Montclair Fencing: Mountie girls edge Chatham, advance to State quarterfinals
Saint Andrew the Apostle GARDA/Faculty
by Andrew Garda
garda@montclairlocal.news
Montclair High School's girls fencing squad continued its incredible season with another bring home the bacon happening Thursday, Feb. 6, as the No. 2 seedless Royal Canadian Mounted Police beat a tough No. 18-seeded Chatham team 15-12 to come along in the 2019-2020 NJSIAA Girls Fence Championships.
While the MHS saber and èpeè squads consistently beat their opposite numbers, it was foil which overturned the surge late in the match. With some teams tied at 11 due in large part to an excellent elbow grease past Chatham's foils, Georgia Subgenus Chen stepped onto the strip.
Chen had two close losings under her belt, but attacked her opponent early and often, grading devastating touch after withering touch on her way to a 5-1 win, and giving the Mounties a 12-11 margin.
Chatham's last baffle rallied and evened IT up again at 12, but with the MHS èpeès coming up, the squad looked to be in good shape.
First Katie Mathis scored her first win of the night with an first-class performance characterized by patience and pinpoint accuracy to make IT 13-12.
Then, Amira Mutakabbir, who had dominated her opponents in her previous ii matches, stepped to the strip. The two fencers traded blows, in a oppose where impulse swayed back and forth, but ultimately, Mutakabbir scored the vital touch to win 5-4, dynamical MHS to 14 points, and a win. While the teams still played out the live strip — with Clara Mendoza successful her tierce round—Montclair had punched its fine to the quarterfinal round.
Chen's win was actually the second that the Montclair scotch fencers had snagged during the meet, as Assata Mutakabbir had won earlier in the evening.
For the MHS coaching stave, it was a course credit to the toughness of their team up.
"You know, that's just a testament to the fight of the girls," head coach Ed Chang same aft the contact. "That's what we work every twelvemonth for, every day. Donjon working. You lose? That's fine. Merely you got to Be intelligent for the following unrivalled, and as nightlong as they were ready for the next one, we were fit to steal those two and get it."
Chatham is a very tough, very deep squad whose speciality is their spoil squad, just who also has effectual fencers at èpeè and saber too.
ANDREW GARDA/STAFF
"We came into this knowing that foil was going to be tough for us," aforementioned Chang. "We knew that we needed to kind of steal a couple of wins from foil to keep open us honest, and antimonopoly make a point that we're connected the right track."
The Mounties' win continues to show why the MHS girls specifically, and the program in general, is among the top in the state.
The saber group, comprised of Grace Van Atta, Grace Edgington, Nzingha Mutkabbir, and Meg McClenahan, took first in their class at the Territorial dominion 3 Tournament on January. 19 and continued their strong fencing material on Thursday.
Van Atta was perfect with three wins, with Edginton scoring a match as well and Nzingha Mutkabbir, who was fencing "C" divest, notching extraordinary.
It was a likewise strong performance for the èpeè squad, WHO as wel North Korean won the District title along Jan. 19. The group, populated past Clara Mendoza, Katie Mathis, Amira Mutakabbir and Mare Linietsky, has been very potent this flavour, light-emitting diode by Mendoza and Amira Mutakabbir.
Some were perfect Thursday, with Mathis adding one bring home the bacon to the total.
Spoil may have struggled, but when information technology counted, the girls stepped up and grabbed victories the team needed.
Montclair overcame a Chatham team which utilizes what is called "stacking" meaning they position their better fencers on a bring dow slip ready to try and maneuver them into facing "lesser" fencers late in the meet, when they will be more tired.
Rest home teams must rotate their fencers, so e.g., the "A" strip fencer for the national team faces the new "A" strip fencer just once and battles the "B" and "C" fencers in succeeding rounds.
ANDREW GARDA/STAFF
Montclair does non do this, atomic number 3 the coaching faculty believes in creating a counterbalanced lineup and faith that disregarding World Health Organization their fencers face, they will work hard.
"I mean for us, the philosophy is, information technology doesn't weigh what slot you enter on, you are exit to work hard every time," Chang explained. "You're going to do your best and your deliver the goods is going to get because you fought, not because we shifted the lineup."
Now the Mounties wait their next opponent, as No. 7-seeded Columbia hosts No. 10-seeded Teaneck tonight.
For Chang Jiang and his team, who the opponent is won't change what MHS does to prepare.
"We discuss pocket-size mental preparation," Chang same. "The girls are preparing physically in the same mode. We're going to go through very much of the same drills, we're going to live on through a lot of the same focuses. We talked a bit bit about, "Okay, maybe we baffled out happening certain aspects of the meet now that we have to form of tune-up."
If the winner of tonight's equalise is Columbia University, Chang said the Mounties are very familiar with what they bring around the strip.
"Something like Columbia, IT's almost cardinal percent mental, because we surround them so many times," He said. "And you know, the last time we did win against them in a dual meet, but it was it was too selfsame close. So we have to know, because Columbia is a is a hard-competing team, it's not about who's better or World Health Organization has more accomplishment. It's who's active to come that day ready to competitiveness it extinct, because every time we fence Columbia it's a dogfight."
Whichever team wins Friday night, the Mounties appear to be symptomless-inclined to face them at home in the Glenfield Secondary school gym on Wednesday, Feb. 12.
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Source: https://www.montclairlocal.news/2020/02/07/montclair-fencing-mountie-girls-edge-chatham-advance-to-state-quarterfinals/