Khaw was shiniest of Knights
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Katie Khaw was already a pretty good fencer when she came to West Windsor-Plainsboro North, and with each season she improved.
In her senior year, she became the winningest Knights fencer in program history while exiting with a nearly picture perfect ending.
”This year was definitely my best year,” Khaw said. “It just worked out. It was partially having the most maturity as a senior. I was also lucky. Everyone is so good, it can go either way.”
Except that it rarely ever went the other way with Khaw. As a junior last year, she lost only once in the regular season.
”Last year,” said WW-P North head coach Gail Kedoin, “she went 26-1 and we thought, how much better can you get?”
Khaw showed her. This year, she went 41-0 in the regular season. She was just as good in tournament formats. She helped to guide a rebuilt saber squad to eighth place in the Santelli tournament. She won the saber individual crown at the District 2 state tournament when she went 8-0 in the final pool to determine places.
”She hates to lose,” Kedoin said. “She learns from her losses. Even if it’s one touch, she gets frustrated with herself and fixes it right there. She’s able to correct it very quickly.”
Khaw didn’t find much to correct, not this year, or in her career. She capped it with a runner-up finish at the Tournament of Champions after going 7-1 in the final pool.
”I think it was the cherry on the proverbial sundae,” Khaw said. “It was a great year, and I ended very strong.”
Along the way, this season Khaw became the second fencer, joining Elysia Wang, to win 100 bouts in her high school career. Khaw finished her career with 117 wins, more than any other WW-P North fencer, after coming in as a big winner as a freshman and continuing to improve each season.
Katie Khaw is the Princeton Packet Girls Fencer of the Year.
”When she’s on the strip, she’s like a fireball,” Kedoin said. “She wants to get every touch on and off the strip. When she’s off the strip, she tries to help the entire team. She’s a great role model. She tries to help the whole team. She’s a huge asset on and off the strip.
”As a senior, I think she took on the responsibility of being a senior and everyone looked up to her,” she added. “She wanted to show people the concentration and focus and determination to keep winning.”
Khaw had given it a passing thought that she might be able to improve on last year’s 26-1 regular-season record. She came back with another year of experience, and put it to use on the strip to show her continued development through her career.
”My record just kept improving,” Khaw said. “I think it was doing tactics. It was understanding how to set up the point, so at the last second, you can do a premeditated move or change it. Fencing is about having the confidence to change and the ability to execute it.”
Khaw started gaining confidence in herself and her team when she came to the Knights. They medalled in her first year on the squad at the Santelli tournament that starts the season. It kicked off quite a career that for three years featured her and Wang on the same squad.
”That was the beginning of the journey,” Khaw said. “We never imagined we’d go that far. It really jumpstarted us and got us going with that 1-2 punch.”
Back when she was a freshman, Khaw wasn’t thinking about 100 wins in her career. She was just happy to start for the Knights.
”That was a fun part,” Khaw said, adding of the 100-goal milestone this year, “It was unexpected. Long-term goals, I tried to go with the flow. Last year, when Elysia got 100 goals, I thought, what’s my record? I didn’t know how close I was.
”It came as a surprise that I nearly hit 100 wins halfway through the season. It was kind of nice. I didn’t have to keep stressing out about wins.”
Not with the wins coming so frequently. The Knights could count on her to provide three wins in any meet, and Khaw was driven to continue winning.
”It’s not so much hating to lose,” she said. “It’s hating to lose badly, where you lose not because your opponent is better than you but when you’re making mistakes. I’m more of a perfectionist. I like having good technique and setting up the points.
”If someone beats me tactically, then I get frustrated and go back to the drawing board and keep improving again and again. You always go back to the drawing board, even when the score is 5-0. You always want to improve. Whether it’s getting your arm out faster, or seeing what the referee is seeing and keeping the momentum going, you can do something to improve.”
Khaw was so tough at times that it was hard for opponents to score even one point. Twenty times this season her opponent was shut out, 5-0. That streak won her Kedoin’s bagel award for the most 5-0 wins. Things won’t come as easily next year when Khaw joins the University of Pennsylvania team. It will bring her to another level of skill.
”In college, almost everybody is going to be at her level,” Kedoin said. “Now what you really need to do is try to step it up a notch. Where she is, she’ll be able to step in. More experience of fencing top quality all the time will definitely help her. At times, she’s not challenged. By being challenged more often, that will raise her level of fencing.”
Khaw knows several members of the Penn team and is looking forward to the challenges of the next level. She will fence at the Summer Nationals in California in July before turning her full attention to preparing for Penn and trying to contribute as a freshman.
”Everyone contributes on a team by being there, and fencing with another person and you get the experience too,” Khaw said. “I’ll be working on higher level skills, more high level tactics to do higher level fencing. It’s that combination of skills and tactics and knowing how to apply them that will help me get to that next level.”
Said Kedoin: “She just has to keep that concentration and keep that focus. Sometimes she still does get a little emotional. Once she gets focused and has that determination, I definitely see her moving up with everyone else. I think she can definitely do very well in college.”
Khaw was able to enjoy all the success she could have at the high school fencing level. As a senior, she helped to run the team and set the standard for the WW-P North fencers.
”I think it went pretty well,” Khaw said. “We built the foundation. Hopefully we’ll encourage people to come and be more passionate about fencing next season. Despite some injuries and unfortunate circumstances, we held it together. We showed definite improvement from beginning to end, and that’s what you look for.”
Khaw’s own career worked much the same way. Hard work brought her to new heights each year with the Knights and by the end of her career, left her with more wins than any fencer they have had in their program.
”I’m incredibly happy with how it turned out,” Khaw said. “I’m very lucky it turned out that way. Hard work only gets you so far. Luck comes in handy. It’s nice to see constant improvement.”