Ivy League Sports

In the 1993 yearbook, Columbiana, volleyball players Penny Schneider CC and Traci Coburn CC wrote:

What we will remember most will be the accomplishments made off the court: establishing women’s volleyball as an exciting, worthwhile team to the Columbia campus, establishing women’s volleyball as a legitimate sport to the athletic administration who had traditionally shadowed women’s athletics, and establishing Columbia volleyball as a respected, competitive team in the Ivy League. The knowledge of these accomplishments along with the memories of all the players from all four teams will last a lifetime.

Crew members Katie Burton BC and Naomi Ko BC agreed, saying rowing has become a way of life for the varsity athletes. . . . It dictates when we sleep and what we eat. In some ways crew restricts us, but it gives us back something that is twice as good in terms of quality and satisfaction. The intensity is what makes rowing so precious. . . . There is nothing in the world like riding back to campus after the hardest workout of your life and sharing that sense of accomplishment with your teammates.

The benefits these individual students perceived in their athletic experiences at Columbia seem to validate the program’s organizational maturity. In the fall of 1996, Columbia became the first Ivy League institution to receive full “certification” from the NCAA, based on an assessment of the athletic program’s fiscal and academic integrity, governance, rules compliance, and a commitment to equitable opportunities. One of the factors cited in the certification was the school’s commitment to the continued growth of women’s athletics through the elevation of three sports — field hockey, lacrosse, and softball — from club to varsity level, implemented from 1996 through 1999.

An area of particular accomplishment in both individual and team competition in the 1990s occurred in cross country and track and field. Senior Susannah Kohn’s CC first-place finish and new course record helped Columbia to its first victory at the Seven Sisters cross country championships in 1991. In 1994, Janet Fu BC won the Metropolitan indoor 5,000-meter race, and the team again won the Seven Sisters championship. Under new head coach Karen Reardon, an assistant to former coach and recently appointed associate athletic director Jacqueline Blackett, Teri Martin CC won the triple jump in the 1995 Heptagonal outdoor championships — a first in school history. Other performances resulted in new school records in the decade. In 1996, Martina Brosnahan BC set the Columbia indoor 5,000-meter record with a winning time of 17:58.56 at the Metropolitan Championships, and in 1997, Emily Carey BC broke her school record in the high jump by clearing 5-feet-6.5-inches at the Heptagonal outdoor championships, earning the school’s first-ever title in the event.

Columbia, along with Penn and Yale, had dominated Ivy League fencing in the 1980s — the three schools won all eight titles in the decade — and the 1990s proved to be no different, as Columbia and Yale each won four titles and Penn was right behind with three. Led by coaches George Kolombatovich and Aladar Kogler, Columbia teams captured NCAA team titles in 1992 and 1993. In 1990, Tzu Moy CC became the second Columbia fencer to win an individual NCAA title, and Ann Marsh CC took second place in individual NCAA competition in 1993.

In tennis, Lise Abrams BC won the singles title at the New York State Tournament in 1990, while Janette Kizer BC and Radhi Majmudar CC won the doubles competition. In 1991, Kizer won the singles title and became the first Columbia woman to earn All-Ivy status in the sport.

One of the Ivy League’s most outstanding athletes of the decade was Columbia swimmer Cristina Teuscher CC, a member of the gold medal-winning 800-meter freestyle relay team in the 1996 Summer Olympic Games and a two-time NCAA champion. (Story, page 132) Teuscher’s impact extended throughout the team, which finished a record-high fifth at the 1997 EWSL championships, marking the highest finish in school history. Teuscher, Rachel Strong CC, Lyssa Robert CC, and Jen White CC combined that year to win the vaunted 400-yard freestyle relay race, the first time a Columbia foursome had won the event.

Success continued in 1999 as the Lions posted a winning (4-3) record in Ivy League dual-meet competition for the first time ever. In addition to Teuscher, Columbia’s Olympians of the period included fencers Caitlin Bilodeaux, who competed in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, and Ann Marsh, who competed in both the 1992 Barcelona and the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. Columbia and Barnard athletes also competed in the 1990s in soccer, volleyball, basketball, diving, field hockey, lacrosse, and softball. Field hockey and lacrosse, which had been recently elevated to varsity status, played full Ivy schedules for the first time in 1997-98, while softball officially will join the Ivy League during the 1999-2000 academic year.