Hun fencer claims Prep A fencing title again
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Noelle Baptiste set a tough standard for herself with a perfect season for the Hun School girls fencing team last season.
Baptiste met that standard again in her senior year for the Raiders as she capped a second straight unbeaten season by winning the individual epee title at the Prep A state tournament last Wednesday.
”It’s more surreal,” Baptiste said. “I have the stress of the entire season. You go undefeated once, and you’re like, ‘That’s amazing.’ People are expecting you to do it again. Each bout has more consequences.”
Baptiste didn’t hide from the pressure of chasing perfection again this season. She tried to do everything in her power to keep it going.
”To be quite honest, I never deferred it,” Baptiste said. “I kind of took it head on. The way I went about it is I went head on. You just say you’re going to do it. I took it head on and did it one point at a time and one bout at a time and tried to keep that focus all year. Fencing has become my life. It wasn’t that difficult to keep my focus.”
With the wins mounting, however, it was hard not to ignore what each bout meant. It affected her approach.
”You don’t take as many risks as before,” Baptiste said. “I think I was able to be a little more conscious of my decisions during my bouts. I was taking each one and going over it in my mind and I guess I had a lot more focus than last year.”
Baptiste rarely even gave up four points in her bouts that go to five. She cruised to another win in the prep tournament to finish off her year.
”The states, that was a lot of fun,” Baptiste said. “It wasn’t so much that I was afraid of losing or anything, but there was still that extra added stress. You feel you really need to get first again. I was a lot more intense than last year.”
Baptiste was part of a solid showing for Hun. Individually, Judy Zhu was fifth in epee, Rob Hedberg was fourth and Luke Kim was sixth in boys sabre, Tom McNulty was fourth in boys foil, and Stephen Kostman was seventh in boys epee. The girls epee placed second, girls sabre fifth and girls foil sixth, while the boys sabre was third, boys foil was fifth and boys epee was sixth.
”Last year, we had one of our best fencers, Erin Lee, but she graduated and went to college,” Baptiste said. “We had to replace her with a whole new person. We had a sophomore (Judy Zhu) and we threw her into the B strip. She did amazing considering she never fenced in a competition like that. I think she only lost one bout.
”I think it was an overall good day. I’m proud of our team. We saw a lot of determination and improvement. And the fact that I’m leaving the team, I’m happy to see they learned a lot and can take it with them next year.”
Baptiste has seen plenty change in her own fencing over the years. It didn’t feel the same as last year for her, though her state tournament looked much the same.
”There’s a lot of differences,” Baptiste said. “For one, I take it more seriously. I always take what I do seriously, but now this is my main passion. I was able to maintain focus a lot longer than last year. I’m going over what move I want to do in my mind over and over again, so when I’m on the strip I execute it.
”Before my bouts, I see how they’re going to go and I can predict how they’re going to react. The focus was taken more off the strip and went throughout the entire meet.”
For the second straight year, she referred to a book of notes on every opponent that she has faced in order to prepare for bouts. It paid off as she was ready for opponents, who hoped unsuccessfully all season to end her perfect run in her senior year.
”I was really happy,” Baptiste said. “I don’t think it could have gone better in any way. Everyone learned something on the team. We have great leaders. I’m happy when I’m leaving I know there are people that are taking over that will help lead the team and I’m happy I accomplished what I set out to do and I don’t have any regrets.”