By: centraljersey.com
Even without standout Sharon Gao, the West Windsor-Plainsboro South girls fencing team is feeling good about its chances in foil at the Santelli Tournament on Saturday.
That’s because the Pirates still have another senior, Becky Shi, and greatly improved sophomore Kristen Kemnitzer back from last year’s foil squad that placed sixth at the Santelli. Sophomore Melissa Mischell will fill in for Gao, who along with many of the top A strip fencers, will miss the rescheduled Santelli to compete in a North American Cup event in Dallas this weekend.
"Last year, with Sharon and I being juniors and Kristen, we did a decent job throughout the season," Shi said. "This year, with one more year of experience, we expected to do better. Part of that is trying to beat our place in Santelli. And we want to finish higher in districts."
The Santelli tournament is one of the two biggest tournaments for New Jersey high school fencers. It’s an early gauge of where teams stand, though it will be skewed somewhat by the conflict with the NAC event.
"The boys just went to Cetrulo," said Pirates head coach Ed Chang. "They found out what it was like. They came back and reported it to the girls, and now they’re getting pumped. They’re focusing their practices on doing well."
Shi, who placed fifth at the individual districts last year, has been fencing since her freshman year. Late in that season, she moved up to varsity and has been there ever since then.
"She’s always been pretty consistent," Chang said. "She doesn’t have any kind of national ranking. She focuses more time on her academics. She’s been able to compete with teams. She does come to practices and gets her skill level up. She’s a really solid B. She’s not as aggressive as Sharon, but she really holds her own."
Shi started fencing as a freshman, but only fences once per week outside of school in the offseason. It leaves her without as much experience as some of the state’s best foil fencers, and experience is an advantage.
"I won’t be able to compete at the top level, but I’ll do as best I can," Shi said. "I think I started around the same time as Sharon. But she obviously put more time and effort into the sport, so she’s more experienced than I am."
Shi has remained steady on the B strip. She has never been an aggressive fencer. Her style counters others’ attacks.
"I’m not a very aggressive fencer," Shi said. "I tend to play on the defensive. Most people tell me to attack more, but I think that’s how I get most of my points – on the parry – on the defense instead of attacking by myself. That’s definitely something I should work on."
Shi has just this season to bolster her attack before graduating to college, where she hopes to join a club team. Kemnitzer will be on the A strip Saturday because of her aggressiveness. It’s a big jump, but not unlike the one she did in the offseason.
"Kristen, who was our C last year, she jumped in the national ranks," Chang said. "So she’s a D now. She’s been getting a lot of experience and getting up her skill level. I think the foil will be very competitive."
While the two are disappointed that Gao, who gives them confidence that she can make up almost any deficit, won’t be there, they are looking forward to their chance to shine.
"Actually, if the tournament had been last week," Shi said, "I wouldn’t have been able to make it. With the other competition that will be there, we’re losing our A fencer, but we know a lot of other schools will be missing their A fencers. With me and Kristen at A and B, I think we have an OK shot of placing in the top 8."
Without Gao, the two returners will feel some pressure, but they have the experience to deal with it unlike many of their younger teammates. WW-P South has competed in just one match, a loss to Montgomery High. Now they’ll be taking on some of the state’s top fencers without many regular-season matches to build on at Santelli.
"It means we don’t have so much experience in the competition setting," Shi said. "In terms of me and Kristen actually feeling the pressure against other schools, we might not have so much practice dealing with that, but I think we have enough experience working together last year that we can handle it."
The Santelli tournament will jump start the rest of the season for the Pirates. They are itching to get on the strip against someone other than themselves.
"We’ve been doing a lot of practicing and conditioning," Chang said. "Our team is really young because we graduated a lot of seniors. We’ve been working on getting them together. January will be a tough month and February will be a tough month because they’re just packed.
"We haven’t really seen other teams yet, but we know we have a lot of potential on the foil level. Sharon is back and she is performing well as usual. We have our whole foil team intact from last year. Becky is back. She’s always been consistent. Kristen is back too."
The Pirates haven’t had many chances early in the season to highlight the foil team. Even without their top fencer, WW-P South likes its chances.
"We don’t have too many competitions together," Shi said. "For the girls foil, we want to do as well as we can. We put pretty much weight on it. We want to see how we can do, even without Sharon, whom we depend on."

