Will Lehr, Ward Melville win 12th straight Suffolk fencing title

The Ward Melville boys and girls fencing teams defeated host Commack in the Suffolk playoffs on Wednesday to clinch the county title and secure a trip to the Long Island championship.

It's the 12th straight title for the boys and fourth straight for the girls.

The boys redeemed last month's loss to the Cougars with a 14-13 win after Will Lehr beat Charlie Pak, 5-0, in the clinching epee bout.

"Having known Will for so long, I knew he was going to step up and do what we needed him to do," said teammate Chris Ancona, who went 3-0 in foil. "There was no way he was going to lose that bout."

The rematch between the top two teams in Suffolk went just as advertised after Commack (11-1) beat Ward Melville (13-1) by the same score on Jan. 24. That loss became the recipe to Wednesday's win.

"The fact that they beat us [in January] helped focus everyone," Ancona said. "We learned what we needed to do so that we could practice everyday to get ready for this moment."

Ancona noted that each of Commack's foil fencers liked to utilize parry riposte, a style of counter attack. So the Patriots prepared for it and changed up their own style.

"We wanted to pretend we were counter-attacking, then get them to commit," Ancona said. "Or we would get our hand out really early and wait for them to disengage."

Put simply, the Patriots countered the counter-attack. WM foilists went 8-1 on Wednesday and proved to be the difference in a back-and-forth match. Commack led 6-3 after the first round before WM tied it at 9 in the second.

"They were really determined and focused and wanted to uphold [WM's] caliber of fencing," first-year coach Jenna Ellis said. "They absolutely upheld that today."

Nielsen leads girls

The WM girls are now in position to win their 17th Long Island title in 18 years after defeating Commack,14-10, on Wednesday. Dianna Nielsen (3-0), Alexa Horan (3-0) and Tori Obedin (2-1) went 8-1 in sabre to carry the Patriots (14-0), who have won 66 straight matches. Claire Becchina went 3-0 in foil and her sister Olivia went 3-0 in epee.

"We realized that they attack strongly out of the gate, so we matched that with long attacks and tried to work them down to the end of the strip on each bout," Nielsen said. "We came out confident today."

WM started slow in its first matchup against Commack (12-2) before rallying for a 14-13 win. That wasn't the case on Wednesday.

"Collectively we were a little more nervous the first time because they had crushed every other team," said Nielsen, who won her bouts 5-0, 5-1, 5-1, respectively. "I knew I had to win for my team today...I handled the pressure and tried not to make any mistakes."

First-year coach Ethan Wivietsky credits the growth of his four seniors, Nielsen, Obedin, Tabitha Fortner and Allison Leute, for blossoming into leaders and upholding the strong fencing tradition at Ward Melville.

"When they first started they were a little uncertain about how to be leaders, they had such strong [senior] leaders last year that they were almost surprised at the responsibility," Wivietsky said. "I kept putting them in a position to lead and they gave it all they had, and they blossomed."