Rye's Sanders Captains Fencing

Harvard and Columbia won the Ivy fencing championship. Yale captain Cornelius Sanders '14 (above) from Rye hopes to lead  teammates to an improved performance in upcoming tournaments. (Yale photos, S. Rubin)

WESTCHESTER ATHLETES

Rye's Cornelius Sanders '14, captain of the Yale fencing team, will find ways to rally his teammates after they faltered in the Ivy League championship in Providence in early February.  Having started the season with a string of wins, the team stumbled in the Ivy tournament. Harvard and Columbia cruised and shared the title.  Columbia, in fencing, is an Ivy power, capturing its 35th all-time Ivy trophy.

There are second chances in fencing. All Ivy squads get to compete in national tournaments in the weeks to come--including the US Collegiate Squad Championship in Philadelphia Feb. 23 and the NCAA tournament in March.  Princeton won the NCAA title last year, while Yale finished 11th. Harvard won the title in 2006.

Sanders, a senior and epee fencer, is captain for the second year in a row.  A graduate of Rye High School, he won an Ivy League rookie award as a freshman.  He is joined on the team by Irvington's Peter Cohen '14, a Hackley graduate and, like Sanders, an epee fencer.