Huntington Fencers Battle in
Suffolk Championships
Propelled by a string of strong individual performances, the Huntington High School girls' fencing team captured a silver medal at the 48th annual Suffolk Fencing Championships at Brentwood High School last weekend.
The Blue Devil women, captained by seniors Mia Rienzo, Dylan Tuozzo and Olivia Weller, won 39 bouts, trailing only perennial champion Ward Melville and finishing eight points ahead of third-place Centereach. Huntington finished with a plus-40 indicator, indicating it scored that many more touches than it gave up.
The team was led by the epee squad of seniors Rebecca Deegan, Mia Rienzo and Olivia Weller, which won 15 bouts, tops in their category. The saber squad of senior Dylan Tuozzo and sophomores Katia DeSimone and Joey Tuozzo won 13 bouts to finish second in their category and the foil team of junior Alexandra Martinolich, sophomore Maggie Askerberg and freshman Sibila Maiarelli won 11 to come in third in that group.
Three Blue Devil women fencers advanced to the individual finals. Olivia Weller grabbed a bronze medal and Mia Rienzo finished fifth in women's epee. Katia DeSimone came in sixth in women's sabre. Weller earned All-Long Island honors with the best league record during the regular season.
The Huntington men's team, captained by seniors John Ferraiolo, Sean Harkins, Connor Purcell and Dante Corrocher, finished strong after a slow start to come in sixth overall. The men's epee squad of John Ferraiolo and sophomores James Ferraiolo and Richard Hermer-Fried turned in the team's top performance, winning 12 bouts to finish second in the category.
Many Blue Devils were honored for their performances this season, including an elite group selected for the first Exceptional Seniors Meet on March 3. It will pit the top Suffolk seniors against their Nassau counterparts. Huntington epee John Ferraiolo and saber Dante Corrocher were named to the Suffolk men's team and Sean Harkins was picked as the third alternate in foil. Epee Olivia Weller was selected for the women's team. Mia Rienzo is the first epee alternate and Dylan Tuozzo is the third saber alternate.
Several Huntington fencers received All-County recognition this year, too. Dylan Tuozzo and Katia DeSimone were honorable mention in women's saber; Alexandra Martinolich and Maggie Askerberg, were second team in women's foil; Mia Rienzo was honorable mention in women's epee.
John Ferraiolo earned second team men's epee honors; James Ferraiolo was honorable mention in men's epee; sophomore Joseph Rizzi was second team in men's foil; Dante Corrocher and sophomore Brent Filippini were honorable mention in men's saber.
The Blue Devils are coached by Alan Kuver, Mike Fabio and Valinda O'Garra.