weekend. Do Stevens has been playing well, as well as Breean Walas. Karen Force, too. Katie Romey has been injured, so we have been playing without Katie being a force. Lynell [Davis] and Tanya [Karcic] have done a great job on the boards. Melissa Koch did a great job versus Harvard at Harvard in the last go around. Ify [Ossai] and Sandy Martisauskas, the Air Force/ ROTC Athlete of the week, have contributed a lot for the team. The team is starting to gel, everyone is putting in their time, getting it done. Now people are stepping up where we need them,” summarized Dacko. “All our pistons are firing, we are going to be ready to rock,” finished Dacko. The Red take on Dartmouth on Friday night at 7:00 p.m., and finish the season Saturday night hosting Harvard, also at 7:00 p.m. Archived article by Cammy Kandiko