CLEVELAND, OHIO- Saturday marked the first day of women's bouts at the 2019 NCAA Fencing National Championships in Cleveland, Ohio.  Columbia has maintained its No. 1 position in the team standings through each of the three days of competition.  
 
Currently, the Lions have earned 143 points, with 48 still up for grabs through rounds four and five tomorrow.  Penn State and Notre Dame are close behind with 139 and 135 points respectively.
 
Sunday's schedule begins with the fourth round of bouts at 9 a.m.  The semifinals and finals bouts will begin at 1 p.m. and will be streamed live on ESPN3.
 
Women's Epee Recap:
The women's competition began with round one of the epee bouts featuring Anne Cebula and Karolina Nixon.  Cebula, coming off her individual win at the Northeast regionals two weeks ago, found herself in the No.13 spot with a 8-7 record through the three rounds of competition.  First year Karolina Nixon tabbed a 9-6 finish to the day, earning her the No. 8 spot on the leaderboard. 

Epee competition through the first day was clumped together.  Seven of the top 10 fencers have a 9-6 record, meaning that the indicators (touches scored versus touches received) played a large factor in the seeding after the three rounds.  Only four bouts won separate the leader from Cebula in the 13th spot.
 
Women's Foil Recap:
Historically, foil has been the strongest squad for Columbia fencing, and today was no exception.  Sylvie Binder, this year's Ivy League foil champion,  finished the day in the No. 4 spot of the leaderboard, earning Columbia 12 of a possible 15 points. Binder is sitting right ahead of returning individual foil champion, Iman Blow. Blow returned to the strips for her final NCAA national championship and found herself matching the 12 wins of her teammate, but due to the indicator tiebreaker, claimed the No. 5 spot for women's foil through the first three rounds.   
 
Tomorrow, Binder and Blow will face fencers from Ohio State, Yale, St. John's and Northwestern.  
 
Women's Sabre Recap:
At the end of the 15 rounds, Nora Burke grabbed eight wins for the day, earning her the No. 12 spot.  Daniella Timofeyev struggled to connect, taking home a 4-12 record and the No. 21 place on the leaderboard.  The sabre squad will face off against Stanford, Northwestern, Cornell, Yale and Duke tomorrow in the fourth and fifth rounds. 
 
Women's Round 3 Results:
Epee:
8- Karolina Nixon
13- Anne Cebula
 
Foil:
4- Sylvie Binder
5- Iman Blow
 
Sabre:
12- Nora Burke
21- Daniella Timofeyev