The Dartmouth Sports Weekly 01/05/15

1. 5. 15

MEN’S HOCKEY HOSTS ANNUAL LEDYARD CLASSIC

BASKETBALL EXCITES TRACK AND FIELD ENJOYS OVER WINTER BREAK EARLY SEASON SUCCESS ALLISON CHOU, KELSEY KITTELSEN, ALISON GUH/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 2

BY THE NUMBERS

Basketball beats buzzers in winter competitions

10 Fall student athletes earned Academic AllIvy Honors

4

MARK WIDERSCHEIN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Strong play by Lakin Roland ’16 leads women’s basketball resurgence.

Shootout saves by Men’s Hockey’s James Kruger ‘15 against the University of Denver.

5 Home wins for the Women’s Basketball team, which remains undefeated in Leede Arena.

10 Men’s Basketball’s Connor Boehm ‘16 lands in the SportsCenter Top 10.

B y Gayne kalustian The Dartmouth Staff

A pair of Sports Center Top Tens and buzzer-beating threepointers color the stories of the Dartmouth men and women’s basketball teams who, each coming off losing seasons, have taken it upon themselves to breathe new life into freshly restructured programs.

During the women’s season opener, a vault by Lakin Roland ’16 in the final moments of the game carried the team into overtime against the New Jersey Institute of Technology, ultimately leading to the Big Green’s first victory.

Roland released the ball quickly after receiving a quarter-court arching in-bounded pass into the paint with .4 seconds on the clock.

The play was listed at number five in the night’s top plays by ESPN .

Just 14 games into their schedule, the women’s basketball team has already won four more games than they had after 28 contests last season.

The Big Green (9-5, 0-0) are taking important lessons away from the early season to carry the team into Ivy play, said head coach Belle Koclanes.

“Every game is a different story,”

Katie McKay ’16 Editor-in-Chief

11. 17. 14

MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 2015

Jessica Avitabile ’16 Executive Editor

she said. “We started our season out in California, and we played three very different teams. A pressing team where they pressed for forty minutes and that gave us an opportunity to work on our press offense and deal with pressure, but then we had a zone team which is the complete opposite.”

Despite being challenged by different styles of play, the team came out of the gates on fire, winning its first four matchups and splitting the fifth and sixth games to end their opening run at 5-1.

A four-game drought followed, and these away game losses left the team at .500 before it would go on yet another four game rampage, ignited by an overtime comeback against Loyola Chicago University.

Dartmouth remains undefeated on its home turf.

Late in the second game and down by 10 points, Roland once

again ferried Dartmouth to success.

Her double-double performance allowed the team to weather Loyola’s runs and finish the game in overtime.

The ebb and flow of the team’s season to date has brought with it more wins than the women’s team has seen since its 2009-2010 season when it picked up 11 wins in 28 games. While the fruits of this labor are sweet, the streaks of losses can remain damaging.

“We can’t be up, up, up when we’re winning and down, down, down when we’re losing,” Koclanes said of the team’s streaky behavior.

“The season is too long, there’s too much to learn, and too much to accomplish.”

If one top ten play wasn’t enough for Dartmouth, the Big Green found itself plastered on televisions across America for a second time over the winter break. Forward Connor Boehm ’16, also profiled in this week’s 1-on-1, sank a buzzerbeating three-pointer for the win against Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, placing him tenth in the Sports Center countdown.

Four of the mens’ twelve games were decided by a single basket.

Dartmouth won two of these games in the closing seconds — the first stolen by Boehm’s three and the second sealed by a last second three-point shot in overtime from co-captain Alex Mitola ’16.

In overtime against Northern Illinois University, Mitola shot 80 percent from outside the arch, scoring all 12 of Dartmouth’s points to lead the Big Green to a 58-55 win.

Mitola is shooting 42.7 percent from three, which places him

among the top 50 three point percentages in Division 1 NCAA men’s basketball, one of only two Ivy League players to rank in the top 50.

Dartmouth’s three-point shooting makes the team a threat to defenses who give the Big Green too much time and space to set up open looks.

The presence of three-pointers, which seem to come in patches for Dartmouth, presents a bigger issue for Dartmouth’s opponents, Mitola said.

“Basketball is a game of runs,” he said. “You gotta stop runs, answer runs and have runs of your own, and the three point shot is huge in that. You hit three threes and you look up and all the sudden it’s a totally different score.”

The men began their now 6-6 season one player down when small forward John Golden ’15 tore his meniscus during practice before the team’s opening game.

Golden didn’t return to the court until the team played Jacksonville State — its eighth game of the season. While his absence was unexpected and unfortunate, Golden said, it gave other players an opportunity to get experience on the court early on in the season.

That experience was emphasized by Mitola, who cited it as a critical element for the team that is looking to balance its inside and outside attack to create a more holistic offense.

