Thursday, March 3, 2011
Cougar boys edge Montclair in state final
For the second straight season, the Cougar boys fencing squad can call themselves perfect. The locals completed a 16-0 run with a state championship win over Montclair, 14-13, claiming their second consecutive state title and their 33rd victory in a row at Morris Hills High School on Wednesday night. Devon Good lived up to his last name’s billing and delivered a 3-0 performance in the epee, culminating with the winning point over Montclair’s Brian Farley, 5-3. “Honestly I was in awe. Because personally, last year we were here and I went 0-2 and that really crushed me. That was my fuel all day,” Good said. “The key this year was definitely depth because we had a lot of freshmen who stepped up, John Kirk, Jared Lebron and Max Gould. They …
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Columbia boys fencing tops in the state once more.
In the biggest moment of the year, with a perfect season and a state championship on the line, the Columbia boys fencing team turned to its biggest stars—and they delivered. On Tuesday night at Morris Hills High School, the top seeded Cougar fencing squad edged the second seeded Bernards boys 15-12, en route to claiming its fourth state championship and first since 2007. Holding a 13-12 lead, just one point away from the win, senior co-captain epee fencer Mathew Gibson stepped up and claimed a 5-1 victory over David Howes, ending a late comeback attempt by the Mountaineers. "If anything I was energized," Gibson said, responding to whether he was nervous or not. "I thought it would come down to epee and I just ran with it. It feels awesome…
Friday, February 19, 2010
Cougar fencers eliminated from states by Governor Livingston.
After steamrolling through the Mounties on Tuesday and earning a convincing victory over Governor Livingston earlier in the season, there's no way the Columbia girls fencing team could've ever imagined what took place on Thursday night. But the Highlanders came into The New Jersey Fencing Alliance on Thursday evening and handed the Cougar girls their first loss of the season, eliminating them in the round of eight in the state playoffs, 14-13. Despite going 7-2 in the sabre behind three wins from defending state sabre champion, Faizah Muhammad, the Cougars lost 6-3 in the foil and 5-4 in the epee. The Columbia girls also went 0-3 in bouts which went to overtime. In the foil, Columbia's A-strip, Rachel Viqueira, was a perfect 3-0, but she …
Monday, February 1, 2010
Cougar fencers take first place in the District 3 Championships
The Columbia boys and girls fencing teams remained perfect on the season, taking first place overall in the District 3 Championships on Sunday at Wayne Valley High School. For the boys, it was their first title in six years, and for the girls, it was their seventh district championship over the last eight seasons. Columbia's top foil fencer, Brian Kaneshige, led the way for the boys who scored 70 points, between its first place finish in the foil and sabre, along with a fifth place in the epee. Individually for the boys, Kaneshige was the district champ in the foil for the third consecutive time in his high school career, going 7-0. His teammate Geoff Marino went 5-2 as the runner up in the district at foil. In the sabre, two other …
Friday, January 22, 2010
Columbia boys and girls teams improve to 10-0.
The Columbia boys and girls fencing teams both improved to 10-0 this season with wins over West Morris Mendham- on Thursday night at the New Jersey Fencing Alliance, in Maplewood. The Columbia girls prevailed 16- 11, in what was billed to be a very big contest, with both teams ranked among the top 10 in the state. The Cougar boys won 17-10. On the girls' side, the Cougar girls won all three rounds and two of the three weapons, including a 7-2 mark in the sabre, behind a 3-0 performance from Faizah Muhammad. In the foil, A-strip fencer, Rachel Viqueira, won all three of her matches to carry the foil team to a 5-4 win. "This has been our toughest meet so far," said Columbia girls head coach Ibtihaj Muhammad of an extremely formidable …
Monday, January 11, 2010
Columbia boys fencers edge Montclair, girls take second.
The Columbia boys fencing team fell on the right side of a tiebreaker against Montclair on Saturday at the Cetrulo Tournament at Morris Knolls High School, and claimed the tournament championship for the first time since 2007. Columbia finished with 26 points, tied with Montclair for first, but won the tiebreaker because of finishing in first place in the foil, behind a tremendous effort from defending state champion Brian Kaneshige. Against Hunterdon Central, Kaneshige was handed a 10-1 deficit, in a rally scoring format. The and b strip fencers had managed just one touch combined in the first two matches. However, Columbia's a-striper was up to the challenge, and out-touched his opponent 12-2 in three minutes, to come away with the 13-12…
Leslie Gilman
12:29 pm on Thursday, March 4, 2010
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