Written by Logan Cummings|
Photos by Logan Cummings|
On Saturday, February 4th, members of the Morgan Fencing Team participated in the JV Fencing Tournament at North Haven High School. Fencing tournaments usually take a total of ten hours and are notorious for being particularly exhausting events for everyone participating. The entire fencing team attended the event, with a total of 16 JV fencers participating. Through lots of hard and impressive work, our Morgan fencers returned with a total of seven medals.
The Morgan Fencing Team is divided into three squads, each for the weapon they fence: Foil, Épée, and Sabre. For tournaments such as the one on Saturday, each class of weapon grants awards to the top 8 in the state per men’s and women’s divisions.
For JV women’s foil, junior Nina Kelly placed 6th in the state and sophomore Rachel Flanagan placed 4th in the state. For women’s épée, sophomore Jennifer Accetta placed 5th in the state. For men’s épée, sophomore Scott Accetta placed 5th in the state. For women’s sabre, sophomore Beatrice Atengco placed 6th in the state and sophomore Olivia Morrissey placed 3rd in the state. For men’s sabre, sophomore Noah Scarpace placed 3rd in the state.
While the fencers had an exhausting day, their teammates showed huge support by cheering very loudly during their bouts and by making witty posters to represent the individual participants. One clever poster made by freshman Andrew Daly supported Beatrice, reading “BEA WILL SLAY YA’!” along with nicely drawn adornments including stars, fencing masks, and sabres to make the poster look even better.
Noah commented on the great excitement, saying “I look behind me and I see just everyone, the whole team. I think ‘Wow, this is crazy, I have my own cheerleading squad!’ and the hype was unreal. I was like ‘Wow, I actually have something to fight for, and I have a reason to win.'”
The team will be competing in the Eliot Gym in February on the 16th and the 22nd and will have a match in the Morgan Gym on March 1st. If you want to cheer on classmates who participate in the sport, you are welcome and encouraged to attend those events! To further support the team, you can attend the Morgan Invitational JV Team Tournament on February 18, 2017, right in the Morgan Gym!
