By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Jerry Xu, Stefano Lucchetti and Sam Lorenz wanted the same thing — the chance to fence together in the squad state fencing championships.
The West Windsor-Plainsboro South sabre trio combined for 39 wins, the most of any weapon among the boys, to capture the gold medal Saturday. It was the second gold in three years for a Pirates sabre squad, but the first for all three of them.
”It requires dedication,” said Pirates head coach Ed Chang. “It shows we have the ability as a school and a team to put in that sort of time and keep fighting until it works out.”
Xu, a senior, and Lorenz, a junior, were on the sidelines watching when the Pirates team won two years ago.
”The team when I was a freshman was legendary with Alex Guo and Stephen Yang,” said Lorenz, the Pirates’ C strip this season. “Howard (Chen) and Jerry would switch off on C strip. It was amazing to watch those good fencers. It was intimidating. It made me realize I had to be as good as those guys were. I had to live up to the standards.
”It was an amazing feeling. After we finished and realized we were going to win, it was a giant burst of excitement. There’s not greater feeling in the world.”
Lorenz helped the Pirates stack up one more win at the squad meet than that first legendary team did two years ago, and WW-P South needed all of them to outlast runner-up Ramapo, which had 37 victories.
”The key really was teamwork,” Lorenz said. “We all had to contribute to the team. When anyone scored a point, we’d cheer for them. When they won, there were high fives all around. We supported each other every step of the way.”
Xu, the Pirates’ A strip fencer this season, hadn’t been able to fence in last year’s squad championships due to injury, and so Saturday’s squad championships were the first for him actually being on the strip.
”Basically, this is his time in the sun,” Chang said, “and he had a nice strong team underneath him and took advantage of it.”
Lucchetti brought international experience, but no high school experience, with him to the B strip this season. The freshman, the son of Argentinean Olympian Marco Lucchetti, wasn’t in the lineup when the Pirates qualified at districts for the state squad meet, but was there for the team Saturday.
”There was a Junior World Cup in Budapest,” Lucchetti said. “I decided since I already missed a big event for high school, I owed it to the team to come to this one.
”It’s been a fun experience and an honor to fence with Jerry and Sam and everybody. I wanted to bring my skills to share with the team and we won. I’m happy about that.”
Lucchetti followed the lead of Xu and Lorenz, who had seen how the Pirates won two years earlier.
”The day was actually great,” Lucchetti said. “Overall, we only dropped to one school, to Columbia, and they were very strong. Everybody else, it was pretty much a sweep. Jerry, being the captain, he kept us motivated throughout the whole day. It was a good feeling throughout the entire day.
”Sam’s performance was very good. It was amazing. I was very proud of him. He was in some cases, losing and pulled back and won. Me and Jerry were very happy with that and Coach Chang.”
Lucchetti wasn’t surprised by the team’s win. They had placed third at the Cetrulo Relay Championships, a solid indicator that they were among the state’s top sabre squads.
”We’ve had our ups and downs,” Lucchetti said. “Overall, I think it’s been really good. We were third place in Cetrulo, and with me not being at districts we still qualified. It showed our substitutes are still good. Winning states was a great accomplishment. I think we did great this year.”
Lucchetti will resume his busy travel schedule to close out his international fencing season. He heads to Caracas, Venezuela, for Junior and Cadet Pan American Games and then to the Junior World Championships in Moscow. He will represent Argentina in those events, but the Pirates were thrilled to have him represent the school in the squad meet.
”Stefano Lucchetti is an amazing fencer,” Lorenz said. “He really helped us out, so did Jerry. Having Stefano was great and he got to learn a lot in tournaments, which was good. And next year, we should be good, because we’ll have people with experience.”
Lorenz is excited to be one of them. The biggest thing that he took from last year when the Pirates did not place in the top five was how much he had to work in the offseason.
”I realized I needed more experience and that motivated me to go really hard,” Lorenz said. “I’m extremely glad I put the effort into it.”
He took as many lessons as he could, and when band practice ended after the fall, he was quick to return to practicing diligently on the strip. Lorenz didn’t feel as nervous as he headed into the squad championships and picked up 13 wins out of the C strip for the Pirates on Saturday.
”I’m convinced that Sam was the difference maker,” Chang said. “He’s the least experienced of the three, but he really pulled it together. He got a solid chunk of wins at C strip and that kind of started the ball rolling for the other two and they just had to do the job they knew how to.
”They had a really good day. At the end of the day, they came out on top. State squads is funny. There are so many squads fencing at the same time, you can’t keep track. We weren’t entirely sure until the end of the day.”
Montgomery took sixth in boys foil, seventh in boys sabre and seventh in boys epee. WW-P North was sixth in boys sabre.
In the girls squad championships Sunday, WW-P North was fourth, WW-P South was seventh and Montgomery was 10th in sabre; WW-P South was fifth and Montgomery was eighth in foil; and, Montgomery was fifth and WW-P North was 10th in epee.
