Ramapo Fencing Earns 9th Straight Title with Win Over Don Bosco

The following  Fencing report was submitted by Coach Paul Apostol:

Fans who enjoy edge-of-your seat excitement and nail biting tension got their fix at the District 4 championships at Fair Lawn on Saturday afternoon.

Behind the headlines of Ramapo’s win was a seesaw swing of emotions concerning the actual outcome of the battle. As the team competition progressed, it was obvious that Ramapo and Don Bosco were in a dead heat for the championship.

Nearing the end of the competition, when the sabre and epee events were done, but when there was one last encounter between the Don Bosco and Ramapo foil squads, Ramapo’s coach approached the Don Bosco coaches to compare results up until that point.

Their count of Don Bosco’s victories up until that point compared to Ramapo’s count of its victories indicated that our two teams were tied. That meant that the championship would be decided by whoever won the most bouts in the upcoming foil squad contest.

Not a good news: Don Bosco’s foil squad had a better record than Ramapo’s up to that point. Ramapo’s C-strip fencer, Eric Yoon, who switched weapons from sabre to foil to help the team, lost the first bout to finish with a 7-3 record for the day, an outstanding result for someone who had never held a foil before three days prior.

Ramapo’s B-strip foilist, Tyler Clarke, fenced with dead seriousness and defeated his opponent by a decisive 5-1 score.

Suddenly there was a ray of hope.

Then A-strip foilist Tanner Frank, on whose shoulders the entire event seemed to rest, took to the strip and fenced his best of the day to gain a 4-2 lead. Victory was within grasp but the Don Bosco fencer fought back ferociously to pull out a 5-4 victory. The entire Ramapo team and most of the fans swarmed around Tanner to assure him that, despite the loss, they were proud of the excellent effort he had made.

A seriously dejected Ramapo team was licking its wounds in the cafeteria, where the official scores were to be posted, when someone ran over to say that Don Bosco had miscounted in the earlier tally of their victories and that Ramapo and Don Bosco were in fact tied at 70 wins apiece.

Since ties are broken by looking at “indicators” the difference between touches scored and touches received, we began furiously tallying the scores in each of the 90 bouts fenced. After counting all the touches scored by Ramapo fencers compared to those of Don Bosco fencers the answer remarkably came to 390 touches apiece. Then we counted touches received and to our enormous relief Ramapo had received 221 touches compared to 240 for Don Bosco putting Ramapo’s indicators at 171, ahead of Don Bosco’s 150, securing the Ramapo victory.

Ramapo sabreists, state champions last year and Cetrulo champs this year, continued their dominance of the sabre category by winning 28 of their 30 bouts, outdistancing their nearest competitor, Teaneck, by 8 wins and clinching the sabre squad gold medal for the 10th year in a row.

Senior Charles Copti led the squad with an undefeated 10-0 record on the A-strip, supported by squad mates, senior Josh Chang, who was also undefeated on the B-strip, and freshman Adam Carcione who went 8-2 on the C-strip. Charles and Josh advanced to the Individual final where they finished 1st and 2nd, respectively, both qualifying for the state individual championship.

This was Copti’s second district championship. The sabre squad also qualified for the state squad championship where they will defend their title from last year.

Ramapo’s epee squad had an unexpectedly strong 2nd place finish as junior Sam Judd went 9-1, defeating a number of higher ranked fencers.

Scott Zellers on the B-strip and Michael Daly on C-strip contributed to the squad’s excellent performance. Judd advanced to the individual competition where he won the bronze medal and qualified to fence in the state individual championship. The squad also qualified to fence in the state squad championship.

Tyler Clarke, fencing on the B-strip, turned in his best performance of the season going undefeated in the squad event. Tyler advanced to the individual competition where he finished 5th, qualifying to fence in the state individual championship.

The gamble Ramapo took by substituting Eric Yoon, an accomplished sabre fencer who had never held a foil until recently, into the foil lineup at districts, paid off: Eric’s 7-3 record helped propel the squad to an unexpected 3rd place finish, contributing greatly to the team’s overall victory.

Tanner Frank fought valiantly on the difficult A-strip to help solidify the foil squad’s excellent result. The foil squad qualified to fence in the state squad championship.

The team’s next competition will be next Tuesday, Feb. 7, at home, for the first round of the state team championship. The opponent will be determined by the outcome of the other district championships. The time will be announced shortly.

Contact Coach Paul Apostol at 201-891-6208 or pdapostol@optonline.net