Fencing Heads to NCAA Northeast Regionals

Sunday, March 8

Ithaca, N.Y./Barton Hall

9:00 AM

Columbia University

NCAA Northeast Regional

Photo by: Mike McLaughlin

3/5/2020 10:00:00 AM | Fencing

Live Results & Seeding Regional Championship Central Barton Hall Information Barton Hall Directions 2020 NCAA Regional Manual (PDF)Cornell Campus Maps 2020 NCAA Fencing Championships Columbia Northeast Regional Roster (PDF)Columbia Fencing Columbia Fencing Roster Columbia Fencing Schedule

Twenty-four Lions to compete in individual competition Sunday at Cornell; Andrew Doddo (men’s sabre) and Daniella Timofeyev (women’s sabre) are No. 1 seeds.

ITHACA, N.Y.—Twenty-four Columbia-Barnard fencers are headed to Cornell University for the 2020 NCAA Northeast Regionals on Sunday at Barton Hall. The defending national champion Lions are sending the maximum number of qualifiers, 24, to the strips to face off against the region's best during the one-day, eight-hour event. The regional features athletes from 18 different schools and the bouts begin at 10 a.m. ET. Admission is free.

Follow along with live results from the Northeast Regional here. Seedings are also listed at that link. A full NCAA Regional Central is posted at this link. NCAA qualification and dates are posted at this link.

Two Columbia fencers will enter the weekend as No. 1 seeds: Daniella Timofeyev (women's sabre) and Andrew Doddo (men's sabre). Also entering the weekend with high seeds are Ester Schreiber (women's foil) and Sidarth Kumbla (men's foil) with No. 2 seeds, Maria Chart (women's sabre), Natalie Minarik (women's foil), Sam Moelis (men's foil) all with No. 3 seeds, Violet Michel (women's sabre) with a No. 4 seed and Christopher Walker (men's sabre) and Cedric Mecke (men's epee) both with No. 5 seeds. The Lions boast depth at all six positions including three of the top-4 women's sabre competitors, two of the top-3 women's foilists, and three of the top-6 men's foilists.

Columbia also returns the national champion at women's epee in Anne Cebula, the national runner-up at men's epee in Teddy Lombardo and a total of six returning All-Americans including Sidarth Kumbla (men's foil), Karolina Nixon (women's epee), Doddo and Moelis.

Sunday's Northeast Regional marks the start of postseason fencing for the highly ranked Lions' squads. The Men are sitting in the No. 1 spot in the College Fencing 360 Coaches Poll, while the women are also tabbed at No. 2 in the nation. The next coaches' poll will be announced later this week.

Columbia is looking to build on regular season momentum as the Lions' women's team won its third consecutive outright Ivy League Championship with a perfect 6-0 record and finished 20-5 overall in dual matches, while the men's squad finished second at the Ivy League Round Robins with a 5-1 record and also went 20-5 in dual matches.

NCAA Northeast Regional competition helps determine the qualifying fencers for the NCAA Division I National Championship, which will take place in the TCF Center (formerly Cobo Center) in downtown Detroit, Mich. from March 19-22. Columbia hopes to send 12 fencers to Detroit. Only Columbia's top two fencers for each of the six weapons (three men's and three women's) can qualify for the National Championships. In the end, the qualifiers are determined by a formula based on 60 percent weight on regional bouts and 40 percent weight on regular season results. No qualifiers are official until the NCAA's announcement on Wednesday, March 11 when NCAA Championship selections are posted.

On the journey to claiming its 16^th all-time national fencing championship, Columbia won three Gold medals and two Silver medals at the 2019 Northeast Regionals. Gold medalists included Iman Blow (women's foil), Anne Cebula (women's epee), and Sidarth Kumbla (men's foil) and Silver medalists were Andrew Doddo (men's sabre) and Sam Moelis (men's foil). Four of those five fencers return to the 2020 Lions. The Lions ended up qualifying the maximum 12 fencers for the NCAA Championships for the fifth consecutive year. Here is a recap from last year's NCAA Northeast Regional.

Competing teams in the NCAA Northeast Regional include Boston College, Brandeis, Brown, CCNY, Columbia-Barnard, Cornell, Harvard, Hunter, Long Island, MIT, NYU, Sacred Heart, St. John's, Tufts, Vassar, Wellesley, Yale and Yeshiva.

The Northeast Regional is one four NCAA regionals as the others include: Mid-Atlantic/South Region (host Duke, Durham, N.C.), Midwest Region (host Detroit Mercy, Detroit, Mich.), and West Region (host Air Force, Colorado Springs, Colo.)

COLUMBIA'S NCAA REGIONAL QUALIFIERS AND COMPETITORS FOR SUNDAY

Women's Sabre (9 fencers qualify for nationals)
No. 1 seed Daniella Timofeyev
No. 3 Maria Chart
No. 4 Violet Michel
No. 36 Ally Wolf

Women's Foil (8 fencers qualify for nationals)
No. 2 seed Ester Schreiber
No. 3 Natalie Minarik
No. 7 Rachel Zhang

Women's Epee (9 fencers qualify for nationals)
No. 6 seed Karolina Nixon
No. 9 Giana Vierheller
No. 10 Anne Cebula
No. 11 LeeAnn Choy
No. 15 Ariana Joy Mangano

Men's Sabre (9 fencers qualify for nationals)
No. 1 seed Andrew Doddo
No. 5 Christopher Walker
No. 11 Josef Cohen
No. 12 Dawson Sieradzky

Men's Foil (8 fencers qualify for nationals)
No. 2 seed Sidarth Kumbla
No. 3 Sam Moelis
No. 6 Ashton Daniel
No. 10 Andrew Zheng

Men's Epee (8 fencers qualify for nationals)
No. 5 seed Cedric Mecke
No. 6 Teddy Lombardo
No. 14 Alan Temiryaev
No. 20 Sacha Schouker