While basketball and soccer players lace up their sneakers in the locker room with the usual pre-practice banter, a rhythmic thunder often erupts from the floorboards above. To the average athlete, it sounds like a construction crew at work. To the fencing team, however, that ‘noise’ is the sound of combat. Just a few feet over your head, steel is clashing, and athletes are locked into the rapid back-and-forth that is fencing.
Poly’s fencing teams, which include boys and girls varsity and JV, have competed in three major tournaments this season. Friday, Nov. 7 marked the first tournament of the three, where sophomore Ben Brady placed 2nd; freshman Bruce Stetson placed 6th; junior Naomi Diehl scored 7th; sophomore Aidan Shih achieved 10th; and sophomore Narayan Neti landed in 11th place to round it out.
During the Dec. 14 tournament at Providence, the boys’ squad made it to the finals for the second year in a row. Stetson and Shih placed first and second, respectively, in the boys’ competition. The girls’ team achieved a major milestone: Poly JV Girls secured all four semifinal spots and all four medals. Freshman Dara Bahng Boyer, one of the medalists, said, “During the semifinals and finals, I was elated just to be getting a medal at all, so it didn’t hit me until the drive back in the vans that we had made Poly history. The most euphoric part of the experience was honestly just Coach Holmgren’s highly coveted praise.”
For the Saturday, Jan. 17 tournament at Poly, fencers competed in teams of three. Brady and juniors Owen Taylor and Emilio Doust took second place. “We had great synergy and by far the best team spirit, cheering each other on after good points and giving tips both on and off the strip,” reflected Brady.
Even with this recent success, the team is constantly working to improve before the Feb. 7 league finals. “The varsity men need to work on disrupting their opponent’s attack,” explains Head Coach Holmgren. Right now, the varsity teams are working to implement new types of attacks to their repertoire. For the novice team, Holmgren observes, “they have good form, but lack combat experience.”
A defining feature of the team is their tight-knit culture, which is bolstered by the welcoming personalities of the fencers. Bahng Boyer shared, “The fencing team is filled with supportive and nonjudgmental people, and I’ve surprised myself with how fun exercising can be when surrounded by nice people.”
Since the boys and girls JV and varsity teams practice as one big group, fencers learn from the unique skillsets of their teammates. Coach Holmgren commented, “Each person has their own preferences for how they fence, and that prepares us for the diversity of styles we see in tournaments.”
With a strong track record and steady improvement, the fencing team is bound to find success at the league finals.
