Fencing Earns Little Iron Man, Three Other Major Trophies at IFA Championships

While Columbia did not sweep every weapon category at Sunday’s Intercollegiate Fencing Association Championships, the Light Blue walked away with the most important trophies of the competition. The six-weapon title—given to the school with the highest number of victories from the men’s and women’s competitions combined—landed in the Lions’ hands, along with the men’s team championship, women’s foil title, and men’s foil trophies.

Columbia tied with Yale for the men’s foil competition title. The teams will share the Little Iron Man trophy—the oldest trophy still awarded in any collegiate competition.

“It was really a tremendous day overall for us,” head coach George Kolombatovich said. “Our team has really risen up throughout the team competition despite fencing being an individual sport, and I could not be prouder of our squad.”

The IFA Championships are, if nothing else, a test of endurance. Competition begins at 8 a.m. and does not end for almost 12 hours, at the conclusion at the individual medal rounds. Each fencer fights one bout per round against each of the 11 teams in the tournament—10 for the men as Cornell does not have a men’s team. In total, there are 99 and 90 matches per team in a single day.

The three fencers at each weapon—epee, sabre, and foil—are divided into three categories—A, B, and C—usually with the team’s best fencers competing in the A bracket. At the end of all round-robin team competition, the top eight fencers from group A, top five from group B, and top three from C are seeded 1-16 in a knockout elimination tournament for individual honors. As of press time, individual honors had not been announced.

While the Lions enjoyed many successes on the strips this weekend, they also met a number setbacks. Senior co-captain and former Olympian Emily Jacobson did not fence in the event, but she is expected to compete for Columbia next weekend at the NCAA Regionals in Poughkeepsie. Sophomore epeeist Tess Finkel declined to compete after the round-robin format of the championships, forfeiting her match in the round of 16. Finkel, however, is expected to compete, as well, next week at Regionals.

Despite the high-profile nature of the IFA Championships, the event is seen as a tune-up for next week’s regionals.

“The IFAs have no bearing on NCAA qualification and our real goal is to do well at the NCAA Championships,” Kolombatovich added. “Our goal is to qualify 12 next week and it is a very realistic possibility. We still wanted to win here though and we did just that.”

Columbia’s quest for 12 qualifiers reaches its peak at Vassar next Sunday.