Lions Earn Third Place In Nation

Columbia got some wood at the 2007 NCAA Championships, and although the event may not have ended up in a national championship, the Lions' third-place finish was the program's best since the field expanded to include all three women's disciplines. To cap off the tournament, sophomore women's sabrist Daria Schneider took the individual national title in a 15-11 victory in Columbia's final match.

"It really was a tremendous team performance," head coach George Kolombatovich said. "I couldn't be happier with the way the team fenced. The women had a bad day one, but came back on the second day and competed really well. For all these fencers have been through, I could not be any prouder of them then I am now."

The Championships began with a fast start for Columbia as the men opened up a two-point lead over eventual national champion Penn State at the end of day one. The men were led by the foil duo of senior Scott Sugimoto and freshman Kurt Getz, who would eventually tally 38 victories in 45 matches, the best record of any weapon during the four-day tournament.

By virtue of their success, both fencers qualified for the four-person medal knockout stage. Although they lost their semifinal matches, including a 15-14 decision for Sugimoto, the two Lions were then pitted against each other for third and fourth place in the country. With a 15-8 victory, Getz claimed the bronze medal that was Sugimoto's just a season ago.

It was Columbia who claimed the right to be called the best men's team in the nation at the conclusion of the men's tournament after Friday's action. The Lion men tallied a final score of 93 points, four better than Penn State, eight more than St. John's, and 11 over Ohio State and Notre Dame.

Despite the fact that only one member of the men's team earned a medal, all six men finished as All-Americans. The men's sabre team that consisted of veteran seniors James Williams and Alex Krul saw Williams earn second-team All-American and Krul take the honorable mention title. The men's epee squad was, by contrast, a youth movement with sophomores Dwight Smith and Max Czapanskiy. Smith ended up qualifying for the epee knockout stage as the fourth seed, but lost both his matches to fall just short of the bronze medal. Smith qualified for first-team All-American and Czapanskiy earned honorable mention All-American.

"You only get six men to compete with here and to have all six earn All-American status is just really incredible," Kolombatovich said. "For the men to go out and capture the team title like they did really showed me how strong and resilient a group this really was."

Day three, which was the start of the women's round robin, did not see the usually consistent Lion women carry over the momentum the men started. The sabre duo of Schneider and junior Emily Jacobson proved to be the strongest in the country with 36 wins in their 45 round-robin matches, but the other weapons failed to keep Columbia ahead, as the Lions trailed by 13 after the third day of competition.

Both Schneider and Jacobson qualified for the individual knockout tournament, and although Jacobson lost her first-round match, she rebounded with a 15-13 victory to claim the bronze medal. Schneider won her first-round in a pressure-filled 15-14 contest and then dominated number-one seed Caitlin Thompson of Penn State 15-11 for the individual title.

"I felt pretty comfortable mostly because I felt I was doing everything I could, and I wasn't going to be disappointed in myself," Schneider said. "I fence individually too, and I think this is the next big step for me to do really well at World Cups and national tournaments. I've seen my fencing improve a lot this year, so I'm hoping that the changes I've been making will continue to help my fencing."

Only one other Lion woman earned All-American status, and that was senior foilist Cassidy Luitjen, who took second-team honors for her eighth place finish. Fellow senior foilist Kathleen Reckling took 20th place with eight victories against the nation's elite. In women's epee, both senior Alexie Rubin and freshman Tess Finkel finished no higher than 16th place as Finkel battled injuries throughout the tournament.

Kolombatovich knows that repeating or besting the accomplishments of the 2006-07 team will be extremely difficult as seven Lions who qualified for the NCAA Championships will be graduating. Columbia took the Ivy Championship on both the men's and women's sides for the first time in five seasons, with the women completing an undefeated team season. The Lions qualified the maximum of 12 fencers at NCAA Regionals for the first time in program history and then saw nine fencers earn All-American distinctions, with three medalists and an individual national champion.

"I'm not just losing seven starters here today, I'm losing seven incredibly nice people, and unlike some other programs, they are all graduating," Kolombatovich said. "We had three other fencers qualify for this event, but couldn't come because of the NCAA limit, so that shows some of the program's depth. Even so, it's going to be hard to come back and top what we did this year. I'm incredibly proud, and it's a testament to how hard these fencers have worked."