Montclair Fencing: MKA’s Thompson, Mountie epees place high

by Andrew Garda

garda@montclairlocal.news

Eight Montclair fencers took part in this year’s 2018 NJSIAA Individual Weapon Championships over the weekend in Livingston, with seven from Montclair High School and one from Montclair Kimberley Academy.

MKA’s Julia Thompson had the top performance on the day, finishing third in the girls’ foil tournament. Thompson swept her matches in the first round, going 6-0 before tying with Ramapo’s Renata Chusid and Millburn’s Jasmine Shen with five wins in the second round. Leading up to the final round, Thompson had out-touched her opponents 61-31, but she couldn’t keep up that pace against Chusid and Shen and finished third.

It was a strong showing in a very talented girls’ foil group and Thompson was the highest finishing competitor from District 5, home to both the Cougars and Mounties.

MHS’ Lila Zimbalist finished fifteenth overall in the discipline.

The Mountie girls’ epee was strong again to close out the season, placing two fencers in the top 10 overall. Amina Troupe was sixth, one spot ahead of teammate Amira Mutakabbir. In the girls’ sabre championship, Grace Van Atta took 10th place for MHS.

On the boys side of things, the Mounties had three fencers competing, and Brian Roseboro finished eighth overall in epee. The Mountie fencer had a strong first round, with four victories and a total of 23 scoring touches.

While he struggled a little more during the following rounds, Roseboro still did well enough to finish in the top 10. Benjamin Sherwin finished just outside that mark, ending up in 12th place.

The other competitor for Montclair High was Lee Meyers, who finished 19th in foil.

The individual competetion marks the end of the high school fencing season, one in which MHS made strong showings in both district and state competition, headlined by the girls’ epee squad state championship in late February.