The Columbia High School Boys fencing team won its third consecutive overall District 3 title
Sunday at Wayne Valley. The Cougar’s boys 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 boy’s squads brought home medals. Sabre (Andrew
Kelly, Stowe Hammarberg and, Dan Hefley) and foil (Jared LeBron, John Kirk, Basile Antoine)
earned gold medals. The boy’s epee squad (Max Gould, Bryn Hammarberg, Evan Accardi)
finished second and earned the silver medal.

In the individual sabre competition, the Cougar boys 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 girl’s side, Columbia was edged out, 70-69, in the overall competition and took home silver for the second year in a row. The girls foil squad (Rachel Viqueira, Najiyyah Clarke, Chloe Fogelson) and sabre squads (Alex Viqueira, Holly Barszcz, Celia Accardi) both finished second while the epée squad (Haley Hart, Nicole Mee, Alexis Auer) won the bronze.

Senior captain Rachel Viqueira won her first individual gold medal in foil while Senior, Captain Haley Hart 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: Max Gould, Stowe Hammarberg, Dan Hefley and Andrew Kelly for the boys and Alexis Auer, Holly Barszcz, Najiyyah Clarke, Haley Hart, Alex Viqueira and Rachel Viqueira for the girls.