BEACON FALLS — Woodland may not have an official fencing team, but that didn’t stop some Hawks from winning a high school state championship last month.
The fencers representing Woodland High earned their second straight team state championship in men’s epee during competition March 9-10. The squad qualified for the team championship competition based on their efforts during the earlier individual competitions.
Since fencing isn’t an official CIAC sport or club at Woodland, the group of students seeking to compete under the black and gold banner had to receive verification from the school’s athletic department that they were eligible to compete as Hawks.
Most of the Woodland fencers, who train under coaches Sandra Marchant and Bob Rosa with the Prospect Fencing Club, began the competition by fencing in the individual epee tournament.
Albert Marchant placed second in that tournament, followed by Aidan Woloszyn in 13th and Luke Fenwick in 25th. Based on those finishes, the Hawks earned the top seed in the eight-school team tournament.
In the team tournament, the Hawks toppled Norwich Free Academy in the quarterfinals and North Haven in the semifinals before facing powerhouse Guilford in the finals for the second consecutive year.
“There was a lot of pressure this year because there were a lot of schools who wanted to beat us, but we pulled through,” Woloszyn said.
Woodland’s Brandon Reilly also participated in the foil competition and finished 29th in the individual tournament. Naugatuck’s Kevin Healy placed 41st in that competition.
The state championship came in the midst of a two-week stretch full of fencing at Woodland. The Hawks’ fencers hosted an after-school fencing clinic as part of the senior project for Fenwick and Reilly.
“The clinic went well,” Woloszyn said. “We had a lot of people come and go. We wanted it to be run a certain way so that it would be free-form and people could come based on their availability. We had a lot of people interested and might want to pick up fencing later on.”
