Ramapo Sabre Fencers Capture State Championship

Editor's note: Paul Apostol is coach of the Ramapo boys fencing team.

Ramapo sabreists junior Charles Copti, fencing on the A-strip, senior Gaspar Lesznick on the B-strip, and junior Josh Chang on C, worked as a solid team with each fencer producing the identical record of 12 wins and three losses which earned them the State Championship after an incredibly hard-fought battle.

The top 16 squads in each weapon qualified to compete in the Squad State Championship in a giant round robin. The competition was fierce and stamina was essential, since this is the most number of bouts fenced in any Tournament.

As the sabre competition progressed, it became clear that four schools were competing for the title, Ramapo, Livingston, Montclair and Columbia all of which were essentially neck and neck in their total number of bouts won. The Championship would be decided by the outcome when they met each other.

For Ramapo this happened in the 10th round when they met Columbia and won two of the three bouts, pulling ahead of them in total wins. The next encounter with one of the big four, now reduced to three, was in the 13th round when Ramapo’s opponent was Montclair, who had edged out Ramapo for first place in the statewide Cetrulo Tournament. The sabreists were determined to prove that despite Cetrulo, they were a stronger squad than Montclair. In three hotly contested bouts, Ramapo again produced a 2-1 record, reducing the big three to a two-team contest.

Ramapo did not meet Livingston, the last opponent standing in the way of the title, until the very last round of the tournament. At this point Ramapo sabreists had one more win than Livingston, a good position to be in since they needed to win only two of their three bouts for an outright victory or one for a tie. Unfortunately, Ridge won the first bout by an overpowering 1-5 score. Then they won the second bout after a close 4-5 battle.

All of a sudden, Ramapo needed to win the last bout just to tie. Interestingly, in the third and final bout Ridge’s A-strip fencer, Raymond Cai, is a club mate of Ramapo’s A-strip fencer, Charles Copti, who both train at the Manhattan Fencing Center and are close friends. Friendship aside, with the entire competition resting on the outcome of his bout, Charles fenced brilliantly to score a 5-2 victory, resulting in a tie with each Team scoring 36 victories. In case of a tie in bouts won, indicators are used to break the tie. Indicators are the numerical difference between total touches scored minus touches received. Because throughout the competition Ramapo sabreists had won their bouts by big margins, their indicators were 92 versus 80 for Livingston, securing the State Title for Ramapo.

Ramapo epeeists sophomore Sam Judd on A-strip, senior Kevin Kim on B, and sophomore Scott Zellers on C were unable to produce the kind of excellent results they achieved during the dual meet season. Scott Zellers gave the best performance with a 9-6 record on the C-strip. Kevin Kim on B-strip was not feeling well and produced only one victory before he elected to be replaced by sub James Schweighardt who delivered a very respectable 3 and 3 record. Sam Judd was fencing well until he pulled a muscle in the sixth round and was unable to lunge for the remainder of his bouts. Sam produced a 5-10 record. The epee squad finished 15th.

Ramapo foilists were  plagued by illness which kept out their number 1, 3, and 4 fencers. Dispirited by most of their squad being absent, the foilists managed only 12 wins, 4 by senior Chris Manobianco, 5 by senior Patrick Lin and 3 by sophomore Tanner Frank that landed them in 15th place.

Ramapo record: 10-0 in League competition; 15-2 Overall

Prior Meets: Nyack 19-8 (14-5), Wayne Hills 14-13 (14-11). Hackettstown 15-12 (14-8), Mendham 12-15 (12-14), Gov. Livingston 16-11 (14-7), Teaneck 21-6, (14-5), Fair Lawn 20-7 (14-0), Passaic Valley 20-7 (14-1), Pompton Lakes 19-8 (14-5), Don Bosco 16-11 (14-11). Indian Hills 18-9 (14-7). W. Milford 20-7 (14-4). Bergen Tech -1st Round 15-12( (14-11), Northern Highlands 22-5 (14-11), Mendham-Qtr finals 12-15 (10-14)