NEW YORK—The Columbia men's and women's fencing teams registered consecutive wins over NJIT, Stevens and Johns Hopkins as the program hosted its own Columbia Invitational Friday evening at Dodge Fitness Center. Both Lions teams improved to an undefeated 4-0 in dual matches this year.
 
It was a dominant three matches for the Columbia Women's Team as it outscored its opponents 69-12 on the evening and claimed 26 out of 27 foil bouts. Leading the women's squad was Sylvie Binder and Ester Schreiber, who both went 9-0 in foil and Iman Blow, who put together an 8-1 evening. The men's team, which was missing several fencers, still kept its opponents at bay and held off a challenging NJIT team. A variety of fencers on the men's side saw action.
 
"We were expecting to win all three matches as a team, that was the plan," Columbia Fencing Coach Michael Aufrichtig said. "We wanted to give a lot of playing time to the new first-years and the sophomores we haven't seen as much. We gave everyone a chance to fence in this one. Really, it's a way to warm up and get ready for the main season in January."
 
"We knew that some of the teams would be very strong, particularly NJIT. They are a balanced team, so going in, we felt they would be the strongest team. Stevens' men's epee was very strong and Johns Hopkins is slowly getting better as well."
 
Aufrichtig was very pleased with the way both teams responded to adversity.
 
"I'm not sure why, but a lot of times we were down today, sometimes it was 4-2, sometimes 4-0, 3-1 and they fought back to win," he said. "James Bourtis, one of our first-years in foil, literally his whole first round was coming back. The next round, he was winning 5-0, 5-0. It was great to see him do well. It was great to see our women's foil team do well. They lost just one match tonight. I was just very happy with our team performance overall and very happy with our first-years and what they did."
 
COLUMBIA WOMEN'S RECAP
 
Columbia opened the evening with a commanding 26-1 victory over NJIT. The Lions dominated from the get-go taking an 8-1 lead in foil as Sylvie Binder and Ester Schreiber both went 3-0. The Lions claimed the last 23 bouts, going 9-0 in both sabre and epee to claim the win. Anne Cebula, Karolina Nixon and Valentina Boss each contributed three wins apiece in epee to secure the win.
 
A 20-7 win over Stevens in match two saw the Lions jump out to another 9-0 lead in foil with three wins apiece by Binder, Schreiber and Iman Blow. Columbia claimed five of the nine sabre matches, including three by Nora Burke, then concluded the match with wins in each of its last five epee bouts.
 
In Columbia's final 23-4 win over Johns Hopkins, the Lions got off to a fast 9-0 start in foil as Sylvie Binder, Iman Blow and Ester Schreiber all finished 3-0 in bouts. The Lions secured the victory in sabre as Daniella Timofeyev went 3-0 in bouts. LeeAnn Choy and Anne Cebula each finished 3-0 in epee.
 
COLUMBIA MEN'S RECAP
 
Columbia got the evening off to a strong start with a 15-12 win over NJIT. The Lions' performance on foil capped the win as they captured eight of the nine bouts. Nolen Scruggs and Siddarth Kumbla both won all three bouts, while Sam Moelis captured two. After the Lions won four of the nine sabre bouts, Columbia sealed the team victory when Mick Yamanaka captured the team's 14^th bout in epee.
 
The Lions followed that performance up with a 16-11 win over Stevens. Columbia won 15 of 18 foil and sabre bouts to win the match before the epee started. Andrew Doddo won all three of his sabre bouts.
 
Columbia closed out the evening with a 17-10 win over Johns Hopkins. The Lions won seven of nine sabre and six of nine epee bouts.
 
"On the men's side, we were missing two fencers in epee," Aufrichtig said. "They are both some of our big guns. Mick Yamanaka, who was one of our starters last year, also only fenced in one round due to some injuries. Our depth in our epee did enough for our team to win today." 
 
As a team, Columbia is back in action on January 13, 2019 at the Penn State Invitational. Several Lions will compete in various international competitions in December.
 
COLUMBIA INVITATIONAL TEAM RESULTS/SCORES
Dodge Fitness Center, New York, N.Y., November 16, 2018
Columbia Women 26, NJIT Women 1
Columbia Men 15, NJIT Men 12
Johns Hopkins Women 14, Stevens Women 13
Johns Hopkins Men 17, Stevens Men 10
Columbia Men 16, Stevens Men 11
Columbia Women 20 Stevens Women 7
NJIT Men 19, Johns Hopkins Men 8
Johns Hopkins Women 16, NJIT 11
Columbia Men 17, Johns Hopkins Men 10
Columbia Women 23, Johns Hopkins Women 4