POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y.—Led by Gold Medal performances from senior Iman Blow in women's foil, junior Anne Cebula (BC) in women's epee and sophomore Sidarth Kumbla in men's foil, along with Silver Medals from junior Andrew Doddo in men's sabre and junior Sam Moelis in men's foil, the No. 2 ranked Columbia Fencing program captured six total medals and automatically qualified nine fencers for the NCAA Championships at Sunday's 2019 Northeast Regional held at Vassar College's Walker Field House.
 
Columbia hosted the one-day, eight-hour event which featured 210 fencers competing in six weapons from 18 Northeast Regional institutions. All results from Sunday's competition are posted at this link.
 
Upon entering the day, Columbia's goal was to automatically qualify 12 fencers for the NCAA Championships. Only 12 fencers per team can qualify for the NCAA Championships (maximum of two fencers in each weapon, per gender.) It was announced Thursday that Columbia successfully has a squad of 12 heading to Cleveland.

"The Northeast Region is my least favorite tournament," Columbia Head Coach Michael Aufrichtig said. "The region is always very strong, i's always close and that's what happened today. We send out our best fencers, they try their best. Men's and women's foil dominated. Men's and women's epee and sabre fought for every touch and scrapped for everything. It's one of those tournaments that it's hard to get too excited about. Everyone will get some recovery and we'll prepare for the NCAA Championship."

"We had a very young team here at regionals," Aufrichtig continued. "Junior Anne Cebula won the epee for the first time, Andrew Doddo, a junior at his first regionals, did very well. A lot of our freshmen qualified. It shows our great depth and it also shows the future of Columbia Fencing moving forward. The great thing about regionals is that we walk away with 12 qualifiers: that was the goal. Now we get ready for Notre Dame and Penn State, a couple of other schools qualified 11 or 12 fencers. Everything starts over in the NCAA Championships."

Columbia overqualified in three events: men's foil, women's foil and women's sabre.
 
Columbia dominated the men's foil competition as three Lions qualified for NCAA Championships led by sophomore Sidarth Kumbla, who captured the Gold Medal and first place finish, junior Sam Moelis, who earned the Silver Medal in second place and senior Nolen Scruggs, who finished in fourth place.
 
Also in women's foil, the Lions put up a dominant showing as senior Iman Blow won the Gold Medal and placed first, sophomore Sylvie Binder earned the Bronze Medal with a third place finish and junior Ester Schreiber (BC) came in fourth place. Two of the three Lions will compete at the NCAA meet.
 
In women's sabre, three Lions qualified and placed in the top-8 as junior Violet Michel placed fourth, first-year Daniella Timofeyev finished fifth and first-year Nora Burke took eighth. Two of the three Lions will compete at nationals.
 
Columbia automatically qualified just one fencer in women's epee: junior Anne Cebula, who captured the Gold Medal and finished in first place. First-year Karolina Nixon, who entered the weekend as the No. 2 seed, finished in 13^th place and has a good chance to qualify.
 
Columbia qualified one fencer in men's saber as junior Andrew Doddo earned the Silver Medal and finished in second place. Doddo entered the competition as the No. 1 seed. Senior Calvin Liang finished just outside of qualifying in ninth place.
 
In men's epee, junior Mick Yamanaka qualified for nationals with a fifth place finish, while first-year Teddy Lombardo placed ninth and entered the weekend as the No. 1 seed. He has an opportunity to advance to nationals.
 
In all, 20 Columbia fencers competed in Sunday's event. Complete Columbia results and placings are listed below.
 
Qualification for the NCAA Championship is based on a formula comprising a 60 percent weight on regional performance and 40 percent regular-season meets. The top eight fencers in all events except women's sabre (nine qualifiers) will qualify for nationals, with a maximum of two fencers per team in each event. The next two regional finishers are put into the at-large pool. Two total at-large spots in the epee, foil and sabre for both men's and women's competitors will be awarded.
 
No qualifiers are official until the NCAA's announcement on Tuesday, March 12 when NCAA Championship selections are announced. The NCAA Championships are scheduled to place at the Cleveland State Wolstein Center in Cleveland, Ohio on March 21-24.
 
Fencers representing 18 Northeast Regional schools competed on Sunday: Boston College, Brandeis, Brown, CCNY, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Hunter College, LIU Brooklyn, MIT, NYU, Sacred Heart, St. John's, Tufts, Vassar, Wellesley, Yale and Yeshiva. The Northeast Regional is one four regional competitions including the Mid-Atlantic/South (Lafayette College, Easton, Pa.), Midwest (Notre Dame, South Bend Ind.) and West (UC San Diego, La Jolla, Calif.).
 
COLUMBIA'S 2019 NORTHEAST REGIONAL RESULTS
Saturday, March 10, 2019 | Walker Field House | Vassar College | Poughkeepsie, N.Y. CHAMPIONSHIP
 
Women's Sabre (top-9 qualify, max 2 per team)
4. Violet Michel (CC)
5. Daniella Timofeyev (CC)
8. Nora Burke (CC)
 
Women's Foil (top-8 qualify, max-2 per team)
1.Iman Blow (CC)
3. Sylvie Binder (CC)
4. Ester Schreiber (BC)
 
Women's Epee (top-8 qualify, max 2 per team)
1. Anne Cebula (BC)
13. Karolina Nixon (CC)
16. Giana Vierheller (SEAS)
18. LeeAnn Choy (CC)
 
Men's Sabre (top-8 qualify, max 2 per team)
2. Andrew Doddo (CC)
9. Calvin Liang (CC)
14. Josef Cohen (CC)
15. Dawson Sieradzky (CC)
 
Men's Foil (top-8 qualify, max 2 per team)
1.Sidarth Kumbla (CC)
2. Sam Moelis (CC)
4. Nolen Scruggs (CC)
 
Men's Epee (top-8 qualify, max 2 per team)
5. Mick Yamanaka (CC)
9. Teddy Lombardo (CC)
22. Cedric Mecke (CC)