Topic: '08 HS Fencing Season

Funny what a google search brings you to isn't it? 

First: Mamaroneck would like to thank the teams that participated in our invitational on Saturday. Hope you all had fun.

Second: Shy, Amanquah, and the rest of the Brentwood crew looked good. Very good.

Third: Congrats to the GNS fencer who placed second in epee. I forgot your name. Apologies.

We look forward to fencing you later in the year. Good luck with your own season! 

Ok. So here's the Suffolk Rundown:

Ward Melville is the top team right now. Hands down. I knew Brentwood would win last year but I also knew that Brentwood's reign over Suffolk would be short. Ward Melville is back on top. Brentwood just can't compete at the same level that they could last year. Losing Perla, Gulman, and McGeveren? Not something easily recovered from. True, Melville lost fencers as well but at least they made up for it. Losing Janson was big but Feldman, who has recently come into his own, will compensate in the shockingly weak suffolk sabre field.

But that's the key for suffolk. Who can control sabre? The three strongest sabre squads--Ward Melville, Brentwood, and Commack--all lost key players. With no more Lucas Janson or Tom Boutin on Melville, Luis Perla or Kurt Gulman at Brentwood, or Adam Austin leading the Commack squad, sabre in Suffolk has suffered a big hit. Personally, I expect Ward Melville to control the field with the top two sabre fencers in Suffolk (Feldman and Tyson), followed by the familiar looking Commack order of Schulman, Austin, and Olsen, provided that the Sophmore Sam Austin can follow, if not surpass his older brother Adam.

Other teams have not seen too much up and coming fencers. Centereach may still be formidable since the 3rd place tying team really only lost former county champion Dom Fazzari and Jimmy Burnett. Look for them to make an upset if their foil squad can hold against the weak Commack foil squad but due to the much emptier field in all three weapons, I say the county standings will fall as:

1. Ward Melville

2. Brentwood

3. Commack

This is only initial though. The season has just begun. There could always be a surprise fencer in the mix.

top 3 nassau saber squads.....

Jericho

Great Neck North

Great Neck South

but then again it's only nassau 

I think Garden City has the best Epee squad this year, followed by Jericho and GNN. What is surprising is that Jericho has a 7th grader who I saw fence last week against GNN.  The kid is only about 4 1/2 feet tall but he is very, very good, and almost beat GNN #1 Epee starter after Jericho won the meet.  Why he isn't starting, I don't know. One of the Jericho parents told me that he also beat the #2 Epee from Cold Spring Harbor last week. Maybe its just one of those kids in the making.

Nuh-uh alumni fencer. Ward Melville may have one sabre fencer, but that isn't enough! Brentwood has nothing, but Commack has a lot going for them. Their leading sabre squad all have ratings and train out side!! Not to mention do very well at nationals (NACs, Summer Nationals, JOs etc.).  Plus, at the Brentwood Holiday Sabre awards went: 1. Ward Melville, 2. Commack, 3. Commack, 4. Commack.

And as far as womens sabre goes, Suffolk is between Centereach, Ward Melville, and Walt Whitman (aka Lisa Verzino, Sarah Barger/Joyce Lee, and Me [Melnick] =D) and for some reason Jenny Salmon decides to never put Joyce and SArah in at the same time. It always seems to be an either or kind of deal.

Let me first say that I'm not going to pick Commack over any other team simply because their sabre squad is rated.  Second, Ward has two highly competitive sabres, not one.  I'm waiting on the results of the Commack-Brentwood meet this Wednesday before I make my final predictions.  Brentwood lost a lot of fencers but they didn't lose everybody.  Kobe and Marvin are strong 1-2 punch at epee as well as the return of sophmore Joe Shy who lost last year's season to a hand injury.  This should allow the reigning Long Island Champions to prey on Commack's weak points.  Commack can easily return the favor in sabre however, as it is certainly the hole in the Brentwood team.  I expect that meet will come down to the Commack foil and epee scrambling to pick up extra bouts while Commack sabre makes a clean sweep.  Brentwood is going to have to win both foil and epee by margins of no less than 6-3 in order to give Commack its first loss.  My prediction

Sabre: 9-0 Commack
Foil: 6-3 Brentwood
Epee: 6-3 Brentwood
Final: 15-12 Commack

 I still believe that Ward Melville will come out on top.  Although their top fencers are weaker than they've been in previous years, they're still fairly well-rounded.  They have at least two moderate fencers on each weapon.  I give them one more year before Suffolk sees them crash

Mens Epee

Cliff Fishler, GNS

Jonathan Phillipou, GCF

Austin Green Field. Jericho

Mens Saber

Adam Fields, Jericho

 ?

