04.15.19
Pucks in Deep: Hard to Catch Lightning p. 6 Track and field dominates in only home meet of spring season p. 7 Baseball scoring and giving up runs at an alarmingly high rate p. 8
Women’s lacrosse upsets No. 9 Penn after second-half comeback p. 5 JOHN AND MATT RISLEY/COURTESY OF THE DARTMOUTH ATHLETICS DEPARTMENT
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MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2019
THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY
The weekend Roundup
Baseball
Compiled by Eric Vaughn
m lacrosse After defeating Binghamton University in Hanover on March 16, the Big Green has slid into a six-game losing streak extending into this week. After a close 12-11 home loss to Hartford University, Dartmouth suffered a disappointing 13-4 loss to Princeton University. George Prince ’21 and Ben
Martin ’20 were bright spots, as Prince recorded three goals and notched two assists across the two games and Martin had a fantastic game against Hartford with five goals and one assist. The Big Green look to bounce back next Saturday against the University of Pennsylvania.
W lacrosse Following its loss to No. 17 Princeton University, the Big Green bounced back for an impressive 15-11 comeback victory against the University of Pennsylvania, the top team in the Ivy League standings prior to this match. Penn had a 6-4 lead at the end of the first half, but Dartmouth rallied behind the efforts of Ellie Carson ’20 and Campbell Brewer
’19, with Carson scoring four goals and Brewer adding three. Dartmouth outscored Penn 11-5 in the second half. Kellen D’Alleva ’19 also had an impressive showing with a goal and five assists. With this victory, the team is 8-4 going into its final three games before the Ivy league tournament. The Big Green will play Vermont on Tuesday and Cornell University on Saturday.
MICHAEL LIN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
The Dartmouth baseball team won the series 2-1 this past weekend against Brown University.
The Dartmouth baseball team traveled to Rhode Island for a three-game series against Brown. The Big Green split Saturday’s games, winning the first 6-4 and dropping the second 136. Matt Feinstein ’19 and Ubaldo Lopez ’21 had strong offensive showings, with each homering in two games this weekend. The Big Green clinched the series on Sunday with a score of 7-5 behind Justin Murray ’22’s strong performance on the mound over seven
innings. Murray gave up just two runs on four hits, with three strikeouts to top it off. Steffen Torgesen ’19 had three of Dartmouth’s 10 hits with a double, a run and an RBI, and Nate Ostmo ’19 homered to help seal the deal. The series win moves Dartmouth to 11-18 overall and 5-7 in Ivy play. The Big Green faces Middlebury College on Tuesday and has a big weekend series at home against Harvard University.
Rowing Zachary ZacharyBenjamin Benjamin’19 ’19
Debora Hyemin Han ’20 Editor-in-Chief Editor-in-Chief Editor-in-Chief
Hanting Hanting Guo Guo ’19 ’19
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Ioana IoanaSolomon Solomon’19 ’19
04.15.19 Vol.CLXXV CLXXVI No. 4.30.18 4.23.18 Vol. Vol. CLXXV No. No. 27 2116
Amanda AmandaZhou Zhou ’19 Alex Fredman ’20 ’19 Executive Editors Executive Editors Executive Editor
Luke Gitter ’21 Mark Cui ’19 Justin Kramer ’21 Justin Kramer ’21 Samantha Hussey Lili Stern ’22 ’20 Associate Sports Editor Sports Editors Sports Editors Divya DivyaKopalle Kopalle Kopalle’21 ’21 ’21 Divya Michael MichaelLin Lin Lin’21 ’21 ’21 Michael Photography PhotographyEditors Editors Editors Photography Jaclyn Jaclyn Eagle Eagle ’19 ’19 Hattie Newton ’21 Templating TemplatingEditor Editor Editor Templating
Despite strong performances against Harvard University in the Biglin Bowl, the lightweight rowing team fell just short. In the first Varsity 8, Dartmouth finished with a time of 5:34.5, two leagues and six seconds behind Harvard. The Dartmouth second Varsity 8 finished with a time of 5:43.5, second out of the three boats competing. The heavyweight rowing team faced its toughest test of the season in two-time defending national champion Yale for the Olympic Axe on Saturday. Despite a solid performance from the Dartmouth first Varsity 8, Yale finished 11 seconds ahead with a time of 5:32.1. The second Varsity 8 for the Big Green put up a good fight
but was narrowly beaten by 5.6 seconds. In its only home match of the season, the women’s rowing team impressed with wins in all four races. Dartmouth’s first Varsity 8, stroked by Sophie Stone ’21 and coxed by Katie Erdos ’20, won by more than seven seconds with a time of 6:18:21, and the second Varsity 8 won by more than 10 seconds with a time of 6:36:31. Next weekend, the women’s team travels to South Carolina to compete in the Clemson Invitational, the heavyweights travel to Boston University for the Bill Cup, and the lightweight team travels to Yale for the Durand Cup and then Columbia for the Subin Cup.
