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04/03/2015 12:00 AMAfter battling through a campaign packed with schedule changes due to snow, the Guilford fencing program harnessed its focus for a red-hot postseason stretch this winter.
On the heels of a regular season that included four contests canceled due to the harsh weather, the Indians turned in strong showings at the Individual State Championships to qualify all six of their squads to the Team State Championships on a day that culminated with a state title for the boys’ foil team. While Head Coach Kyle Mezzi was impressed by the state-level feats, he was equally dazzled by the fact that the Indians did it all while fighting off distractions.
“Our first goal was to qualify for the Team State Championship and we had all six qualify, so they did a great job with that and, really, the whole season builds up to the Individual State Championships,” said Mezzi, who led the program to its 15th state title overall and first boys’ crown in three campaigns when that team beat Fairfield 5-1 in the final. “Our other goal was to go undefeated at home, which we also did. Finally, we wanted to keep getting better as the year went on. It was a rough year with so many cancellations, so it was tough to get into a rhythm, yet they had a unique ability of putting all of that aside.”
For final marks for each squad, the boys’ foil went 12-0, épée was 6-7 (5th at states), and sabre finished 4-6 (3rd for states).
With the girls, foil was 8-4, épée fenced to a 8-1 mark, plus sabre was 2-6 as each of those clubs were third at states.
Guilford featured a plethora of leaders on the strip who pushed the program through adversity in seniors of boys’ sabre captain Zach O’ Connor, girls’ sabre captain Sophie Kaplan, girls’ épée leader Lucy Haskell, along with boys’ foil co-captains of Kyle Evered and Henry Wall. Mezzi praised each of the five for their ability to build the future of the program while putting forth some of their best personal performances in their final year.
“Zach really took on the task of leading the boys’ sabre team. He was very focused at practices and helped lead drills. Sophie had an early-season injury, but was right in the think of it when she came back. Lucy was calm, cool, and collected and was also very attentive to detail,” said Mezzi. “I can’t say enough about Kyle. He trains very hard and did everything I could’ve asked of him and went undefeated in team bouts. Henry was a four-year varsity competitor. He was also a very coachable kid, which always helps with training. They were all also doing things at the end of the year that they weren’t doing in the beginning of it and helped hold the team together and were the focus of the leadership.”
Rounding out the senior class were foilist Jack Davidson; Giuseppe Pantalone in épée; a tandem in sabre of Isacc Abrams and Kellin McDermott; plus Madeline Montenegro, Annie Yang for épée, and Kate Clancy in sabre.
“You get a lot of attrition with fencing, yet this group has been able to stay with the program here and mange other things,” Mezzi said on his seniors. “And because of that, they were able to gain valuable experience and use it to their advantage. They really stuck together and got to know each other well. They learned a lot of drills and were self-motivated. They were a great group of kids and it’s exciting thinking about where they will go next in life.”
The Indians also saw five members crack the All-State Team with Evered and junior girls’ foil individual state champion Laurel Zhang making the First Team; plus Yang, Davidson, and O’ Connor were selected to the Second Team.
For team-based honors, Evered was the boys’ MVP and junior Jordan Nelson (épée) was named the Most Improved Player.
On the girls’ side, Zhang was MVP and junior épéeist Ify Obuekwe took home Most Improved.
Coach Mezzi explained that this club’s greatest feat came in its final hour at team states as each one of his squads went out strong.
“Our biggest accomplishment was the fact that at team states all of our teams won their last match, so it was good to see them all come out winners,” said Mezzi. “Everyone was hanging their heads high when it was all over. It’s a big feat because that is a tough day with three rounds even if you lose. Still, they put everything aside and kept fighting and I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
As he anticipates all of his returning fencers to fine tune their craft in the offseason, Mezzi feels optimistic for next winter. In final reflection on the 2014-’15 stretch, he knows everyone acquired important life skills.
“The future is bright as we will be very young, but we have all of our girls’ foil squad coming back. We will also have three or four guys in boys’ foil competing for starting spots. With épée and sabre, we had some younger kids that got involved this year with experience. It will depend on in November, when the season starts again, if everyone has been doing offseason training, which I think they will,” said Mezzi. “They all saw success this year, which was motivating for them. This season, they all learned a lesson in perseverance because not everything goes according to plan, so they did a great job in dealing with those situations. They can apply that to life, which is what we were trying to teach them.”