Sports

The Untouchables, Stuyvesant’s girls’ fencing team, won the Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) city championships on Friday, May 2nd with a 6-3 victory over Brooklyn Technical High School. This is the second year in a row in which Stuyvesant has finished the season in first place of the Manhattan Division with an 8-0 record and assumed the title of City Champions.

“I wasn’t worried,” coach Joel Winston said, indicating that this year’s starting lineup differed from last year’s championship team by only one fencer. “We put a lot of heart into the season and it feels great when it pays off.”

During the match, each team won half of the A, or highest level matches, as well as half of the C, or lowest level matches. This made the B, or middle level matches, the deciding factor. “We just totally dominated the B matches,” Winston said. Junior Megan Ng won both her B1 matches 5-4, while senior Jenny Hsiao won her B2 matches 5-4 and 5-0, respectively.

Senior and captain Vivian Truong, who lost both her A2 matches 5-3, said that the victory wasn’t as dominating as the score suggests, as shown by the tightness of the A and C matches. “It was kind of challenging,” she said. “But we all expected to win because we worked really hard.”

Senior and C1 fencer Malika Rakhmankulova suffered an injury during the 7-2 semifinal victory over Townsend Harris, but insisted on playing in the finals. “As a senior, she said to me she wanted to play her last match in high school, so I put her in,” Winston said. Rakhmankulova lost both her C1 matches by the close score of 5-3.

Although the Untouchables ended the season undefeated, there are a few other schools in the city that posed a challenge. “There’s very tough competition from Cardozo, Brooklyn Tech and Tottenville,” said Winston, who also coaches Stuyvesant’s boys’ varsity fencing team.

“The best competitor is Brooklyn Tech because they fence outside of school and get coached by professional fencers,” Truong said. Brooklyn Tech and Tottenville tied for first place in the Brooklyn/Staten Island Division with records of 7-1.

Truong won ten of eleven matches with 53 touches in the regular season and holds an E rank in the United States Fencing Association (USFA). Ranks from A-E are given out to USFA members across the country based on their success in tournaments throughout the country. Since most members are unranked, a rank of E is considered exemplary.

“Vivian’s not only a solid fencer but she’s the captain,” Winston said. She helps runs the team, keeps the team’s spirit up with gatherings outside of school, and she’s really essential as the team leader.”

Sophomore Nzingha Prescod, who fences in Stuyvesant’s A1 position, was 6-0 in regular season competition and 5-0 in playoff matches. In the finals, she won both of her A1 matches by a score of 5-0. She holds an A rank in the USFA and won a gold medal at the 2008 Cadet World Championships in Sicily in April.

Although seniors like Hsiao, Truong, and Rakhmankulova will no longer be with the team next year, Winston expects returning players like Prescod and Ng to lead the team to success.

“We love winning but after the game, but I’m already thinking about how next year is going to be,” Winston said. “The team has a lot of talent, and next year looks promising.”