The Dartmouth men’s team will put its experience to the test at home against Harvard University for its conference opener, while the women travel to Cambridge to take on the Crimson on Jan. 10.

Justin Levine ’16 Publisher

Luke McCann ’16 Executive Editor

Henry Arndt ‘16 Katie Jarrett ’16 Sports Editors

Jin Lee ’16 Natalie Cantave ’16 Photography Editors

ALLISON CHOU/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The men’s basketball team won five of its last seven games, including a game-winning overtime buzzer beater.

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 2015

Track & field kicks off indoor season

SW 3

THE

RUNDOWN Men’s Basketball SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

HARVARD YALE COLUMBIA BROWN

0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0

8-3 10-5 7-5 7-7

DARTMOUTH CORNELL PRINCETON PENN

0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0

6-6 6-8 5-9 3-7

Women’s Basketball

KELSEY KITTELSEN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

The women’s track team raced toward a second place finish at the Carisella Invitational over winter break.

B y Kourtney Kawano While most Dartmouth students enjoyed some rest and relaxation during winter break, the men’s and women’s track and field teams were hard at work training and competing this December.

Both teams began their indoor seasons at the Boston University Season Opener meet held at the BU Track & Tennis Center on Dec. 6. The nonscoring meet, which featured athletes from Harvard University, Marist College and Northeastern University, had strong finishes by several individuals from the Big Green.

On the men’s side, Phil Gomez ’17 defeated teammate Jules Hislop ’17 to win the 500m race with a time of 1:06:00, besting Hislop’s time by less than half a second. Joe Carey ’15 clocked in at 2:34.46 to earn second place in the 1000m run, while Max Cosculluela ’17 also claimed a second place finish, vaulting 14-11.50 ft/ 4.56 m.

Women’s head coach Sandra FordCentonze said a few female athletes were close to their personal records from last season. The women had solid finishes by Corinne Romano ’15, who placed first in the shot put with a 4110.75 ft/12.77m throw, and Bridget Flynn ’18 who ran the mile race in 5:04.37 for a second-place finish .

“This puts many of them ahead of where they were last season,” FordCentonze said. “Overall, I was pleased with how everyone competed.”

The following week, the multi-event athletes took to the James W. Moore Field House in the Elm City Challenge at Southern Connecticut State University on Dec. 11 and 12 . Nico Robinson ’17 earned second place in the heptathlon with 4,871 points after earning second place in the pole vault (13-1.50 ft/4.0m), third place in the

55m hurdles (8.14) and fourth place in the 1000m run (2:55.76).

The meet showcased the improvement that both he and his teammates have made, Robinson said.

“It’s great to do a heptathlon so early in the season,” he said. “It identified my stronger and weaker events so I can strengthen those and bolster my score.”

In the pentathlon, the Big Green had a strong showing in the ninewoman event. Allison Frantz ’18 finished first with 3,659 points after winning the 55m hurdles (8.40s), 800m run (2:25.75) and the high jump (58.0 ft/1.73m). Miranda Lawson ’17 finished in third with 3,200 points,

“THIS PUTS MANY OF THEM AHEAD OF WHERE THEY WERE LAST SEASON. OVERALL, I WAS PLEASED WITH HOW EVERYONE COMPETED.” - WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD COACH, SANDRA FORD-CENTONZE while Abby Feeney ’17 and Mary Sieredzinski ’17 came in fifth and sixth with 3,111 and 2,904 points, respectively.

Finishing their round of early competitions, the teams traveled to Northeastern University for the Jay Carisella Invitational at the Reggie Lewis Track on Dec. 13. The men finished second overall with 139 points, thanks in large part to 4x400m relay team, which finished in 3:22.43 to edge

out the Northeastern Huskies, and the three additional event victories picked up by Kevin Stanko ’16, Dom Filiano ’14 and Cosculluela. Stanko defeated Holy Cross’ Trevor Dutton in the mile with a time of 4:22.40, while Filiano and Cosculluela came out victorious with a 53-6.25 ft/16.31m shot put throw and a 15-3.00/4.65m pole vault, respectively. Gomez took second in the 500m dash with a time of 1:05.22, and Jeremy Birck ’15 claimed second in the high jump with a jump of 6-6.25 ft/1.99m.

“I was happy with the results,” men’s head coach Barry Harwick said. “Most of the athletes improved between the first and second meets.”

