Brentwood boys take top honors at Huntington Relay

With the county championships two weeks away, Suffolk County fencers took a break from their league schedules on Saturday and faced off in a different format.

All eight schools from Suffolk and one school from Massachusetts competed in the 17th annual Huntington Relay hosted at Huntington High School.

“It was a good time,” said Huntington coach Alan Kuver. “We had 350 kids who participated…and everyone was working hard.”

In relay-style format, each school is broken up by weapon: sabre, foil, and epee.

Each weapon has its own seperate tournament and one school from each gender is also awarded an overall team cup.

Brentwood won the overall boys team cup, recording first-place finishes in sabre and epee and a second-place finish in foil.

Ward Melville won on the girls’ side, coming in first in foil and sabre, and fifth in epee.

Brentwood boys coach Mike Corona said the day showcased the “improvement over the course of the season [and] hard work of all the fencers.”

As for his own team, Corona said “they laid it out on the strip and fought for every touch.”

The Brentwood sabre team, featuring Braulio Trejo, Joe Bordonaro, Michael Alcantara and Kevin Alvarez, had an especially strong showing.

“Sabre didn’t take the easy path,” Corona said, and this is probably an understatement.

Brentwood beat Ward Melville, 45-37, in the sabre semifinals, before topping Commack, 45-41, in the final. Commack sabre features Brian Huang, last season’s county champion, and David Austin, a nationally-rated fencer who won gold at December’s Brentwood Holiday Tournament.

For his team as a whole, Corona said that the day served as a “momentum builder” and a “stepping stone towards [counties].”

The Suffolk County fencing championships take place February 8 at Brentwood High School.