PRINCETON: Well worth the wait

Hun senior claims state sabre crown

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
   The wait was worth it for Teddy Weller.
   After three years of near misses, the Hun School senior won the prep fencing boys sabre title Wednesday. He finished the day 24-1 in bouts to wrap up his first career crown.
   ”It feels good,” Weller said. “After three years of waiting for my time, it’s nice to finally realize my goals.”
   Weller finished third in the state as a freshman, then finished second twice to St. Benedict’s Marty Williams. Last summer, Williams captured the junior national championship. With Williams graduating, it was Weller’s title to lose.
   ”I put pressure on myself,” Weller said. “Other people felt I was going to win. It adds some pressure. But I was able to focus.”
   It’s not easy in a day that Weller says is as long as any competition. Hun spent 10 hours at Princeton Day School, the state tournament host site. In that time, Weller lost just once, in his second bout of the day.
   ”Twenty-five matches was a lot,” he said. “I wanted to keep a good pace. My endurance was good, I had to keep focused. Staying focused was a key part to it.
   ”There’ve been times where I’ve lost my focus,” he added. “You learn from that when you’re younger. All my experience helped me.”
   Weller never lost again the rest of the day. He breezed through qualifying, then in the championship rounds remained nearly untouchable to close his scholastic career.
   ”It was a nice way to end my high school fencing career,” said Weller, who went 49-3 in matches this season. “It is nice, especially after coming in second and third all those years and being able to win it my senior year. And to know I’m fencing for my school. Now it helps my school to win.”
   Hun’s Cimarron Sharon placed third in the girls foil. Paul Weinand was fourth in the boys epee. Host PDS saw Sophia Weissman earn second in girls epee, Katie Elbert second in girls foil, Andrew Schroeder take third and Phillip Grudzina fifth in boys sabre, and Noah Lanard, Paul Mannino and Alex Ioffreda earn third, fifth and sixth respectively in boys foil. The Panthers finished first in the girls foil squad standings, and second in girls sabre, while the boys sabre was first and boys foil was third.
   Overall, PDS was third and Hun, led by a third-place finish in boys sabre, was sixth.
   Weller’s performance was the highlight of the day for the Raiders, and a highlight for him despite having enjoyed success at the national and international levels as well.
   ”I’ve been doing a lot of fencing,” said Weller, a Providence, R.I. resident. “I’ve been doing national competitions for about seven years. The Last couple years, I’ve been doing lot of Junior World Cups. The high level fencing is helping me improve. Even without the high school season, I’m practicing about five times a week. The constant fencing and practicing and training shows after a while.”
   Weller trains outside of school with coach Marcos Lucchetti, a former United States national team coach. Weller placed third in a Junior World Cup event in Venezuela last March. He picked up another medal by winning the prep sabre title Wednesday.
   ”It’ll be special,” Weller said. “It’s a gold medal. I had to wait four years to win it. There’s a lot more build-up to this one.”