May 9, 2006
Four-time All-American fencer Emma Baratta has been awarded a prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, one of 58 winter sports student-athletes in the nation to be honored. She is Columbia's first honoree since men's soccer player Dean Arnaoutakis in 2004-05.
Candidates must have an overall grade-point average of 3.200, and must have performed with distinction as a member of a varsity team. After nomination by faculty athletics representatives, candidates are screened by seven regional selection committees, and selected by the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Committee.
Baratta, co-captain of the 2005-06 Columbia fencing team, has compiled a 3.902 grade-point average in psychology in Columbia College. She will graduate later this month with highest honors, summa cum laude.
The Somerville, New Jersey, resident was honored for her academic accomplishments May 4 at Columbia's Varsity C Celebration, when she received the Marion R. Philips Watch as the senior female student-athlete with the best cumulative academic record.
"Emma Baratta is the quintessential student-athlete," head fencing coach George Kolombatovich said. "For someone to be a team captain, a four-time All-American, and the winner of the Marion R. Philips Watch is not just exemplary, it is beyond exemplary."
Baratta is one of the finest fencers in not just Columbia, but Ivy League history. In her first year with the Lions, she won her first 41 bouts, the best ever by a Lion first-year fencer, and finished the regular season 41-1. She was undefeated in the Ivy League with a 12-0 record.
She went on to similar success as a sophomore and junior; culminating with an overall mark of 43-5 her senior season, when she was a perfect 18-0 in the Ivy League. Her career record during the regular season was 152-13; her Ivy League career record was 49-2.
First team All-Ivy League three different times, Baratta was first team All-American in 2004, when she finished fourth in the NCAA Championships, and 2006, when she was third in the NCAA. She twice was second team All-American, in 2003 and 2004. She placed fifth in the NCAA Championships in 2003 and eighth in 2004.
A veteran of national and international competition, Baratta is a member of the United States Fencing Association's U.S. National Women's Sabre Team. She earned a gold medal as a member of that team at the prestigious Grand Prix World Cup in Moscow.
