By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
With his entire epee squad back from the end of last season, West Windsor-Plainsboro High North’s Amit Sarma came into the year with high expectations.
The sophomore and his squad helped make program history for the Knights at the Cetrulo tournament Saturday. The epee placed second — the first squad in WW-P North history to medal at a Cetrulo meet — and all three squads reached the final pool for the first time to enable the Knights to finish second overall, their highest finish ever.
”It’s a really good accomplishment for us as a team,” Sarma said. “We’re all working together to get that victory. It’s the best we’ve had as a program. You can’t hope for anything better than that.”
The scary thing is that the Knights epee could get better. None of their three starters are seniors. Sarma is a sophomore in his second year fencing on the A strip, while William Zhang and Prashant Baliga are juniors who return after starting last year.
”We had the same boys that won the district in epee last year,” said Knights head coach Gail Kedoin. “They’re hard workers and they work well together so we knew they had the potential to do well.
”In foil, they always had the potential. It was a matter of working together and putting it all together as a squad. I knew they were good, but getting their own self confidence has helped. In saber, I graduated two of my starters. The other two were JV last year. There was no pressure on them at all. They’ve never been in a big competition. After every bout, we gave them feedback and they just took it in and went back out and by the end of the day they looked like different fencers from when they started.”
The saber squad placed sixth while the foil squad took eighth. The Knights overall finished just one point behind four-time defending champion Columbia.
”We had a pretty good sense of where we were,” Sarma said. “We tried to keep track of the standings. We were more concerned how we were doing than other teams. You don’t want to concern yourself too much with how other people are doing. You want to fence every bout and take it one touch at a time.
”We wanted to do well and have a good standing. We didn’t really have that high of expectation because it’s early in the season. We wanted to see how we’d do. We didn’t go there to win the tournament. We wanted to test our strength and see what we need to work on and improve on.”
Montgomery High placed fourth in the overall standings, five points behind WW-P North. The Cougars took third in epee, eighth in saber and 10th in foil. Princeton High School was 33rd and Princeton Day School took 34th, a point behind PHS. PDS’ saber was 18th, while PHS saw its saber and epee both place 24th.
”Placing second in the tournament, it gives us a good idea of where we stand in the state with other teams,” Sarma said. “It kind of gives us a good idea of the other competition in the area, of what we can expect, and especially fencing wise, things we can improve on ourselves. Placing second in the tournament, it shouldn’t be a detriment to us. It should be something we can use as tournament experience to get better and a survey of what we can expect coming from this district.”
Realignment has made the district tougher this year, but the Knights proved their ability at the Cetrulo. They won’t be sneaking up on anyone this season after their silver-medal performance. The Cetrulo gave them a push for the meat of the season.
”They got a lot of experience fencing a lot of tough people,” Kedoin said. “It helps them have confidence in themselves. And they’ve seen a wide variety of styles they’ve been exposed to, so now we can expand their own repertoire. You learn from others how to become a better fencer.
”I’m thinking based on this result, they have some confidence,” she added. “We also know we have something to work on. Going into districts, it gives us something to work on. It’s been modified and so it’s much tougher now.”
Sarma is looking forward to the challenges this season. He has been fencing for years. He fences for the Medeo Fencing Club in Bridgewater, and also takes private lessons from Zoltan Dudas, the Princeton University coach. It helped him step right onto the A strip as a freshman.
”It was an interesting experience,” Sarma said of last year. “As a freshman, I didn’t know what to expect. My sister was on the fencing team a while ago and I didn’t have much experience at that time. It was an interesting experience. It was a little stressful at times, but I managed to pull through. It was fun. Hopefully I can repeat the same experience this year.”
Said Kedoin: “He was my A fencer last year. He was my MVP last year. He won the highest percentage of bouts. He is a super individual. He helps out the squad, teaches other people what he knows. And he’s constantly learning himself.”
Sarma is pleased with how he has begun the season. He lost just one bout at the Cetrulo meet, to a Medeo teammate who capitalized when Sarma didn’t adjust his fencing style.
”Overall, I did well except one bout,” Sarma said. “It wasn’t a one-man show. You need the other people to pull their weight and they definitely did.”
The epee will be a reliable weapon for the Knights this season. WW-P North improved to 4-0 with a win over Princeton High on Tuesday, more encouragement for a team that does have a lot of new fencers but is developing well, even among the top squad.
”There’s always room for improvement,” Sarma said. “Our entire starting lineup is juniors and sophomores. We’ll be around next year to keep up the competition. I’m impressed how we started so far, and I think we can improve going on to the future.”
