Garden City High School Fencers Compete At Junior Olympics

GARDEN CITY, NY — Garden City High School students Trey Plastaras and Louis Rivera, both captains of the varsity boys fencing team, competed at USA Fencing’s Junior Olympics in Denver, Colorado on Feb. 18-19.

Senior Louis Rivera is a co-caption on the epee squad of the varsity boys fencing team at Garden City High School. This year, Rivera competed in the Junior Men’s Epee Fencing tournament with over 350 of the best high school and college epee fencers in the country.

"I was excited to fence at the national level for my first time and am excited to continue pursuing fencing competitively post-high school," he said.

Tenth grader Trey Plastaras is co-caption of the foil squad of the varsity boys fencing team. Plastaras has competed at many local, regional and national level tournaments, including three national championships. He is a rated fencer with USA Fencing, completing his season as the 12th ranked cadet in the northeast region, which encompasses nine states. Plastaras qualified for the cadet and junior level tournaments at the Junior Olympics this year and was promoted beyond the pools round, winning his direct elimination round.

“There is nothing like competing with people who fence on the national and world levels," said Plastaras. "It takes hours of work at my club and countless competitions on weekends to get to the level of Junior Olympics and national championships. Although fencing is a niche sport, I take great pride in the physical and mental challenge it presents. I look forward to next year’s high school season and competing at nationals in Phoenix this summer.”

Beyond their accomplishments at the Junior Olympics, Rivera made All-County Second Team honors and Plastaras made All-County First Team as well as All Long Island.