Syosset boys and girls win Long Island fencing championships

It felt like the dream was slipping away for Syosset girls fencing.

Syosset boys fencing had just won its second Long Island championship in program history, defeating Suffolk’s Newfield/Miller Place 14-4 Tuesday night at Cold Spring Harbor High School. Syosset's girls team led 13-8 against Ward Melville, just one bout away from celebrating its first championship in program history.

But the Patriots didn’t go away quietly. They swept three foil bouts as the score suddenly flipped to 13-11. Syosset’s cheers and hugs transitioned to twitching hands and piercing eyes.

“As it kept going on, more tension started to build up,” Syosset junior Autumn Trieu said. “We could see ourselves definitely getting stressed, but also very motivated.”

Those nerves were justified. Ward Melville’s epees had won five of the six bouts up to that point, and Trieu had lost her two prior bouts.

But that was in the past, and Trieu triumphed in the present. She defeated Eleanor Schneider, 5-3, to seal a 14-11 win that made Syosset the second Nassau side to ever win the boys and girls titles in the same season.

“I was stressed and nervous,” Trieu said. “We thought we would win a little earlier, so I wasn’t expecting to be ready to fence.”

Syosset girls went 8-1 in sabre behind the swift arms of Esha Nayak, Alexa Lim, Elise Jung and Winona Zheng. Ward Melville missed star sabreist Reese Birnstill, who couldn’t compete due to injury but contributed by coaching her teammates during timeouts.

This wasn’t a top-seeded Syosset team. Rather this was one many had counted out, having an off year as the fourth seed in Nassau.

“This is kind of our worst season, but we brought it back through playoffs,” Nayak, a junior, said. “I think that was really cool of us and showed all our hard work throughout the season.”

Syosset boys fencing, meanwhile, found itself in an unusual spot as it faced an impressive Newfield/Miller Place foil team and an increasingly impressive sabreist in Saaim Imran.

Tied 3-3, Syosset turned to Jaysukh Singh, Jade Li and Junyi Wu, who answered the call and went on to win all six epee bouts. For a team long defined by a deep sabre team and star foilists like Justin Guo, the epee team stepped up when the whole squad needed it most.

“It definitely means a lot since last year we were so close,” Singh said. “A lot of hard work, a lot of dedication and we were able to clutch it up.”

Guo added a thrilling 5-4 win over Marc Lindemann, a bout between two of the best foilists on Long Island.

But it was Li who won the deciding bout, 5-1, over Kevin Niu. It was a true full-circle moment for Li, whose brother Jalen had the winning touch against Newfield/Miller Place in the Long Island championship meet two years prior.

“I’m living on through my brother’s legacy, and I’m showing that I’m better than him,” Li said, jokingly. “A lot of seniors, my friends and coach (Robert Moon) are leaving, so it’s good to win for them.”

There’s no better ending than the one you write for yourself. Syosset wrote a fairy tale, and as snow dropped from the sky it came to life like Frosty the Snowman.

Only tomorrow, when Syosset’s fencers wake up, these titles won’t melt away.