?

Mens Foil

Michael Phillipou, GCF

?

?

 Jericho does not have 2nd best epee squad in nassau because gnn epee beat them 7-2.. sure greenfield only fenced 2 bouts, so even if we're liaent it would've been 6-3, still gnn clearly has a better epee squad 

I can't entirely agree with you here....

Mens Sabre 

Adam Fields JHS 

David Leung JHS

      ?              ?

Mens Foil

Mike Phillipou GC

Kenji Horiuchi GNN

Dylan Healy GNS


Mens Epee

Cliff Fishler GNS

Eric Phillipou GC

Jonathan Phillipou GC

Wrong, Simply. Wrong. and Hahaha. Wrong.  That is it. Wrong. 

What about the best female fencers?

And, instead of openly disagreeing, tell us why you think moozimir is so wrong.

So what you're saying is that moozimir is wrong about the only two decent sabres in nassau county being the two top sabres in Nassau county.  Interesting theory but wrong.  Simply wrong.  I would be surprised if Adam Fields loses more than two bouts this season.  However, I would be strongly inclined to disagree with moozimir if foil fencers Greg Kirschen and Vidur Kapur will be on the Nassau circuit this year.  Kirschen went undefeated all the way through his Junior season as an individual fencer for Suffolk while Kapur took the year off to attend a World Cup or two.  If they're fencing then don't expect to see anyone else even come close.

 Furthermore, it is time that I revised my initial prediction on the Suffolk standings for this year:
1. Ward Melville
2. Commack
3. Brentwood
Led by a dominating sabre squad and the highly motivated Mike Lindquist at epee, Commack managed to force out a 14-13 victory at the last bout sans their top foil fencer, Greg Nastasi.   

I am in college now but i fenced in nassau last year....and i can tell u what its gonna look like in nassau this year

 Sabre really only has a couple of decent nassau fencers.....fields and leung..while neither have been great nationally, on long island, they are at the top

 Foil...as previously mentioned...kapur and kirschen are a step above everyone else...kapur won countys in 9th and 10th grade and has opted to not fence in 11th and 12th.....kirschen won in 11th (when kapur didn't fence).......i can't be positive but i don't believe that either of them are gonna fence as seniors....

so with kapur and kirschen not fencing, foil looks pretty dead on long island...no fencer will be too dominant

 Epee is just plain bad in nassau....fishler won countys last year and he is not very good....

the fencing in nassau is not to great , except for a few of good fencers. Only a few for each weapon.

 Epee:
Ashley Titan (GNS)
?
?

Foil:
?
?
?

Sabre:
Stephanie Aiuto (GNN)
Lee Auslander (Hewlett)
Olivia Curry (CSH)

ASabreFencer wrote: Link

 Epee:Ashley Titan (GNS)??Foil??Sabre:Stephanie Aiuto (GNN)Lee Auslander (Hewlett)Olivia Curry (CSH)

alright i have to disagree with the sabre one.  i'm not sure who i would put up there but definitely aiuto.  Auslander is good but she tries too hard to intimidate people and it doesn't work.  and curry is good but isn't one of the top.  Jericho has a good girls sabre team as well.  not sure if they would rank top 3 but definitely up at the top.

ASabreFencer wrote: Link

 Epee:Ashley Titan (GNS)??Foil??Sabre:Stephanie Aiuto (GNN)Lee Auslander (Hewlett)Olivia Curry (CSH)

after fencing both titan and levy, i must say i think sari levy is better