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02/02/2018 11:00 PMThe regular season can be a grind during the long months of winter, especially if you’re like the Guilford fencing program, which is always contending for state titles in the postseason each year. However, the Indians aren’t losing sight of the fact that they need to properly prepare themselves during the regular season if they want to claim any postseason prizes.
Last year, Head Coach Kyle Mezzi’s program saw both its boys’ and girls’ teams claim their respective overall state crowns for the second straight season by virtue of the cumulative performances from their foil, épée, and sabre squads at the Team State Championship. The two victories marked the third overall state title for the boys and the fourth for the girls. Within each discipline, the boys took first place in foil, won their first state title in sabre, and finished fifth in épée. On the girls’ side, the foil team claimed first prize, while sabre was the runner-up, and épée placed third.
This year, the Indians picked up where they left off as their girls’ team has a perfect record of 13-0, while the boys’ team is 12-1 on the season. Coach Mezzi explained that although the Indians are pleased with the first half of their season, he knows they need to continue performing like this the rest of the way to fulfill their goals.
“The goal for us is always consistency. The wins aren’t always blowouts, but the teams do a good job of fighting for each other,” said Mezzi. “Consistency is big when you look at state titles, and it helps give us confidence. We are always trying to work as hard as possible. The biggest goal is to help them be both the best fencers and people they can be. They are buying into the process and doing a great job with that.”
The captains for Guilford’s girls’ team are épée fencers Faren Roth and Micayla O’Connor. Roth, who was an All-State Second Team honoree in 2017, has stormed out to a 32-6 record this year, while O’Connor has a mark of 14-11 for the Indians.
“Faren has been in varsity since her freshman year, and she brings a tremendous amount of experience, including fencing in state championships,” Coach Mezzi said. “Micayla is kind of our closer. she will put in the clinching points a lot of the time for us.”
For the boys’ captains, the Indians feature foilist Joran Nelson and sabre competitor Zach Talbott in that role. Nelson has polished off 25 victories through first 30 bouts this season. Talbott returns to the strip with plenty of big-match experience after being part of the sabre squad’s state title last year.
“Joran is a hard-working kid who leads by example. He has made a ton of improvement since last year, and is our best fencer in foil right now,” said Mezzi. “Zach was integral to our state title in boys’ sabre last year. He brings good leadership qualities and is consistent in his abilities.”
The Indians graduated eight seniors following last year’s banner season, but they also have some strong underclass athletes who are seeing success in the current campaign. Junior épée fencer Oscar Scott is 24-1 for the boys’ team, while sophomore foilist Lindsey Smith is back following a great freshman year.
“It’s a great luxury in that we are able to win, but also everyone is getting playing time,” said Mezzi. “Oscar is an amazing fencer. He worked really hard in the offseason, and he’s extremely consistent. He’ll likely be a top seed in states. Lindsey fenced in the state championships as a freshman last winter, and she’s done a great job as a sophomore.”
There are still a month’s worth of regular-season meets to go before the Indians enter the postseason. While it’s easy to look ahead, Coach Mezzi said that Guilford has to focus on the here and now in order to build itself up for the championship meets.
“We just have to keep working hard, and it can be easy to get caught up in the lull of February,” said Mezzi. “We just have to take one event at a time and keep doing well over the next month. I’m excited for the next month and a half.”
From the Sidelines
Kyle Mezzi is now in his seventh season as head coach of the Guilford fencing program.
Chris Balestracci and Charles Schnieder are the Indians’ assistant coaches this winter.
The Individual State Championships will take place on Saturday, March 3 at Hopkins, and then the Team State Championships will be held on Saturday, March 10 at East Lyme High School, with both beginning at 9 a.m.