WMCHS Fencers Compete at NJSIAA State Tournament

Sunday March 3rd marked the end of the high school fencing season with the NJSIAA State Individual Championships at Livingston High School that included some of the best fencers in the nation. Fortunately, all was completed before the snow storm hit the region.

West Morris Central High School had four fencers competing following their qualifying at the District 1 Championships that were delayed until the end of January from an earlier storm. This was the largest number of qualifiers in recent memory. Nate Mange, Charlie Daum both competing in Boy’s foil; Rachel Hefner in Girl’s epee, and Kaitlin Cheung in Girl’s foil.

The structure of the day is a series of successive rounds of pools, and an individual fencer had to win enough bouts to progress to the next round.

Daum, Hefner, and Cheung ended their seasons in the morning with Daum just missing the threshold to move on. He finished the day and season in 15th place, with Hefner and Cheung finishing their day and seasons both in 21st place in their respective weapons.

Mange progressed out of his pool to the next round of competition.

His next pool included two other athletes that competed with Mange just recently in the Junior Olympics for fencing in Denver. The most exciting bout of that pool was against the ultimate first place finisher of the day (Jack Woods of Columbia High School) when it went to 4-4 with the final touch decided by a judgement call by the director on the right of way.

The final round of fencers included Mange who finished the season in seventh place in the state for Boy’s foil; capping off a season that included him winning both the Morris County Championship and the District 1 title.

The Boy’s foil squad, continuing WMCHS' perennial strength in the sport and a top ten squad in the state, comprised of Mange, Daum, and Dusty Howell, finished the season in the previous week at the NJSIAA State Squad Championships in ninth place in the state.