BASKING RIDGE, NJ – The Ridge High School Fencing Team's 2024-25 season is in full swing.
Somerset County Championships
Ridge Fencing got off to a flying start with the first tournament of the season, which took place just before the holidays. Six teams from across the county took part in the Somerset County Championships, hosted by Bernards High School.
For the girls, the foil team (Maya Zamlynny, Yasemin Ocak, Eunice Kim) took 1st place. The epee troop (Ashley Maschhoff, Claire Muisener, Heidi Stefandl, Claire Zhang) took second place and the saber troop (Alexandra Mendieta, Kaavya Padhi, Emerson Rever, Leah Stefandl, Sienna Yurkovic) took fifth place. With all weapons combined, the girls placed 4th overall.
The Ridge boys' saber team (Tristin Orthmann, Ben Schuchman, Tadas Vilemaitis) took first place. The foil team (Girish Arul, Siddharth Malhotra, Christopher Zheng) and the epee team (Ethan Zhang, Jeremiah Murphy, Christian Mulry and Sidharth Burgula) both took 3rd place. Taking all weapon values into account, this was enough for 1st place in the overall ranking.
In the individual competition, both Ethan Zhang (epee) and Tadas Vilemaitis (saber) showed strong performances and took 2nd place in their respective competitions. Christopher Zheng took 3rd place in foil. Sophomore Maya Zamlynny defended her title from last year and again became the girls' individual foil champion, while Yasemin Ocak took third place in the foil.
Cetrulo and Santelli tournaments
Both the Ridge boys and girls fencing teams achieved top-ten finishes in what is touted as “the world’s largest high school fencing tournament.”
The boys competed in the Cetrulo Tournament at Drew University in Madison on Saturday, January 11, with 55 teams vying for the title. The foil team (Shresh Bollapalli, Girish Arul, Christopher Zheng) battled to an impressive 6th place, helping the boys team to a 10th place overall.
Notable individual performances included junior Reid Kokenge, who was perfect on the day with 14/14 wins on the “A” epee strip, and sophomore Christopher Zheng with 12/14 on the “C” foil strip.
The girls competed in the Santelli Tournament on Sunday, January 12th, which featured 52 teams.
They finished 9th overall, fueled by a strong 10th place finish from the foil team (Maya Zamlynny, Yasemin Ocak, Eunice Kim, Aria Chahal).
The best individual performances on the day included Maya Zamlynny with 12/14 on the “A” foil strip and Eva Chen with 11/13 wins on the “B” saber strip.
– Submitted by the Ridge High Fencing Association