Perennial state power Columbia returned to championship form to capture the Santelli Tournament title last night at the Morristown Armory in Morristown.

Columbia displayed the strength and balance that was a hallmark of the program in its six previous titles since the tournament adopted the full three-weapon format in 2001. It used gold medals in foil along with a silver in sabre and a seventh-place finish in epee to edge second-place Bernards by two points to earn its first Santelli title since 2009.

Gov. Livingston finished third overall.

Columbia coach Ibtihaj Muhammad credited the victory to the team’s coupling of hard work and talent.

“Every weapon, every member of this team stepped up today,” Muhammad said. “No team in the state prepares as hard as these fencers prepare. The conditioning, the hard work, in tournaments like this, that all comes out and you can see the effort that these fencers put in to succeed.”

At the point of Columbia’s victory was its foil line, which lost only three bouts on the day, and made a strong statement - at least until the state playoffs - that it is the best in the state.

The line of Samantha Viqueira, Najiyyah Clark, Marissa Viqueira and Camille Pham was unstoppable in the final pool - with sophomore Samantha Viqueira reprising her undefeated performance at last year's Santelli, while younger sister Marissa matched her sister's feat as a freshman.

Bernards earned silver in the weapon, while the bronze medal was captured by Fair Lawn.

In sabre, the trio of Elysia Wang, Katie Khaw and Celine Demorre secured the schools first Santelli gold with a powerful performance, pushing past second-place Columbia and third-place Livingston.

“I think we all worked together as a unit,” Khaw explained. “When we got to the final pool, our opponents were really on. Everyone in that pool is at such a high level, but our C strip, Celine Demorre, really stepped it up and that was the difference for us.”

Epee came down to a dramatic fence-off for gold between Ridge and Lawrenceville. The Lawrenceville trio of Naina Sahrawat, Aahana Chatterjee and Adrienne Yang came away with a 2-1 victory and the gold medal, while Bernards finished with the bronze.

For Lawrenceville senior Naina Sahrawat the victory was particularly sweet.

"This is the exact same group of girls that finished sixth (in epee) last year," Sahrawat said. "Coming into the tournament, we knew we had all worked hard and gotten better since then and we believed we could improve on last year. It's nice to win this as a senior. I am telling everyone about it, and it's nice to know that the squad will be good next year as well with the rest returning."

2014 Santelli Final Results

Place Team Saber Foil Epee Total 1 Columbia 2 1 7 10 2 Bernards 7 2 3 12 3 Governor Livingston 4 9 4 17 4 Watchung Hills 5 11 5 21 5 Livingston 3 14 6 23 6 North Hunterdon 15 8 8 31 7 Montgomery 18 6 11 35 8 The Pingry School 21 5 16 42 9 Mendham 20 7 18 45 10 Morris Hills 6 20 20 46 11 Ridge 33 12 2 47 12 Ramapo 13 21 17 51 13 Indian Hills 14 15 24 53 14 Montclair 8 38 9 55 15 Academy Of The Holy Angels 12 13 30 55 16 West Windsor Plainsboro South 9 19 31 59 17 Millburn 16 28 15 59 18 West Essex 32 16 14 62 19 Oak Knoll 11 18 34 63 20 Hunterdon Central 26 24 13 63 21 Voorhees 22 10 32 64 22 Fair Lawn 35 3 29 67 23 Newark Academy 28 4 35 67 24 West Windsor Plainsboro North 1 29 40 70 25 Wayne Hills 34 27 12 73 26 Teaneck 29 23 21 73 27 Princeton 31 33 10 74 28 Randolph 30 22 22 74 29 Bergen Tech 10 26 39 75 30 Wayne Valley 24 30 27 81 31 Morris Knolls 27 32 26 85 32 Lakeland 19 35 33 87 33 Chatham 25 41 23 89 34 West Milford 23 42 25 90 35 Gill St. Bernard’s School 38 36 19 93 36 Somerville 37 31 28 96 37 Morristown 17 44 37 98 38 Montclair Kimberley Academy 41 25 41 107 39 Moorestown Friends School 40 34 38 112 40 Northern Highlands 36 40 36 112 41 Butler 39 39 42 120 42 Passaic Valley 42 37 43 122 43 West Morris Central 43 45 44 132 44 The Lawrenceville School 17 1 45 Stratford Classical Christian Academy 43

Results generated by Fencing Time v4.02 tournament software

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Complete Results of both the Santelli and Cetrulo tournament can be found here