West Morris Central Fencing Brings Home Medals

The ninth Morris County Fencing Championships were held this weekend at Randolph High School with ten NJSIAA varsity programs participating with boy’s and girl’s teams. Among them were both teams from West Morris Central High School (WMC).

The boy’s foil squad has been a perennial powerhouse at his competition, and this year was no different.

For the third consecutive year, the squad ended the morning competition as the Morris County Foil Squad Champions, with a record of 23-4 after fencing nine other schools. Seniors Nate Mange and Dusty Howell have been members of the three champion squads, with the addition of junior Charlie Daum rounding it out this year at the C strip position.

Qualifying for the individual medal round that was held in the afternoon, was Mange and Daum, with Howell just missing qualifying by indicators used to break win-loss record ties. Only one C strip fencer advanced to the medal round, and Daum had the best record at that position.

Mange as a sophomore had won the individual medal round. Last year as a junior earned the silver medal, and planned on fencing well again this year. However, Mange had to show composure after dropping his first bout of the day (4-5).

Quickly refocusing, he showed his maturity as a senior. The rest of the morning he won the remainder of his bouts, going 8-1, and was the number one seed heading into the individual medal round.

Mange went 5-0 in the medal round reclaiming the individual champion title for himself and WMC; ending the day with a record of 13-1.

Daum went 3-2 in the medal round earning the bronze medal.

Kaitlyn Cheung was the highlight for the girl’s team, qualifying for the medal round for foil and ending the day in fifth place.