One year ago, Columbia fencing's head coach watched his men's squad bring in an Ivy League Championship to the tune of two tie-break situations. Ecstatic from the win, Michael Aufrichtig called the simultaneous wins "the greatest sports moment of my life." But after the success of the 2015 Ivy Championships, Aufrichtig has a new accomplishment that sets the bar even higher.

That accomplishment went into the books on Monday, when both the men's and women's teams earned the prestigious Ivy League Championship. The Lions took ahold of the league's top prize in front of an enthusiastic home crowd and an equally-thrilled head coach.

"At the end of the championship, I sat the team down and reminded them what our goal was this year—to win the men's and the women's Ivy Championships," said Aufrichtig, who is in his fourth season with the team. "And I feel good about it. I can't ask for anything more."

Columbia entered the Ivies strong on Sunday, and after the first three rounds, the women's team sat at a pack-leading 3-0 and the men had a 2-1 record. However, the competition was anything but over. Monday morning, Yale and Penn—and the Cornell women's team— awaited the Lions.

After ending Princeton's 32-match winning streak on Sunday, the No. 1 Light Blue women's squad set its sights on Yale. Junior Margaret Lu continued to dominate in foil as she led the team to a 17-10 win over the Bulldogs. Alongside Lu and sophomore Sara Taffel, junior foilist Jackie Dubrovich continued to steamroll her competition while propelling the women to a strong 20-7 decision over Cornell and a 23-4 win over Penn to seal the deal.

Lu and Dubrovich shared the top spot of all Ivy foilists with 17-1 records on the weekend.

"They are some of the U.S.'s best foil fencers," Aufrichtig said of Lu and Dubrovich. "They were both on the Junior World Team that got gold last year, they're both winning North American Cups—they're champions. This title meant so much to them—they were all in."

For the second year in a row, the No. 2 Light Blue men's team nabbed a share of the championship along with Harvard. Though the Crimson got the best of the Lions on Sunday, Columbia let that be the last of its defeats, going 2-0 on Monday to finish with 4-1.

However, it came right down to the wire, just as it did last year. After a sound 20-7 defeat over Yale, Columbia sought to surpass Penn and clinch a portion of the men's title. Though trailing the Quakers 8-4 early on, the Light Blue picked up speed thanks to quick victories by junior saberist Geoffrey Loss, senior saberist Will Spear, and sophomore foilist Drew Johnston.

"When we were down, one of our team captains, Michael Josephs, got all the men together," Aufrichtig said of the intense round. "I heard him speaking to the guys and get them motivated. Our foil and epee guys were seeing the saber guys fencing so hard, I'm sure that got them motivated."

It all came down to junior epeeist Brian Ro as the Lions were one bout away from securing a share of the Ivy Championship. His Light Blue teammates flooded the mat as Ro got the final touch, ending the four-year drought of dual Ivy titles for Columbia's fencing program.

The men's saber squad sported a trio of veteran fencers, including Loss, Spear, and Josephs, who all earned top-6 finishes in their weapon division by the end of the competition.

"We had this vision, especially with the seniors, four years ago," Aufrichtig said. "And here we are, four years later, and we did it. And that's a great thing."

The Lions are back on the strip Tuesday night for the Historical Meet at NYU, where they will face off against NYU, Sacred Heart, and Vassar.

kelly.reller@columbiaspectator.com | @KellyReller