As the last minute of the period ticked away, senior Marie Siliciano fought hard to stay alive. In the final round of the prestigious Midwest Fencing Tournament in Indiana, her opponent had fourteen hits on her, needing only one more to win the bout. Forcing herself to slow the pace dictated by her aggressive opponent, Siliciano attempted a simple striking action, one that had not worked previously in the round. Miraculously, she scored her fourteenth hit, evening the score. The first hit of the next period would decide the outcome of the entire tournament.

  In the minute of coaching allowed between periods, Siliciano conferred with coach Zach Moss

“[Moss] came up and said, sort of as a joke, ‘If you can do that again, that would be great,’” Siliciano said.

Thirty seconds later, she did.        Such results have become commonplace for the St. Paul Academy and Summit School fencing team, which was crowned state champion after a final tournament on Sunday,  Feb. 24. The weekend tournament, where senior captain Francesco DiCaprio won first in Mens Epee, Siliciano took second  in Womens Epee, senior Peter Driscoll won fourth in Mens Foil, and junior Steven Go-Rosenberg won fifth in Mens Sabre, marked the end to a historic season for the fencing team.

DiCaprio’s victory came after a rough start in his pool bouts, where he lost to the fencer he would ultimately face in the championship round.

“I was fencing very stiffly and I felt tense,” DiCaprio said.

However, he still did well enough to move into the direct elimination rounds, where he gained confidence after a string of victories. In his final bout, he gained an early lead over his opponent and coasted to a 15-12 victory.

“We needed everybody to fence at their best, which they did. It was a great way to end the season,” DiCaprio said of the state title.

Led by a strong contingent of seniors, the fencing team beat out rival Blake Academy to win first in state for the 2012-2013 season. The team competed in a variety of local meets and tournaments, which lasted anywhere from a few hours to an entire day. Fencing teams are not common in Minnesota, so the SPA squad repeatedly faced the same opponents over the course of the season.

“Last week we drove out to Victoria, Minnesota to face Holy Family for the third time. But we beat them, so it was fun,” Siliciano said.

The team put up another strong showing at the SPA Invitational on Jan. 26, where DiCaprio won first, Siliciano won second, and 8th grader Colin O’Hern won third.

With several top fencers graduating this spring, the fencing team may have some difficulty in defending its state championship. Nonetheless, Siliciano remains optimistic.

“We do have a lot of seniors this year, so it’ll be a little bit tricky [next year]. But a lot of the younger fencers we have aren’t necessarily new fencers; they’ve been fencing for three or four years since the beginning of the program,” Siliciano said.

“We have some very strong freshmen, and good 8th graders,” she said.

While such a dominant season may be hard to replicate, a core of younger players will have a chance to prove themselves in years to come. But until then, SPA fencers can congratulate themselves for an outstanding year of work.