CHS boys' fencing team wins third straight district title

Photo by Bill Viqueira.

The Columbia High School boys’ fencing team won its third consecutive overall District 3 title Sunday Jan. 29 at Wayne Valley. The Cougars dominated the district tournament with a 73-victory performance, beating second-place Gov. Livingston and Millburn by 14 wins. Both finished with 59 victories.
In addition to the overall title, all of the boys’ squads brought home medals: Andrew Kelly, Stowe Hammarberg and Dan Heffley lead the sabre unit to gold. Jared LeBron, John Kirk and Basile Antoine also lead the foil unit to gold.
The boys’ epee squad of Max Gould, Bryn Hammarberg and Evan Accardi finished second and earned the silver medal.
In the individual sabre competition, the Cougars took two out of the top three spots. Senior captain Andrew Kelly won his first individual gold medal in sabre while senior Stowe Hammarberg won bronze. Max Gould took bronze in the individual epee competition.
On the girls’ side, Columbia was edged out, 70-69, by Livingston in the overall competition and took home silver for the second year in a row. The girls’ foil squad of Rachel Viqueira, Najiyyah Clarke and Chloe Fogelson, and the sabre squad of Alex Viqueira, Holly Barszcz, Celia Accardi both finished second while the epée squad of Haley Hart, Nicole Mee and Alexis Auer earned the bronze.
Senior captain Rachel Viqueira won her first individual gold medal in foil while Hart, a senior captain, won silver in epee. Sophomore Alexandra Viqueira took bronze in the highly competitive girls’ sabre.
As a result of their outstanding showing in the District Championships, the Cougars qualified 10 fencers to compete in the State Individual Championships, including Gould, Hammarberg, Heffley and Kelly for the boys and Auer, Barszcz, Clarke, Hart, Alex Viqueira and Rachel Viqueira for the girls.