One sport has a long, proud tradition at Columbia, the other is the youngest of the school’s varsity teams. But both fencing and squash achieved noteworthy success during the 2014-15 winter season, success that propelled the two programs into the national spotlight.
For the 14th time in Columbia fencing history, the Lions captured the combined men’s and women’s NCAA National Championship in a three-day competition in Columbus, Ohio, on March 20-22. Nine Columbia fencers earned All-America honors, led by Jake Hoyle ’16, who won the NCAA individual title in men’s epee, and Margaret Lu ’16, who placed second in women’s foil.
Brian Ro ’16, who tied for third place in men’s epee, joined Hoyle and Lu as First-Team All-Americans. Anastasia Ivanoff ’18 (women’s sabre), Jackie Dubrovic ’16 (women’s foil) and Harry Bergman SEAS’16 (men’s foil) earned Second Team honors, while Lena Johnson BC’18 (women’s sabre), Mason Speta ’17 (women’s epee) and Adam Mathieu ’16 (men’s foil) received Honorable Mention.
The victory at the Nationals capped a brilliant season in which Columbia’s men’s and women’s teams swept the Ivy League fencing championships, hosted by Columbia on February 8-9. It was the 36th Ivy crown for the men’s team, which equaled Harvard’s 4-1 record in the round-robin format to successfully defend its Ivy title and finished with an 18-6 match mark. The women won their ninth Ivy crown by beating all six of their opponents and finished with a stellar 25-1 record that earned Ivy Women’s Coach of the Year honors for Michael Aufrichtig, who became Columbia’s head fencing coach in 2011.
Just one year earlier, squash had begun competition as Columbia’s newest varsity sport, and this season both the men’s and women’s teams showed they could excel at the sport’s highest level.
The men’s team finished fourth nationally in the Potter Cup (A Division) of the 2015 CSA National Championships at Hartford, Conn., on Feb. 20-22. One week later, competing for the Pool Trophy (A Division) at the CSA Individual Nationals in Princeton, N.J., Osama Khalifa ’18 won four consecutive matches before bowing to Ahmed Abdel Khalek ’16 of Bates in a five-set thriller to determine the national champion.
The women’s team, meanwhile, earned its first-ever berth in the eight-team field that competed for the Howe Cup (A Division) at the CSA Nationals at Cambridge, Mass., and was ranked as high as seventh nationally.
Men’s squash, which compiled a program-best 13-4 overall record including a 6-1 mark for second place in the Ivy League behind 7-0 Harvard, swept the individual Ivy honors. Ramit Tandon ’15, who posted a 13-1 record, was named Ivy Player of the Year; Khalifa, whose match record was 20-2, was named Rookie of the Year; and Jacques Swanepool, who has coached Columbia squash since it became a varsity sports, was named by his peers as Coach of the Year.
Tandon also received the 2015 Skillman Award, a national honor that is given annually to a senior men’s squash player who has demonstrated outstanding sportsmanship during his college career.
