March Madness Is Fencing's Shot at Title

It's been a good year for Columbia athletics. The football team had its best season in a decade, the women's soccer team won its first-ever Ivy title, and now the fencing team has reclaimed both the men's and women's Ivy championships. Even given this success, Columbia has a chance to cement 2007 as one of the best years in the school's athletics history thanks to the fencing program.

In March, the Lions will compete in the NCAA Regionals at Tufts University and in the NCAA Championships at Drew University. It isn't often that Columbia gets to compete for a national title, but in fencing, the opportunity presents itself more often than people think.

Last season, Harvard took the men's Ivy championship, rode that momentum through the IFA Championships and eventually ended up at the NCAA Championships in Houston, emerging with the combined team title. This year's Columbia team is already ranked in the top three on both the men's and women's sides, and given the team's recent success in Ivy play, the Lions are in a position to duplicate Harvard's run from last year and pick up their first national title since the late 1990s.

"They give out four trophies at the NCAAs. They are wooden trophies with metal appliques on them. The expression has become known as 'getting some wood,'" head coach George Kolombatovich said. "I sincerely believe that Columbia is going to get some wood this year."

Since the NCAA expanded to all six disciplines-men's foil, men's epee, men's sabre, women's foil, women's epee, and women's sabre-seven seasons ago, Columbia has not won a combined team championship. This season has produced one of the deepest teams in school history, and the talent for a national championship is in place.

The Lions have certainly proven their worth in the dual meet season, compiling a 27-2 team record that includes an undefeated 15-0 season for the women. When it comes to strength of schedule, no team has faced a more difficult set of competition than Columbia has in achieving this record, squaring off against six of the top-10 ranked men's teams and seven of the top-10 ranked women's teams. In those matches, the men are 4-2 and the women 6-0. On Sunday, the Columbia women's team crushed third-ranked Harvard 21-6, solidifying its spot as the number-two team in the country.

Still, questions remain about the Light Blue's chances when competing against the nation's elite in a more individual setting. Can the Lions qualify 12 fencers for the NCAA Championships and then score enough points to pull out a victory?

"I feel confident that we will qualify the maximum of 12 for Nationals," Kolombatovich said. "We know that we have the talent to finish in first or sixth place. It depends on how healthy we are and how our players come out and fence on those days."

This weekend's IFA Championships should give a good indication as to the current mental and physical standing of the team as the Lions go from team to individual competition. IFAs will seed the top-16 fencers in each discipline and have them compete in a knockout-style tournament. Although three of Columbia's best fencers will not be there due to injury or World Cup competition, enough of the team will see action against some of the nation's best to determine if a national championship is a plausible reality.

The month of March is usually a good one for me, as a UCLA fan. The Big Dance affords me the opportunity to watch a title run in basketball almost every season, but this year, my attention will be divided as Columbia fencing goes on a title run of its own.