Millburn Fencers Travel to Montclair for Dual Meet

The Millburn fencing teams traveled to Montclair to compete in a dual meet with Montclair and Hackettstown, losing in close bouts with Montclair and the boys defeating Hackettstown.

Millburn Boys vs Montclair: Last year, Millburn got off to a bad start against Montclair, and despite coming back, the Millers were unable to pull out a victory. This year the sabre squad got off to a fast start, and Millburn only trailed 4-5 after one round. The Millers dominated the second round [7-2] and led 11-7 going into the final round.The third round started off well, and despite dropping two sabre bouts 4-5, Millburn was leading 13-9. In the end, Montclair came on strong and won the last 5 bouts to win 14-13.
Individual highlights: Danny Dembner was 3-0 in sabre,  Andrew Brod, Andrew Afable were 2-1 in foil and Walter Zhang also went 2-1 in epee.

Millburn Girls vs Montclair: The Millburn girls were trailing by just one bout after round one. Montclair came on strong in the second round and led 11-7 going into the final round.  The Millers rallied but ended up losing 16-11. Individual highlights: The foil squad, Julia Burzynski (3-0), Helen He (3-0), and Tiffany Chan (3-0) combined for a 9-0 night and Dana Leichter went 2-1 in sabre.

Boys vs Hackettstown: All squads fenced well against Hackettstown, and the Millers won 23-4, allowing substitutions early with 16 different boys getting time on the strip for Millburn.
Individual highlights: All sabre starters, Ray Holloway (2-0), Alec Tabatchnick (3-0), and Danny Dembner (3-0) and épée starters, Ricky Eschenbach (2-0), Walter Zhang (2-0), and Cyrus Vokshoor (2-0) went undefeated, along with foil fencer Andrew Afable (3-0).

Girls vs Hackettstown: The Millers fenced well and were down 4-5 after the first round.  Millburn fenced strong in the second round with each squad losing only one bout to bounce back to a 10-8 lead. Hackettstown came out ahead in the third round and defeated the Millers 15-12. Individual highlights: Sabre fencers, Dana Leichter and Chaerin Ahn went 2-1. Julia Burzynski and Helen He were 2-1 in foil and Samantha Fortuna also went 2-1 in epee.

The boys will fence in the Cetrulo Championships this Saturday at Morris Knolls High School. Both the girls' and boys' teams will fence at Livingston High School on Tuesday, Jan. 10 at 4:30 p.m. and at Morristown High School on Thursday, Jan. 12 at 6 pm.