By Beth Kujan
Morristown High School’s girls fencing squad placed 16th in the state last month, at North Hunterdon high school.
The following Saturday, individual fencers competed at the State level. Senior Layston Badham, a sabre fencer, finished in 18th place.
Junior Kevin Petrozzo, epee fencer, finished in 19th place and is determined to return next year. The top-placing teams in both competitions hailed from private schools Newark Academy and Pingry, and from the Ridge, Livingston, Watchung Hills and Bernards public high schools.
The squad competition involved individual fencers gaining points for the team. Badham, the MHS girls fencing team captain, was in the top position (A strip), requiring her to compete against the best fencers on the opposing teams. See chart below.
Fencing Squad Competition Matrix
|
Strip |
Morristown Fencer |
Opposing Team’s Fencer |
|
A |
Layston Badham | vs. Best fencer on 19 opposing teams |
|
B |
Abby Carroll | vs. Second-best fencer on 19 opposing teams |
|
C |
Veronika Duwel | vs. Third-best fencer on 19 opposing teams |
|
Alt |
Eleanor Meli | Substituted in “B strip” or “C strip” |
|
Alt |
Mary Prachthauser | Substituted in “B strip” or “C strip” |
Veronica Duwel had excellent results on “C” strip with 9 wins. Sophomore Eleanor Meli substituted in the B Strip for one round, going against last year’s sophomore state champion, Julia Yang of Governor Livingston HS. Eleanor beat her at 4-4 giving Julia one of only three losses on a 16-victory day.
Badham and Abby Carroll each finished with four wins, which is taking a beating when you consider they both stayed in for 19 bouts.
Celebrations continued with a fencing banquet at the Hyatt Morristown, with parents and alumni fencers.
Morristown’s top girl fencers are seniors and are heading to college in a few months. MHS is expecting great things from Mary Prachthauser, Meli, Petrozzo and the rest of the fencing team in 2016.
