General

Columbia Claims its 16th National Championship in Program History

Results 

CLEVELAND, Ohio  -- For the fourth time in the past six seasons, an Ivy League team have claimed the NCAA National Championship as Columbia won its 16th title in program history. Columbia, the 2019 Ivy League Champions, finished with 178 points, followed by Penn State (166) in second, Notre Dame (165) in third and Harvard (150) in fourth. An overall combined score between the men and women determines who is crowned the NCAA National Champions.
 
Senior Iman Blow clinched the team title for the Lions with an impressive win over Northwestern. 
  MEN’S SABER
Sophomore Daniel Kwak advanced to the NCAA saber finals before coming up just three touches short of a title, falling to Penn State’s Karol Metryka, 15-12. Kwak's finish was the highest for any Tiger men's fencer since Jack Hudson was the epee runner-up in 2015, and the highest for a Tiger men's saber since Max Pekarev won the NCAA title in 1996.
 
Three Ivies – Columbia’s Calvin Liang and Andrew Doddo and Harvard’s Erwin Cai took 5-6-7 to earn second-team All-America honors. Penn’s Adam Green finished ninth overall, while Harvard’s Daniel Solomon took 12th to earn honorable mention All-America honors.
 
MEN’S EPEE
Columbia’s Teddy Lombardo finished second in the men’s epee, falling in the title bout to Ohio State’s Oliver Shindler, 11-9. Lombardo won 16 of his 23 bouts in the preliminary rounds before taking down Wayne State's Ahmed Elsayed, 15-10. 
 
Princeton’s Wesley Johnson finished eighth to earn second-team All-American honors, while teammate Wesley Yan took ninth to earn honorable mention All-America.
 
MEN’S FOIL
Harvard’s Geoffry Tourette and Columbia’s Sidarth Kumbla finished tied for third in men’s foil.
 
Tourette advanced to the semi-finals after tabbing a 17-6 record with a +42-touch differential during the round-robin bouts. Tourette fell to eventual Foil Champion Nick Itkin of Notre Dame, 15-11.  Kumbla finished the morning with a 19-4 record for the round-robin bouts. Kumbla faced Axel Kiefer of Notre Dame in the semifinal round, and pulled ahead early 12-6. Kumbla, however, was unable to hold off a late rally and fell, 15-13.
 
Princeton’s Mohamed Hamza finished sixth and Penn’s Michael Li took eighth in the men’s foil standings to earn second-team All-America honors, while Columbia’s Sam Moelis’ ninth-place finish earned him honorable mention All-America.

WOMEN’S SABER
In saber, Harvard’s Elizabeth Tartakovsky and Veronica Czyzewski finished tied for third. Tartakovsky fell to Zara Moss in the semifinals, 15-8, while Czyzewski was defeated by eventual champion Karolina Cieslar. The Crimson pair finished first-team All-America honors.
 
Cornell’s Esther Bentolila took sixth to earn second-team All-America, while Columbia’s Nora Burke finished 10th to take home honorable mention All-America accolades.
 
WOMEN’S FOIL
Columbia’s Sylvie Binder claimed the women’s foil title. Binder downed St. John’s Katarzyna Lachman, 15-8, to earn the title. Columbia’s Iman Blow dropped a heartbreaker in the semifinal, falling 15-14 to Lachman.
 
Harvard’s Cindy Lu took eighth in the women’s foil to earn second-team All-America.
 
WOMEN’S EPEE
Columbia’s Anne Cebula claimed the national championship in the women’s epee. Cebula defeated Amanda Sirico, 5-3 in the finals to claim the national championship. Princeton’s Tatijana Stewart took tied for third, after falling to Amanda Sirico, 14-12.
 
Karolina Nixon of Columbia finished fifth to earn second-team All-America status, while Cornell’s Megan Eno’s ninth place finish and Yale’s Shirley Wang’s 11th place finish earned honorable mention All-America honors.

Final Team Standings
  1. Columbia, 178
  2. Penn State, 166
  3. Notre Dame, 165
  4. Harvard, 150
  5. St. John’s, 127
  6. Ohio State, 120
  7. Yale, 91
  8. Duke, 89
  9. Princeton, 80
  10. Penn, 73
  11. Northwestern, 52
  12. Stanford, 51
  13. U.C. San Diego, 48
  14. Cornell, 39
  15. Temple, 33