Teaneck Grad To Represent US At 2012 Olympics

A township resident and graduate has qualified and will represent the United States in fencing at the 2012 Olympics in London.

Maya Lawrence will represent the individual and team epee events, according to a news release issued Tuesday. Lawrence was third in the national championships, held in Virginia Beach, Va.

“Maya is member of the first US women’s epee team to win a medal at a World Cup,” the release said. “The team won a silver medal in St. Maur, France, the last Olympic qualifying event for the 2012 Olympic Games.”

Lawrence was a member of U.S. World Championship and National Teams in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2011.

In 2008, she was named to the World Championship Team, but did not fence because of a torn ACL. Despite injuries and surgery, she continued fencing on an elite level.

Lawrence, 31, who graduated from THS in 1998, started fencing in her sophomore year. She graduated from Princeton University in 2002 where she was on the All-Ivy and All- American teams. In 2007, she received a master’s degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, in the English As a Second Language program.

She now trains in Paris and is coached by Maitre Daniel Lavavasseur. She was coached by Fairleigh Dickinson University Coach Roger Cummings and former Princeton University Coach Michael Sebastiani.

Lawrence has worked for the Teaneck Recreation Department and is the daughter of Teaneck High School’s head fencing coach, Pat Lawrence.

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