Victoria Lin, Mia Santana survive fence-offs for Suffolk girls titles
Half Hollow Hills' Victoria Lin competes in the Suffolk boys and girls individual fencing championships at Ward Melville on Saturday. Credit: George A Faella
After a long day of fencing Victoria Lin stepped off the strip for what she thought was the final time Saturday at the Suffolk individual championships at Ward Melville.=
“I had people coming up to me and I thought I had won,” Lin said.
It turned out that Lin’s 4-1 record at foil in the final pool play would necessitate a fence-off against Kiki Liu of Ward Melville to determine the champion.
“It made me a little nervous when I found out I had to fence again,” Lin, a sophomore at Half Hollow Hills East, said. But she kept her composure and after falling behind early in the final bout rallied for a 5-3 win.
“It all worked out fine,” she said. “I really just wanted to go out there and have fun.”
Sayville’s Mia Santana, the defending champion at epee, said she wasn’t having as much fun as last year when she won for the first time.
“I came in and I was kind of nervous because it felt different defending the title,” Santana said. “But I was able to calm myself by just talking to the other girls. Everyone is so positive and supportive and that attitude really helped me.”
She also faced a final fence-off, against Newfield’s Julissa Spooner, which she won 5-3.
“I really felt like it was more of a relief than an accomplishment, " Santana said. “I’m just really happy to close out my high school fencing career this way.”
In girls saber Ava LaMedica of Ward Melville captured the title after going 3-0 in a fence-off after four competitors finished with a 3-2 record in the final pool play.
While boys saber didn’t come down to a fence-off, Whitman’s Mattias Weber knew after the day's the championship would come down to a final pool play bout between himself and Benjamin Edgar-McNerney.
“In the final pool everybody had a loss early except for me and Ben,” Weber said. “It was really close but I got the win, 5-4."
Weber was ahead 4-2 before he said nerves got the better of him the next few points.
“I just needed to calm down and make the right move and it worked,” he said.
Newfield’s Rishi Pavate went 5-0 in the final pool to win at epee and Marc Lindemann, also from Newfield, was 5-0 and captured the foil championship.
Christopher Matias covers high school sports for Newsday after spending time in Athletic Facilities and Operation at St. John’s and in Sports Information at CUNY York college.