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03/11/2013 12:00 AMNorth Haven High School was the site for the Fencing Team State Championships on March 9 and all four of the Indians' squads represented themselves well, with girls' foil leading the way by finishing second. Girls' épée took third place, boys' épée was fourth, and boys' foil placed fifth for North Haven, which claimed second place overall in both the boys' and girls' competitions for the second straight year. Norwich Free Academy was the overall boys' champion and Hopkins earned that distinction for the girls.
Although his program was unable to claim any gold, Indians' Co-head Coach Pete Solomon was proud of the performances put forth by his athletes.
"The end of the season is always bittersweet, especially with falling short of our championship aspirations, but I am nothing but proud of what this team accomplished," said Solomon, who coaches the Indians with James Salzano. "This is a tremendous group of kids who worked tirelessly from November through March and never gave up on each other. They all pushed each other to get to a whole new level this season."
Girls' foil was seeded second and defeated Hand 5-2 in the quarterfinals before beating Ledyard by the same score in the semis. North Haven then took a 5-2 defeat against Hopkins in the championship to place second. That team consisted of senior captain Amelia Hoyt, plus juniors Reagan Fitzgerald and Stephanie Hoang.
"Girls' foil had an incredibly strong season. They weren't looked at as a team to beat at the start of the year, but turned themselves into one," Solomon said. "Amelia Hoyt committed herself to get better and made incredible progress. She's an All-State fencer who had a fantastic meet. Reagan also made All-State at the Individual Championship and carried that momentum into this meet, where she had a few big wins when we needed them."
Hoyt indeed finish in seventh to gain Second Team All-State honors at the Individual State Championships two weeks ago and was pleased with what her club achieved at the subsequent team meet.
"At the start of the season, we set a goal of at least placing in the top three and we wound up with second, which was completely amazing," said Hoyt, whose foil squad had placed fourth the past two years. "We were nervous going into the Ledyard match because they had just beaten Fairfield, which we lost to twice during the season, but we came out pumped up and won. It was awesome."
The Indians' girls' épée team was seeded second and recorded a 5-1 quarterfinal win against Griswold, after which North Haven was edged by Guilford 5-4 in the semis, a match that came down to the final bout. Solomon's squad then rebounded with a 5-0 whitewash of Fitch in the consolation bracket to come away with third. Guilford wound up losing to Hopkins in the final. North Haven's lineup was comprised of senior captain Talia Gallagher, along with juniors Julia Dujalski and Yicai Wang.
"Losing to Guilford was a heartbreaker, but the girls picked themselves up, got their heads back in the game, and fenced a strong match in beating Fitch to finish third," said Solomon.
On the boys' side, North Haven's 4th-seeded foil team of senior captains Li Sun and David King and junior Tim Hamling was upset by Griswold in the quarterfinals, 5-3. Then in consolation action, the Indians upended Hand 5-3 and edged Guilford 5-4 to claim fourth place. The Guilford match was tied at 4-4, when Sun stepped on the strip and shut out the Indians' top fencer 5-0. Greenwich was the champion of that bracket.
"I was confident that I would deliver for the team. Guilford's fencer is a rival of mine and so I had the passion to go out there and beat him on my terms to help our team," said Sun, who made First Team All-State two weeks ago. "It was disappointing for us to lose in the first round, but it was special to come back and win our two consolation matches."
Coach Solomon shared his thoughts on his boys' foil squad's performance.
"We got a little sloppy against Griswold, but regrouped to get two big wins. The boys had an amazing season and proved they were a championship-caliber team," he said. "Tim Hamling stepped up and won a few big matches against Hand and Guilford to help us end the season on a high note."
The boys' épée team was seeded fifth and pulled off an upset of St. Bernard in the quarterfinals by prevailing 5-3. The Indians then took a 5-2 loss to eventual champion Cheshire in the semis, followed by a 5-0 defeat against Fairfield Warde/Ludlowe in the consolation round to finish fifth. North Haven was led by senior captain Tyler Fung, senior Benson Chan, and junior Nick Crowley.
"Benson stepped up in a big way and fenced the best I've ever seen him in winning our two bouts against Cheshire," Coach Solomon said. "Boys' épée is a team that was searching for its identity all year and we saw glimpses of what they can do at this meet. They fought harder than they had all season and grew up as young men."