By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
The Montgomery High girls fencing team isn’t spending too much time dwelling on the success of last year’s state championship team.
Although, with a huge chunk of the roster back from the most successful team in program history, it would be easy to keep reflecting back on last year’s success. But this year’s team is hoping to write its own success story and started off in the right direction by claiming the Somerset County Tournament title to open the season.
“It is tough to follow last year, but we don’t want to dwell on that,” Montgomery coach Johanna Snedeker said. “We take one meet at a time. We’re not going to do anything differently this year. How far we get is what we earn. We’re not seeking anything except to do the very best we can in whatever meet is in front of us. We have some excellent teams on the schedule and some very strong teams.
“You just don’t know who is going to be healthy enough to make it through the season so you never want to look too far ahead.”
Montgomery started well this year by winning the SCT. The foil and sabre squads both captured the county title to lead the way. Laura Sun was first in foil and joined Lizzy Tieu and Niha Chandrasekar to win the squad title. Brenda Yang was second in sabre and was joined by Helen Zhang and Leona Tome on the winning squad. Julia Yoon was second in epee and was joined on the epee squad by Melissa Louie and Maddie Larkin.
“It is incredible the talent we have this year,” Snedeker said. “Brenda, Laura and May Tieu are all A rated fencers. It’s great to have that kind of experience and ability to handle whatever comes at them. When we were a younger team I was not sure they quite knew how to handle it. Now with the experience we have we know how handle it.”
Not only does Montgomery have a strong team, but the Cougars are also deep. The roster includes 46 fencers of varying levels of ability.
“We do have the top fencers, but we also have plenty of students who come out for the team that know nothing about the sport,” Snedeker said. “We have 46 on the team and a good percentage have never fenced and would like to give it a try. Sometimes practice is just the beginners and we have experienced fencers work with them. Some practices are just experienced fencers.
“We just don’t want to shut the door on anyone because it us an easy sport to have more people. We have a wide range of talent.”
And that talent might just be good enough to make another run at the state championship.
“My starters are very talented and humble,” said Snedeker, whose team is 2-0 in dual meets. “They are just nice people. You will see them working with the new girls in the hallway and teaching them the nuances of the sport. It is truly a team. Recently we had about 15 alumni in at a practice and we asked each to say something to the team. One girl grins and looks at them and says enjoy high school fencing. College just is not the same.”
The Cougars will fence in the Santelli Tournament on Jan. 15 and later will have the districts as well as the squad and individual championships. The Cougars host the state individual championships in March.
“We will try get as many through as we can,” Snedeker said. “That is the goal. Our district is very tough. On our sabre line, Leona Tome arrived this year looking very strong and earned the C strip for the early season. Right now she is our C strip. On the epee side, Melissa Louie came into this season focused and accurate so we are excited to have her. Maddie Larkin has looked wonderful and that rounds out the top three with Julia.”
The Montgomery boys finished third at the SCT behind Ridge and Bernards. The sabre squad of Andrew Atschinow, who was second overall, Miles Chou and Preston Wilmot captured the county title.
“Preston was a foil fencer last year and he has turned it on with sabre,” Montgomery coach Tim Sullivan said. “His sophomore year he was a sabre fencer and then foil last year and now back at sabre. It was exciting for them to win the county tournament.
“They are my older group. This is a year of rebuilding. We have some good kids but don’t have the depth or experience to be as good as we were in the past. Our epee and foil are very young.”
The foil team was third, with Justin Cho second overall to lead the way.
The Cougars are off to a 2-0 start in dual matches after going 2-9 last year.
