Lions Compete in IFA Championships

In its first tournament since capturing the Ivy League championship last weekend, the Columbia fencing team travels to the nation's oldest collegiate fencing competition, the Intercollegiate Fencing Association Championships.

The IFA Championships are directly affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference and in addition to other Ivy League teams, the Lions will face fencers from the Atlantic Coast Conference, New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference, and University Athletic Association. Even though Columbia will face many of the same teams at NCAA Regionals next weekend, the IFA Championships are seen as a preparatory tournament.

"The IFAs have no bearing on NCAA qualification and it is a really good chance to get some of our other fencers time on the strips," head coach George Kolombatovich said. "It is a great time to also get some of our starters some much-needed rest, and while we want to win everything, our season goals are the Ivies and the NCAAs."

The Lions will be missing a few of the team's top fencers because of injuries and World Cup events. On the injury front, senior sabreist Alex Krul will be listed as an alternate for the IFAs with a thumb injury, while senior epeeist Alexie Rubin's status this weekend is uncertain as she recovers from a hamstring injury. As for those fencers at World Cup events, sophomore epeeist Dwight Smith is in Switzerland and senior sabreist James Williams is in Bulgaria.

Even with fencers out of the country, getting international experience this late in the season is seen as a positive for the team heading into NCAAs.

"Since I arrived here, we afford our fencers the opportunity to make those world teams and we support them in those efforts," Kolombatovich said. "Our entire team loves it when fencers are training to be at their very best and this kind of international competition absolutely helps our team when they fence against other schools."

This weekend's competition will pit Columbia fencers in a three-division knockout tournament, and each discipline will have an A, B, and C bracket. Since the tournament is more individual and points are based on how far each fencer goes in his respective bracket, the team with the highest percentage of victories usually walks away with the crown.

If the Lions are to improve on last season's third-place finish and take the IFAs this weekend, they will have to do it against two-time defending champion Harvard. In the Ivy Championships, the women dominated the Crimson 21-6, but the men fell 14-13 in one of the closest and most hotly contested matches of the season.

No matter who fences for Columbia, the IFAs signify the start of the post-Ivy season and the beginning of a potential run to the national championship. The Lions take to the strips beginning early Saturday morning in Lawrenceville, N.J.