The women also picked up a second place finish with 147 points, trailing the Huskies only by 6.5 points. Kaitlin Whitehorn ’16 earned 10 points for the Big Green with her record-setting performance in the 60m dash with a time of 7.49 seconds. Dartmouth also shone in the 1000m and the mile run with top finishes by Bridget O’Neill ’18 (2:58.61) and Meggie Donovan ’15 (5:03.51). Aliyah Gallup ’17 earned first place in the 800m run in 2:20.79, and Molly Shapiro ’16 won the triple jump with a jump of 38-4.75 ft/11.70m With a strong showing in their opening meets for the 2014-2015 season, the men’s and women’s teams are preparing to host the 46th annual Dartmouth Relays, which will be held Jan. 9-11 at the Leverone Field House.

Events on Friday and Saturday are slated for high school athletes, while Sunday is reserved for the college and professional level.

Running events are set to begin at 8:30 on Sunday morning with the women’s college and open one-mile walk, and field events begin at the same time with the women’s masters high jump, long jump and shot put.

SCHOOL

IVY

OVERALL

PRINCETON DARTMOUTH CORNELL PENN HARVARD BROWN COLUMBIA YALE

0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0

15-0 9-5 8-5 6-4 6-6 4-8 4-8 4-8

Men’s Hockey SCHOOL

ECAC

OVERALL

QUINNIPIAC HARVARD CLARKSON YALE ST. LAWRENCE RENSSELAER COLGATE UNION DARTMOUTH CORNELL BROWN PRINCETON

8-2-0 6-1-2 4-1-2 4-3-1 4-3-0 4-5-0 3-2-1 3-4-1 3-4-1 3-3-0 1-7-0 1-9-0

13-6-1 7-8-4 13-7-2 8-3-2 8-9-2 6-15-1 11-6-1 10-7-2 6-5-2 5-6-2 3-10-0 2-12-1

Women’s Hockey SCHOOL

ECAC

OVERALL

QUINNIPIAC HARVARD CLARKSON PRINCETON ST. LAWRENCE CORNELL YALE DARTMOUTH RENSSELAER COLGATE UNION BROWN

8-1-2 7-1-1 6-2-1 6-5-0 5-3-1 5-2-0 4-4-0 3-5-1 2-6-0 1-6-0 1-7-0 1-7-0

15-1-3 8-2-2 12-6-1 8-8-1 9-7-2 6-6-1 7-7-1 7-7-1 4-13-2 3-15-0 4-13-3 4-11-0

THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY

SW 4

ONE

ON

ONE

WITH CONNOR BOEHM ’16

B y Lily Gordon The Dartmouth Staff

Men’s basketball power forward Connor Boehm ’16 drained a buzzerbeating three-pointer to lead the Big Green to victory against Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne on Nov. 28, earning Boehm a SportsCenter Top 10 play. This week I spoke with Boehm about the ups and downs of the Big Green’s 2014-2015 season, pre-game rituals and becoming an upperclassman on the team.

After starting the season 1-4, you’ve since improved to 6-6 .

What specifically have you been working on? Where do you feel you need the most improvement?

MONDAY, JANUARY 5, 2015

Men’s hockey falls in ledyard final

Do you notice a difference this season as you and your classmates have transitioned to upperclassmen on the team?

CB: We’ve definitely been a young team the past few years, but now we’ve finally matured. There are a lot of juniors and seniors, and then even the lowerclassmen have gotten some playing time to start to mature as well.

At the beginning of the year it kind of showed that we weren’t totally used to playing together and taking on that leadership role as we lost a lot of close games. We’ve started to become more confident in ourselves and as a team so that in the future we can play better together and trust one another out there on the court. Our maturity and our experience will help us along the way the rest of this season, especially in these close games.

CB: We started off pretty slow. As the season goes on, and in the future, Do you have any words of I think we will continue to get better advice you would like to give to at winning close games and learnyour younger teammates? ing to play better as a group. But in the future we really need to just stay CB: For the younger guys on the patient on offense and playing better team I would just constantly remind team basketball, them to go into not relying on practice and “We’ve started to bejust one player to come more confident in practice hard win games. every day. It’s ourselves and as a team definitely a big that in the future we can transition from What does play better together and your typithe high school trust one another out cal practice to college level there on the court.” schedule look and our season. like during the It’s a long grindweek? Is it any ing season. But different over when I was a - cONNOR BOEHM ’16 the winter freshman the jubreak? niors and seniors on the team did CB: We get a lot a great job of of down time up here over the winter teaching us that no matter what, no break. Typically, we’ll practice about matter how much your body hurts, three hours. Depending upon when or you have a big test that day and our game is, we might spend a good don’t want to practice, it’s two hours amount of time watching films of of the day that you just have to grind the other team. We have a lot of guys through and go real hard. this year and have a very deep team, so we love to scrimmage a lot during When you’re not on the court, practices. Things can get pretty comhow do you like to spend your petitive out there, but that’s usually a free time? good sign.

