Fencing’s banner year

I start with full disclosure: At Princeton I wandered into fencing and ultimately became captain, All-American, All-Ivy, and the saber fencer of the trio who finished second in the 1961 NCAA Championships, Princeton’s highest finish at the time. I was flummoxed by PAW’s April 24 coverage of the fencing team’s first-ever combined NCAA Championships, which PAW relegated to one paragraph in “Sports Shorts,” below a freshman water polo goalie’s profile and the women’s basketball team’s NCAA first-round elimination.

Not to denigrate those accomplishments, but where are your priorities? This was a national championship for combined men’s and women’s teams! Indeed, it was the fourth consecutive year that Princeton’s women fencers would have won, had their scores been counted separately from men’s. In addition, the team’s three Stone siblings’ scores taken alone would have finished eighth, and at least three members of the team are Academic All-Americans. Surely these achievements deserve more than marginal acknowledgment.