Harry and Nathan Robins help Newfield/Miller Place to third straight team fencing title
Nathan Robins of Newfield/Miller Place competes in sabre bout in Suffolk boys team championship on Thursday. Credit: James Escher
Harry and Nathan Robins wanted to put the Suffolk team fencing championship out of reach. Early in the second round, they had their chance.
Fencing with sabres, Harry and Nathan won the first two bouts of the second round for Newfield/Miller Place at Commack on Thursday night. Newfield/Miller Place led by one point before the senior twin brothers gave their team an edge.
Newfield/Miller Place won six of the first eight bouts in the second round and beat Huntington, 14-8, claiming their third consecutive Suffolk championship.
“It felt good because I knew that I could create a cushion for my team,” Nathan Robins said. “I feel very lucky to be on a team where I can do this for the third year in a row, and now to go to the Long Island championship. It would be a great way to finish my senior season.”
“I knew it secured the victory,” Harry Robins added. “Because the gap was just too big and we’d end it in round three.”
Thursday night’s win marks the first time the program will compete for a Long Island championship. There was no championship after the team won the county in 2020-21 because of COVID-19.
The program has earned a string of success it hasn’t seen since 2003, the last time the school competed for a Suffolk title. Newfield/Miller Place coach Kyle Schirmer was a junior on that team, now coaching his alma mater for a 14th season.
“These past three years have just been wild,” Schirmer said. “It’s one of the best feelings in the world. These kids have put in the work, all the credit goes to them. They do the hard work out there, I just try to hype them up a little bit.”
After the Robins twins kick-started Newfield/Miller Place’s momentum, Huntington pushed back.
Newfield/Miller Place’s George Jones trailed 3-0 in his second-round epee bout. Huntington trailed 9-6, needing a win to keep their title hopes alive. Jones spoke to Schirmer during a timeout, recovered and won the bout 5-4.
“It was nerve-wracking,” Jones said. “But it felt great in the end.”
Ryan Southworth earned the title-clinching win in foil six bouts later.
Newfield/Miller Place will compete for the Long Island championship against the winner of Syosset and Great Neck South, which will compete for the Nassau title on Friday.