Ramapo Fencers Win County Title

This is the first year that fencing schools in Bergen County competed for the county title. Ramapo fencers entered the tournament with a 5-0 record, but there were four schools in the tournament that Ramapo had not yet met in a dual meet, so we were unfamiliar with many of our competitors Saturday. Despite the uncertainties, the entire Team fenced very well and produced an overall score of 36 victories, four better than the nearest competitor, Bergen Tech, to win the Bergen County Team title.  

Ramapo sabreists, who are among the strongest in the state, fenced aggressively in the squad event, knowing that they needed to put big numbers on the board for the Team to win the overall title. They delivered with a record of 14-1, beating out Bergen Tech for the sabre squad title. Overall Team Captain, senior, Alex Gorloff, fencing on the A-strip, and Sabre Squad Captain, senior Chris Muller, fencing on the C-strip, were undefeated, each going 5-0. Junior, Adam Carcione, got some bad breaks when he was closed out in several touches in one of his bouts, but still produced a 4-1 record.

All three sabreists qualified for the individual championship round.  Since teammates must fence each other first, Alex, Adam and Chris managed to all go 1-1 against their fellow squad mates. From that point on Adam fenced best and finished with a 4-1 record, which put him into a tie for first place with Bergen Tech’s Alex Catoya. In the fence off Adam fell behind 1-4, apparently dooming his chances for a win, but he hung on and came roaring back with four big touches to win the bout and secure his title as Bergen County Champion. Alex had some unlucky breaks in the final but he will come back with his usual outstanding performances. 

The Ramapo epee squad, which has been showing stronger results with each new competition, again did some excellent fencing to produce a 13-2 record in the squad event. Squad Captain, senior, Matt Martone, fencing on the A-strip, was undefeated with a 5-0 record. Junior, Adam Polevoy on the B-strip and senior Michael Daley on the C-strip also did great jobs producing 4-1 records. Their combined score of 13-2 earned them the gold medal for the epee squad event.

All three Ramapo epeeists also qualified for the individual competition. Matt Martone, cruised to a 5-0 record in the final, won the individual epee title, and was the only Ramapo fencer to go undefeated for the entire tournament. Senior Michael Daly lost only to his teammate, Matt, in the final and captured the silver medal.

Ramapo foilists encountered very strong competitors in the squad event but were able to produce a 9-6 record with Squad Captain, senior, Dan Kim going 4-1 on the A-strip and junior, Jacob Tatz going 4-1 on the C-strip. Senior Eugene Won, who has been fencing some excellent bouts lately, was unable to gain traction today and added one win. The squad’s 9-6 record put them into a tie with Fair Lawn for first place but when touches were counted Ramapo finished second.

Dan’s record qualified him to fence in the individual event where he fought hard and managed a 4th place finish.

The Team also recognizes the contributions of Dan Carione, Matt Rizzo and Nick Bonini who managed the Team, got them to the right strip on time, and kept score which, by the way, caught multiple errors in the official score sheets.

The above is submitted to Patch by Ramapo Fencing Coach Paul Apostol.