Local athlete takes top honors at prestigious fencing tournament

This past weekend, Jersey City played host to former Olympian and Hall-of-Famer Denise O’Connor and the fencing tournament held annually in her honor. A nationally ranked women’s fencing foilist for nearly two decades, Denise O’Connor represented the United States twice in the Olympics (1964, 1976) and five times in the World Championships (1965 – 1975). Following her trailblazing efforts on the strip, she went on to captain the Salle Santelli Women’s Foil Team to five national titles as well.

Sponsored by the NJ Division of Fencing, the tournament bearing her name has long been considered the championship event for teen fencers in the state of New Jersey. For the first time this year, the championship was sanctioned by the US Fencing Association solely for high school fencers and local fencer Julia Yang won top honors in the Women’s Sabre event. In true championship style, Yang, a senior attending Governor Livingston High School, went undefeated in every bout on her way to the top, giving up only 11 touches along the way. She credits her win on constant support from friends, teammates, and GL Head Coach Michael Wang, all of whom were there cheering her on – along with a laser-like focus that had her concentrating on one touch at a time.

They were not the only ones to take notice: The NJ Star-Ledger recently placed Yang on their “Fencer to Watch” list for the upcoming season, saying “the senior finished ninth at the state individual tournament last season and, along with senior Michelle Drobish (12th at states), should provide a potent one-two punch in the first weapon for their team”.

Yang and Drobish will be supported in style this season by returning GL players Chrissy Drobish, Jasmine Fong, Jacy Yang (sabre), Allison Yang, Zoya To, Kate Gonzales, Alina Lam, Amanda Sy (foil) , Emily Xu, Alice Lee, Meiyouka Yao, and Linda Zhang (epee).

The first meet of the season will be against Millburn High School this Friday, December 19th, at Columbia Middle School in Berkeley Heights.