Governor Livingston Fencing Team Off To Phenomenal Start

What a spectacular kickoff this weekend was for the Governor Livingston fencing team, starting with a season meet against Millburn on Friday night and featuring a quad meet at Bernards on Saturday. The GL team has faced its share of challenges, not the least of which has been three head coaches in as many years. Additionally, the girls' team graduated its championship fencers Vivian Chu, Kara Fan and Brittin Boenning last year, leaving very big shoes to fill.  With new Head Coach Michael Wang in place, along with stalwart coach Ellen Hewett and former GL fencer Kevin Jow also on board, the team has been working hard and is set to accomplish great things this year.

The Highlanders took the quad meet by storm, closing with a 5-1 meet record, which bested even Star Ledger favorite Bernard's 4-2 finish. The boys' team swept the day, going 18-9 against Chatham, 14-13 against Bernards, and 14-13 against West Windsor/Plainsboro South.   The absolute highlight of the boys' day had to be Brandon Donohue's decisive 5-2 clinch over WWPS's Rex Chen.  Donohue, who is normally a foil fencer and fenced foil in the season opener the day before, subbed in for epee in the final bout of the meet and came through in a big way.  The order to sub in came to him as a complete surprise:

"I had just come out of the bathroom when I was told to get my gear on.  I originally thought we had clinched until I finally got on the strip.  There was a lot of pressure on me, but [volunteer coach Brendan] McNelis has an expression: "One touch at a time."  When I got the first touch, I got excited.  I could actually win this.   The other team immediately took a time out after my first touch.  I knew I had to keep better distance and I couldn't try my zany foil attacks.  One by one, keeping my distance, I won the bout.  The entire team surrounded me to the point where they were told to let me get off the strip.  From there, I couldn't go anywhere in the gym without someone congratulating me."

That accomplishment was closely matched by Ian Fan's amazing 5-4 win over world fencer Stefano Lucchetti. Fan, who was initially afraid to face Stefano Lucchetti and his teammate Kevin Gao due to their reputations, realized that Lucchetti "had the speed but he really did not do any complicated actions, only straight attacks inside the box.  So that is how I got the last two touches with a parry riposte", much to the chagrin of Lucchetti, who also very nearly lost to GL senior Danny Marchelitis in an extremely tight 4-5 bout.  Meanwhile, over on the foil side of the house, new GL recruit Sean Li proved himself by going undefeated at 8-0 for the day on Saturday. 

The Lady Highlanders also did a fantastic job at the quad meet, beating Chatham 19-8, then taking a hit from Bernards at 8-19 before coming back to defeat West Windsor/Plainsboro South at 17-10.   Despite an uphill battle against Bernards, Alaina Jennings on epee and Zoya To on foil did beautiful work under pressure by winning priority matches with single light touches in upsets against Bernards squad leaders Ceara Sweeney and Caitlin Kotz. The GL foil squad, having been hit heavily by graduation losses last year and missing starter Allison Yang, did their best but were not able to overcome the strength of Bernard's foil lineup.  However, sisters Michelle and Chrissy Drobish contributed heavily in sabre, with each having an opening weekend record of 7 and 3, and Julia Yang rounded out the sabre lineup with a record of 7-4.  Freshman fencer Chrissy Drobish in particular excelled in the potentially clinching bout with Bernards.  With the score 7-13 in favor of Bernards, Chrissy stood firm against Bernards captain Jenna Barton and refused to concede the win.  

The girls were coming off a win in the Friday night's season opener against Millburn on Thursday night, going 21-6 and clinching at 14-3.  The epee squad, fronted by Jennings, Lauren Gonnelli and Jacelyn Greenwald, turned in a star-studded performance going undefeated at Millburn, with sabre and foil taking six wins each. The boys team narrowly missed a win at Millburn but more than made up for it the next day.  

Both the boys and girls teams have a season record of 3 wins, 1 loss so far.  The boys sabre lineup, led by Mark Watson, Daniel Marchelitis and Ian Fan, turned in a winning performance over the weekend with a total 28 wins 8 losses.  The boys foil squad performed at 23 and 13, despite having two starters missing from the opening meet with Millburn. Junior Andrew Savino stepped up on epee and contributed 4 wins.  At one point, being down 1-3 in a bout against WWPS, Savino fought his way back to a priority minute by forcing double touches and never giving up.  Throughout the weekend, the starters graciously stepped aside to allow some of the newer members to make a showing, and they did not disappoint.  Amy Liu did a fantastic job subbing in for epee with a 4-1 record.  John Hanna, James Mezzo and Alton Grossman all contributed wins in foil.  Colin Hegarty fenced artfully on sabre going 5-0 against Chatham.   

Said squad leader Emily Bittner of Saturday's events, "It was a long day but we kept our hopes and our performance up.  I think we owe this to [team captain] Michelle Drobish for not giving up hope and being the cheerleader for the girls team!" Adds Fan, "I was really impressed on how everyone [on our team] improved so much".   There was great peer support all around and mentoring by the upperclassmen, and past years' alumni came out in droves to help and support the team through the very last bout. 

The team's next big event will be a Fencing-In-The-Schools clinic with Olympian Tim Morehouse over winter break, followed by the Santelli/Cetrulo fencing championships the weekend of January 4/5, and a regular season meet against last year's state champion, Columbia.