Ridge Fencing Girls Team Grabs 2nd Overall Spot At Santelli Tournament

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Ridge High School’s girls fencing team produced a spectacular 2nd place overall finish at the 2026 Santelli Fencing Competitions, while the boys squad finished 17th at the counterpart Cetrulo event held at Drew University in Madison Township over the weekend.

With strong showings at saber (7th place), foil (7th), and epee (5th), the girls' team was just 3 points shy of the overall champion Chatham High School. Santelli attracted 52 competing schools this year.

The epee squad, consisting of Izabella Klausz, Charlotte Liu, Claire Zhang, and Heidi Stefandl, posted 5th place in the annual tournament, which represented the cream of the crop of New Jersey high school fencing.

The saber team turned in a spirited performance and ranked # 7, represented by Kaavya Padhi, Sarah Ramirez, Sienna Yurkovic, Beatrice Reed, and Bridget Mulry.

The foil team also finished 7th with Maya Zamlynny, Natalie Chong, Aria Chahal, and Hannah Zafran piling up the wins.

Meanwhile, the boys' team posted the following results and ranked # 17 overall out of 45 teams at this year’s edition of the Cetrulo tournament:

• Saber (7th Place) – Jason Babigian, Brandon Bonura, Owen Thorpe, John Pavlin
• Foil (23rd) – Kevin Han, Xander Sloan, Jeremy Liu, Gabriel Iglesias
• Epee (17th) – Christian Mulry, Alex Yang, Richard Tsien, Richard Liu

The RHS fencing team continues its regular season campaign versus North Hunterdon (Jan. 20) and Somerville (Jan. 22).

— Submitted by Oliver Iglesias