On Jan. 30, the Ridge boys and girls fencing teams travelled to Hackettstown High School to compete in the annual District 1 Championships. The boys placed second overall, while the girls placed third, qualifying both to compete in the team state competitions. Many squads and individual fencers also qualified for state championship events.

The boys' epee squad, comprised of Jon Wong, Paul Padian, and Conor Pelos, placed second amongst ten other schools competing for the district title. Garnering 19 individual victories against other schools, they are only second to Morristown High School, who had 21 victories.

The boys' sabre squad took home the bronze medal in the squad competition. Fencers Ben Loft, James Belardo, and Scott Kaplan combined their efforts to deliver 23 individual wins for the team, bringing them to a third place finish.

The boys' foil squad finished in fourth place with fencers Cooper Pearson, Tim Gaziano, and Adrian Trentesaux winning 18 individual victories.

With all the boys' squads placing in the top four, they all will go on to compete at the Squad State Championships on Feb. 28. These great finishes helped them win second place overall, which qualifies them for the team state competitions.

The girls also found success with the girls' sabre squad coming in second place for the third consecutive year. Only losing to rival Bernards High School by two indicator points, fencers Katherine Simeon, Nicole Daukszewicz, and Rachel Swanwick accumulated 28 victories. 

The girls' foil squad placed fourth in the squad competition. Fencers Claire Olczak, Allison Douglis, and Jen Doyle posted 19 victories overall.

"In spite of the fact that there were squads who already had more years and experience in foil fencing, we as a squad put forth our best effort along with positive team spirit and consequently were able to place fourth for squad states. This accomplishment has definitely made us a more confident squad" said Olczak.

The girls' epee squad came in fifth place, missing qualification for the state squad competition by just one victory. The squad, comprised of Sara Jones, Sara Stein, Claudia Nguyen, Emily Schumann, and Miranda Stayna-Wynter, delivered 16 victories.

With both the sabre and foil squads eligible to compete at the Squad State Championships on Feb. 27, the girls placed third overall and will move on to the team state competitions.

A few Ridge fencers also stood out by qualifying for the individual state championships that will take place on Mar. 13 at Rider University. To be eligible for this event, fencers must compete in the individual qualifier and place in the top five of their event.

Team Captain Jon Wong placed fourth in the individual competition for men' epee while Ben Loft came in second place in men's sabre.

"Individually, I felt like everything 'went as planned'. Honestly, I had been telling myself that I would accept nothing less than second place, and that there was only one opponent that I would be OK losing to. I went in with that mind set and the day went well for me" Loft said.

The entire women's sabre squad qualified for the state championships with Team Captain Katherine Simeon grabbing the silver medal in the individual tournament. Fellow teammates Nicole Daukszewicz and Rachel Swanwick did not follow far behind, placing fourth and fifth respectively.

Girls' Head Coach Marc Seigel commented, "I was very impressed that all three of our Women's Sabre fencers qualified for State Individuals.  This is an extremely rare situation and I very proud of how well the girls fenced.  Not to focus on a single performance, but Rachel Swanwick really turned some heads.  Most expected Katherine Simeon and Nicole Daukszewicz to qualify as they were third and second, respectively, last year.  Rachel has really improved over the course of the season and gave an absolutely stellar performance on Saturday."

Overall, it was a great day for the Ridge teams. "I was really impressed with results for both the boys and the girls.  I was disappointed with the final result of the Women's saber.  It doesn't make sense that a group of girls can beat every team at a tournament, but they come in second because they didn't score as many touches as another team," Seigel said. "I am very happy that both the boys' and girls' teams qualified for Sweet Sixteen again.  I can't wait to see how far we can go!"

The team competitions for the state title start on Feb. 9 for the boys and Feb. 10 for the girls.

Editor's Note: Katherine Simeon, the author of this article, is also a fencer on the team.