Boys Fencers Win Six Bouts In Row for Playoff Victory

Ending the match winning six bouts in a row, the 10th-seeded Millburn boys fencing team beat the seventh-seeded Rams in Randolph on Wednesday night.

The Millers started off slow, ending up down 6-3 after the first round of bouts. After the completion of the second round, the Millers found themselves down 11-7 only to become deeper in a hole when the Rams went up 13-8 with only one bout needed to win.

In an exciting finish, the Millers won the last six bouts in a row, sweeping the last round in foil and épée.

Joe Caulfield, senior co-captain, had the daunting task of fencing the last epee bout with the teams tied at 13. With his team cheering behind him, Caulfield came out on top with a 5-4 win. First-time foil starter Eddie Lin went 2-1 as did Co-Captain Rei Otake in épée. Ricky Eschenbach (épée) and Harry Glicklich (foil) each went 3-0.

The Millers will fence off against second seed Columbia High School next Thursday in the Elite 8 round. Update: The match has been moved to Wednesday at 4 p.m.

The Millburn fencing team won six medals in the Montclair Freshman-Sophomore Invitational last weekend at Montclair High School.

The Millers competed with fencers from  other high schools including Montclair, Governor Livingston, Moorestown Friends, St Peters Prep, West Windsor PB-North, West Windsor PB-South, and Oak Knoll.

Millburn took home six medals from the event. Winning gold medals were sophomore Ricky Eschenbach in men's epee and sophomore Alec Tabatchnick in men's saber. Silver medalists included sophomore Marianna D'Aries in women's epee and freshman Dana Leichter in women's saber.  Sophomore Julia Burzynski brought home a bronze medal in the women's foil competition and sophomore Danny Dembner won the bronze medal in men's saber.