Half Hollow Hills East's Victoria Lin wins Suffolk epee championship
Victoria Lin of Half Hollow Hills wins the girls epee title at the Suffolk fencing individual championships at Half Hollow Hills East on Saturday. Credit: /Derrick Dingle
After her performance on Saturday at Half Hollow Hills East High School, Victoria Lin stands alone in Long Island’s athletic history book.
Lin, a senior at Hills East who competes for the combined Half Hollow Hills fencing program, went 14-1 and 5-0 in the final pool to win the Suffolk girls epee championship. Two years ago as a sophomore, Lin won the county title as a foil fencer. Lin’s win in the epee on Saturday made her the first fencer in Long Island history to win a county championship in multiple disciplines.
“I’m really honored and proud of myself,” Lin told Newsday after the match. “I thank my coach just for giving me advice to switch to epee and help out. I hope there will be more people like me in the future trying out new things and looking for more challenges.”
Lin initially switched off from foil last year to help replace the team’s top epees who had graduated. The move was inspired by a suggestion from Hills head coach Steven Ferrantello, which almost paid off immediately.
She was the county’s runner-up last year in the epee championship, as she lost a fence-off 5-4 in the final round to then-senior Kayley Chung of Commack. This time around, Lin would not be denied by anything — even a stomachache.
Since Hills was the host school for the tournament, the program provided food to everyone there. Lin helped by making tanghulu and bingfen — which are sweet, Chinese snacks — the night before. Rather than throw out the burnt ones, she ate them, which made her feel ill for the start of the match.
“It was really hard to concentrate,” Lin said. “I was just thinking about everything other than fencing. It was really stressful. Today it was really bad because I couldn’t really move, so I was playing mostly defense.”
Though she was dissatisfied with her performance within each bout, she was proud to have won enough of them to claim the title.
“Honestly, I feel really honored,” Lin said. “It’s my senior year, and it’s really special.”
Lin’s classmate, Evie Pierre-Louis, went 12-4 and swept the third pool to win the saber championship. The title had been a long time coming for Pierre-Louis, who had fallen short but steadily improved at the county championship match over each of the previous three years.
“It’s been my goal since ninth grade,” Pierre-Louis said. “I used to say, ‘One day, I’m going to be on the podium at counties,’ and I finally did it.”
In the foil championship, Ward Melville/Port Jefferson/Rocky Point senior Kiki Liu went 15-0 to join the club of county champions. Liu had been on the doorstep of this accomplishment for a while, as she placed second in 2023 and third in 2024.
Now, she has all three colored medals.
“It feels really great; I worked really hard for this,” Liu said. “It feels really rewarding walking off that strip knowing that I’m a county champion.”
