MONTGOMERY: Ali, Cougars enjoy climb

MHS boys fencing advances to first final four

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
   Mir Ali can remember the lean years for the Montgomery High School boys fencing team.
   They weren’t that long ago, but they seem eons ago now for Ali, a senior, and the third-seeded Cougars, who topped sixth-seeded Watchung Hills, 16-11, Tuesday to reach their first final four.
   ”It’s like we’re making history now,” said Ali, who won both of his bouts before sitting out the final one when the meet was clinched. “It’s a really big deal for everyone.”
   Montgomery will fence at second-seeded Mendham, an 18-9 winner over No. 10 Bernards, next Tuesday. The Cougars will be looking to build on a 13-3 record in uncharted territory in Ali’s final scholastic season.
   Said Ali: “Coming from a team that would win one or two through a season, to be district champions and top four, you couldn’t ask for anything more.”
   In Ali’s freshman year, the Cougars won just twice all year. In his sophomore year, there were only three wins.
   ”Freshman and sophomore year, we had the terrible records,” Ali said. “It’s good to be able to leave leaving a mark in my final year. Hopefully we can continue on to the finals.”
   The Cougars reached their first semifinal with a strong showing across all three weapons. Paul Won was 3-0, Johan Zhang was 2-1 and Alex Chen won a bout in foil; Nick Sledeski was 3-0 and Cameron Sacke picked up a win in sabre; and, in epee Ali won both of his bouts, Robert Gunton went 1-1 and Alec Grant went 1-1. Brennan Casey and Nishant Gandhi also had wins for the epee.
   ”Their epee was really strong,” said MHS head coach Tim Sullivan. “That was the weapon I was nervous about. We won, 6-3. That was the turning point.
   ”Mir had a big victory in the second round that changed momentum. They had an upset victory in the foil. It was 5-4 in the first round and it was going in their favor. Mir and Rob both came up with two big victories to change the momentum. They were on their way to a 6-3 second round when those guys won. Everyone has been pulling their weight throughout the year at different times.”
   It doesn’t get any more even than the weapons for the Cougars. Each of the three weapons is 11-5 this season, but they’ve been able to pick each other up at different times to post a 13-win season.
   ”It’s nice because you need consistency,” Sullivan said. “To have three teams with the same record, the same win percentage, it’s great to see. They’re all at 60 percent or higher.”
   Ali has helped as the squad leader for an epee team that has been steady all season. They were put to the test by Watchung Hills, which opened the meet with a strong showing.
   ”In the first round, Mir is the only one that won,” Sullivan said. “In the second round, they took control. They saw the pressure was on and they were able to respond.
   ”The key is having a B and C win. If you can win a couple C strip bouts, that’s a turning point. Those top three kids can only give you nine points. You need 14. Throughout the year, there have been a number of kids that have come through.”
   Ali set the tone for the team in the second round. He felt some of the pressure, and he wanted to do his part to help the Cougars advance. His toughest win of the meet helped to propel MHS to the semifinals.
   ”We were all really nervous going into the second round with the score so tight,” said Ali, who has forged a 23-8 record on the A strip this year. “We knew if we wanted to win, we had to get the tough wins. I had Eric Gardner, which was my toughest bout the whole day. Once we started to get those key wins, it changed our mentality. We started to get hyped. Everyone was into it.”
   Ali tried not to think of the magnitude of the moment. Through his years of fencing, he’s learned to just focus on his opponent.
   ”I try to fence every touch, remember what all my coaches tell me and never let anything get to me,” he said. “When it comes down to those situations and you have to win for the team, that’s what it really comes down to.”
   Just as in Tuesday’s match, the epee squad has come on strong this season. Ali and Gunton are the lone seniors on the squad, and they have led the way to an encouraging year.
   ”Besides Mir and Rob, everyone is freshmen and sophomores,” Sullivan said. “They’ve been able to make a squad I was nervous about into a powerhouse. We just went up against a squad (Watchung) that was fourth at Cetrulo and we beat them. Hopefully the future looks bright when we lose the two of them next year. Hopefully they’ve taught them well this year.”
   The youngest MHS fencers got a chance to show how much their mentoring has helped at the Freshman-Sophomore Invitational last Saturday. In the boys freshman competition, Grant won gold in epee, Wesley Chun won silver in sabre, Sahib Singh won bronze in epee and Rohan Dang won bronze in foil. In the sophomore competition, Won earned gold in foil.Ali and Gunton understood that they were helping the Cougars not only for this season, but beyond it.
   ”At first, I was definitely worried,” Ali said. “Everyone coming in had no idea what epee was about and what fencing was about. It took a lot to train them, give them proper footwork and bladework. Once they started to get into it, they started to mature and find their own style. They began to really understand that you have to keep working at fencing. They’re really getting into it now and we can leave something behind for the team.
   ”I’m always going to be a little worried about what’s going to be left behind,” he added. “We’ve left a lot of influence of what to do and how to train. They’re starting to go outside (the school team) to fence. It’s good to see them putting in an effort to continue the legacy and continuing fencing in general.”
   There was no Montgomery legacy only a couple of years ago, but the addition of dedicated fencers like Ali started to change the culture. He couldn’t have foreseen this good of a senior year from what he saw in his first two years of high school fencing.
   ”I never really saw it until my junior year when we started picking it up,” Ali said. “We had some really good fencers come into the program and we had a really good bond with everyone which helped us progress.”
   The Cougars have progressed far enough to put themselves among the best four teams in New Jersey. It’s a long way from where they were only a couple of years ago.
   ”We definitely knew we had the possibility of taking it really far this year,” Ali said. “It was putting everything together that was the hardest part. We definitely wanted to do well. When we wanted it, we kind of took it.”
   The Cougars would like to take it another step, and it will take an upset of Mendham to get to the state final.
   ”Everyone is predicting Mendham and Columbia in the finals,” Ali said. “We have something to prove. We’ll go in with no doubt in our heads we can win. We’re going to go in and do what we can to take it to the finals.”