Junior Fencer Takes on the World

Jaclyn Khrol ’21 (right) couter-attacks during the D1 Nationals.

By KATHERINE BALYKOVA

Jaclyn Khrol ’21, an international fencer, is out of school for around 30 days of the school year. She has competitions worldwide every month and daily practice for a minimum of two hours. On weekends, she even finds herself at the fencing academy for an entire day. For students like her, with intense extracurricular pursuits, keeping up with school can be a challenge.

“I grew up watching my mom fence,” Khrol said. “She started practicing the sport when she was eight years old, living in Ukraine, and gradually competed successfully both nationally and internationally.”

Khrol was introduced to fencing at age ten and quickly showed a talent for it. Her younger sister, Caralina, followed in her footsteps at age seven. The whole family trains at the New York Fencing Academy (NYFA), located in Coney Island on W 12th St.

“Both my sister and I are epee fencers,” Caralina Khrol said. “It’s the heaviest weapon of the three that the sport offers, as well as the hardest. Jaclyn has worked hard to get to the point that she is at right now, and continued to do so in her competition last month.”

Khrol traveled to Burgos, Spain, on December 14 to compete in the Coupe du Monde World Cup in the women’s junior category. She scored 11th place out of 200 competitors.

“With the end of the first term coming up, it is undoubtedly hard to balance out practice with schoolwork,” Khrol said. “But both are crucial to my future, so I try to manage. This year, my priority is fencing because it will definitely get me into college.”

Nearly eight million students play sports in high school. Only about one in 17 of these students gets the opportunity to compete at the college level. Then, only a select few go on to become professionals. 

For most sports, colleges begin to scout for athletes in their junior year of high school. In addition to athletic performance, low SAT scores and failing classes could also prevent recruitment.

Student athletes are responsible for committing to a college. Early commitment allows a coach to see that they are not potentially looking at other colleges, making the recruitment process easier. Khrol plans to commit to Notre Dame or Columbia. 

“Columbia has been my dream school for as long as I can remember,” she said. “I hope the years of hard work are worth it when I’m walking down the campus of an Ivy League, and I can finally tell myself I made it.”