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03/12/2015 12:00 AMFencing
On March 7, Guilford competed in the Individual State Championships at Hopkins and Laurel Zhang added her name to the squad's history books by winning the state crown in girls' foil. Zhang beat out Chloe Moulin from Hand 14-12 as time expired to take home the title and make First Team All-State. Guilford's other foil fencers also performed well in sophomores in Veronica Pantalone (taking 49th place) and Isabella Migani (54th).
In boys foil, Kyle Evered had an outstanding day by finishing second, losing 15-5 in the finals to Hand's Kyle Welch. Evered won 10 bouts prior to losing in the final while earning First Team All-State honors. Jack Davidson also had a terrific day, placing sixth overall and meriting Second Team-All-State for the second year in a row. Henry Wall finished 25th overall, having lost a tough bout to teammate Davidson earlier in the meet.
In épée, Anny Yang finished a great day by placing fifth overall for Second Team All-State. Also in that discipline, Maddie Montenegro (15th) and Lucy Haskell (25th) fenced well.
The boys' épée squad turned in a solid showing. Giuseppe Pantalone led the group, placing 11th overall. Julian Horvath (33rd) and John Nelson (38th) also fenced strong.
In sabre, Zach O'Connor medaled for the second straight year by finishing sixth overall and making Second Team All-State. Hank Huhnke performed well with placing 23rd while Isaac Abrams finished in a tie for 29th place. Kate Clancy placed 10th while Sophie Kaplan was 15th and Willow Coleman was 17th overall.
As a result of the individual performances by these young men and women, all six squads qualified for the Team State Championships on Saturday, March 14 at Bridgeport Central. Only the top eight teams in each weapon achieve this honor. The boys' foil team is seeded tops while the young girls' foil team will be the No. 7 seed. In épée, the girls' group will be the No. 2 seed and the men's team will be the sixth seed. For sabre, the boys' squad is the seeded sixth and the girls' side is fifth.
Prior to individual states, Senior Night for Guilford fencing was on Feb. 26 against Fairfield Warde. The boys' team defeated Fairfield 18-9 as the sabre and foil squads both went 8-1 while the épée squad lost 7-2 in close bouts.
On the girls' side, Guilford made a stunning comeback. After the foil squad lost 6-3 and sabre lost 5-4, the épée squad defeated Fairfield 7-2 to secure a 14-13 victory.
Boys' Swimming and Diving
The Indians finished 14th with 172 points for the SCC Championship on March 6 at Southern Connecticut State University, led by Corey Gambardella's victory in the 100 butterfly with a time of 51.86 as he edged out Kyle Shadeck of Cheshire (54.38).
Additionally on the day, Gambardella was runner-up in the 200 individual medley (2:01.08) to Notre Dame-West Haven's David May (1:57.58), Eric Weidman swam to fourth with the 500 freestyle (4:57.16) and 100 breaststroke (1:03.12), plus Cole Horton found 11th in the 100 free (51.89).
Boys' Ice Hockey
Guilford went 9-10-1 for the regular season, drew the No. 12 seed for the Division II State Tournament, and traveled to take on No. 5 seed Newington/Berlin/Manchester (14-6-0) on March 10 in the first round. A win there puts the Indians in the quarterfinal round on Friday, March 13 versus either No. 4 North Branford (14-6-1) or No. 13 Wilton (9-11).