The following article was submitted by a fencing team parent.
Thursday night, Feb. 5, the Columbia girls’ fencing team began the tough postseason road to the state championship as they hosted Bergen Tech at the New Jersey Fencing Alliance in Maplewood in the Sweet 16 meet. With foil squad captain Sam Viqueira competing at the 2015 Junior Panamerican Championships in Toronto, the cougars knew things might be a bit tougher than usual.
Saberist Natalie Martinez (left) helps teammate Celia Accardi prepare for a bout against Bergen Tech (credit Ingrid Accardi)
And the 17th-seeded Bergen Tech Knights did, in fact, give the cougars a run for their money in the first round. The CHS saber squad suffered two defeats, with only A-strip Blessing Olaode notching a win. With Sam missing from the foil lineup, A-strip duties fell to sister Marissa Viqueira, whose fierce first bout came to a 0-0 tie after 3 minutes of regulation time. But she quickly came raring back to finish the job in overtime, scoring the winning touch after a mere 13 seconds. B-strip Camille Pham had a much easier time with her opponent, notching a commanding 5-0 victory. Following another defeat for the cougars, the score was tied at 3-3. A lone 5-1 epee win by Abigail Merelman left the cougars trailing 4-5 at the end of the first round.
The second round started on a better note, with saberist Natalie Martinez adding an impressive 5-0 win, and Olaode prevailing as well to tie the score at 6-6. Repeat victories by Pham, Viqueira, and Merelman, as well as a 5-3 win by C-strip epeeist Brigid Lynch put things back on course for the girls’ team, as they closed the round with a score of 10-8.
Saber started the third round at full throttle, with a sweep by Martinez, Olaode, and Celia Accardi putting the team one win away from victory. The honor of the clinch went to Viqueira, with a solid 5-1 bout. The cougar starters finished out the meet with no substitutions, adding victories by Pham (5-1) in foil, and Lynch (5-3) and Nina Kambili (5-0) in epee to close the night with a score of 17-10.
The following night it was the boys’ turn. Almost anyone who follows boys high school fencing knew that Friday’s Sweet 16 meet between top-seeded Columbia and 16th-seeded Montgomery would be anything but a cakewalk. Montgomery finished 4th at the Cetrulo tournament and both their foil and epee squads had beaten Columbia in that format. Could the Cougars’ dominance in saber inspire the victories needed in the other two weapons?
Andrew Doddo, Gordon Rutledge, and Harrison Woods set the tone early with a first-round saber sweep. Montgomery answered with a 2-1 edge in foil as their inverted A- and B-strip lineup proved daunting to Tran Soles-Torres and Kiichi Sakai. Only Jack Goldberg countered with a decisive 5-0 C-strip win. Team captain Bryn Hammarberg followed with a 5-1 A-strip epee victory, but Montgomery rebounded with two wins of their own.
CHS Fencing saberist Harry Woods (left) during the Montgomery meet. (credit Nick Moramarco)
Round two started with a chink in Columbia’s armor as saber dropped the first bout to Montgomery’s A-strip. Doddo and Woods quickly mended that flaw with decisive wins. However, only Soles-Torres could manage a foil win in the round. Hammarberg had a similar matchup and result in epee. The score was knotted at 9 going into the final round.
Woods fenced a beautiful 5-4 winning bout to start round three. Doddo and Rutledge followed with victories, giving Columbia a 12-9 lead. Amateur parental odds makers figured one foil win, one epee win like before for the Columbia win. But Montgomery had a different agenda, sweeping foil and completely shifting the momentum to tie the score at 12-12 going into the final epee round.
Marcus Jamison takes to the mat against their A-strip, Sahib Singh. Double touch, then another, 2-2, suddenly Jamison lunges to the body, 3-2. Another double touch 4-3, but Singh ties the score at 4-4 with a brilliant counter. With two minutes still to go, Jamison presses, but Singh is poised for the counter. Jamison fakes the lunge and goes for the wrist instead—one light, Jamison wins. Second upset of the day. Hammarberg then eliminates their B-strip contender 5-2 and Columbia clinches at 14-12 and ends the meet with a final score of 14-13. The boys join the girls in advancing to the Elite 8 round of competition the week of Feb. 9.