CB: I really like spending time with Do you or any of your teamthe rest of my teammates, just joking mates have any pre-game around, maybe playing some video rituals? games. Over the past few days we’ve all been watching the “Harry PotCB: We all do our own little inditer” marathon on ABC Family. I’m vidual things before games, whether trying to get the guys to watch the it’s just stretching or wearing your “Twilight” one with me on Friday, headphones out there on the court but we’ll have to see about that. We’re playing heavy metal or rap music. We really just normal college students like to kind of go off and do our own who like to hang around and have a thing, but then right before the game good time. we’ll all get down together for one last moment of either prayer of reflection This interview has been edited and and then we’re ready to go. condensed.

KELSEY KITTELSEN/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF

Eric Neiley ’15 and Grant Opperman ‘17 battle for puck control in Thompson Arena.

B y Gayne kalustian The Dartmouth Staff

The Dartmouth Men’s Ice Hockey team doesn’t have any first, second or even seventh round draft picks. Yet it has stacked its schedule with four of seven National College Athletics Association ranked teams this interim — some having an upwards of six players who went in the draft — including the no. 1 Boston University Terriers. In a Nov. 30 upset, Dartmouth shut out the Terriers 2-0, giving the Big Green a victory against the top-ranked team and goalie James Kruger ’16 the second shut out of his career.

The team began the season by tying now no. 4 ranked Harvard University, and the success it has managed to accomplish since then boils down to a few key elements in the Big Green’s back pocket that have come into play.

Kruger, who was plucked from the bench after playing just seven games in two years between the pipes for Dartmouth, took to the crease after Chuck Grant ’16 tore his hamstring. Along with the help of his defense, Kruger has earned himself the fourth lowest goals against average in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (1.89).

Brett Patterson ’16 has proven himself a two-way player who can fill a void wherever it is found. Patterson has bounced between defenseman and forward since his freshman season, and has left the team better equipped to recover when injuries, sickness or other outside circumstances have sidelined critical players like wing Brandon McNally ’15 and defenseman Ryan Bullock ’16. Since moving up top after the first half of the season, Patterson has amassed six points in seven games, including one of the team’s only shorthanded goals, notched against

Sacred Heart University.

Players like Patterson and Kruger fill the Big Green’s roster, alternate captain Eric Robinson ’14 said, and are keeping pressure on players to perform on a daily basis.

“A hidden blessing on our team is our depth,” he said. “It’s been different than years past when some guys might feel a little more comfortable when they’re in the lineup and so maybe they think they don’t have to work as hard in practice or in the games. Now, this year, there’s always that feeling that if you don’t do your job then there’s going to be someone that’s ready to step in.”

But the final element Dartmouth needs in order to contend with toptier teams is to take the pieces that it has on the roster and put them together perfectly. It’s not enough to create a good lineup with alright chemistry — lineups with the best cohesion and team awareness create a great hockey team.

The Big Green has been showing, in an almost unquantifiable manner, a growing sense of harmony — position anticipation, puck awareness and effective team transitions, as opposed to individual movement, were particularly on display most recently against the University of Denver.

It is this kind of growth that makes a team increasingly dangerous as the season unfolds, head coach Bob Gaudet said, when individual skill sets for star players have been mostly determined, but ice time as a team continues to add value for teams who have been waiting to click.

“I see that kind of mental discipline of knowing how to play the way we want to play,” he said.

“We’re playing good hockey teams.

We’ve found a workman-like way to generate shots and play good, solid defense. We’re playing the game the

right way.”

The team did take two losses against then no. 15 ranked Quinnipiac University and currently no. 15 ranked Boston College, both coming after third period rallies by their opponents and, in Quinnipiac’s case, an overtime goal. This loss, however, was not disheartening to first line left wing Brad Schierhorn ’16, who said the team played the game they wanted to play up until they began to falter near the end.

“I think we’ve played our best stretch of hockey these last five games,” Schierhorn said in an interview before the Ledyard Classic this past weekend. “As far as the Quinnipiac game goes, we were definitely in that game. We just didn’t have a very good third period and then they scored in overtime.”

That kind of finish loomed over the championship game of the Ledyard Classic against the Boston College Eagles,who scored both of their goals in the third period. Wins and losses, however, aren’t the topic of concern circulating the locker room, two-time captain and first line center Tyler Sikura ’15 said.

“I think in some of the losses last year we just didn’t play very hard or well,” Sikura said. “This year we’ve been playing really well, and we’ve just been playing very good teams.

So as far as a conversation about needing to bounce back [from this loss], there won’t be one.”

While Dartmouth has been playing much better hockey than Hanover has seen in the recent year, these finer points, like sticking through the final period and capitalizing on the somewhat unsatisfactory power plays, will need to be addressed if the team is to crash through the barrier that has perennially frustrated teams at the tipping point — the barrier between being good and being great.