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THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY
track and field
tennis
NATALIE DAMERON/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
The men’s tennis team beat Brown on the road and Yale at home. The Big Green has won 11 of its last 13 matches.
On Friday, the No. 39 men’s tennis team rallied to topple Brown University 4-3. The No. 7-ranked team of Charlie Broom ’20 and David Horneffer ’20 led the way with a 6-1 victory in the No. 1 spot and Peter Conklin ’21 and Pierce Widdecombe ’22 won their match at the No. 3 spot. After falling 3-2 following Brown victories in singles, Sid Chari ’22 and John Speicher ’21 won their respective matches to clinch the victory for the Big Green. The men’s team built off of their strong showing to defeat Yale University 4-1 the next day, improving to 14-6 overall and 3-1 in Ivy play. The men’s team looks to continue its strong
play against Columbia and Cornell University, both of which are 4-0 in Ivy League standings. Despite strong singles performances, the women’s team narrowly lost to Brown on Friday 4-3. After the Big Green dropped both doubles matches, they needed something big in singles. Racquel Lyn ’20, Abigail Chiu ’21 and Chuyang Guan ’20 won their respective matches at the 1, 2 and 5 spots, but it wasn’t enough, as Brown took the 3, 4 and 6 spots. Dartmouth fell to Yale on Sunday 4-0, dropping to 3-16 overall and 0-5 in Ivy play. The women to get back on track next weekend against Columbia and Cornell University.
softball The Big Green was swept by Harvard in its weekend series, dropping to 6-23 overall and 3-9 in Ivy play. All three games were extremely close, with a margin of two or fewer points. Shelby Wilkison ’21 and Madie Augusto ’22 pitched well in the first game, allowing just five hits all game between the two of them. The second game saw strong offensive performances from Micah Schroder ’20 and Taylor Ward ’19, who homered twice and once respectively. Despite strong efforts, a grand slam by the Crimson in the first inning and a three-run
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11th inning clinched the win for Harvard. In the third game of the series, Dartmouth battled back in the seventh inning to put the game within one run, but ultimately fell to the Crimson 4-3. Wilkison had another strong outing on the mound, allowing just two earned runs on two hits over 4.1 innings. Ward and Schroder built off their Saturday performances with two hits and three RBIs between the two. Dartmouth travels to Ithaca next weekend to take on Cornell in a three-game series.
Men’s and women’s track and field had an impressive weekend at home against the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, the University of Vermont and the University of Hartford. Six athletes for the men’s team took the top spots in their events to lead the Big Green to a first-place finish with 181 points. Lucas Ribeiro ’19 won the discus, Andrew Palermo ’22 won the hammer throw, Ben Ose ’19 won the long jump, Greg Crowley ’21 won the 3000m steeplechase, Shawn Ohazuruike ’20 won the 110m hurdles and Julien Hinz ’22 won the 800m. This string of firstplace finishes was augmented by top three performances by Ethan Ruh ’19 and Palermo in the discus, Corbin Mayes ’21 in the pole vault, Ben Matejka ’21 in the 3000m steeplechase, Issac Weber ’22 in the 1500m, Thomas Lingard ’22 and Nick Feffer ’21 in the 800m, MJ Freeman ’21 in the 100m and a second place finish by the 4x100m relay team. In an overwhelming performance, the women’s team took the top spot in 14 of the 15 individual events, finishing with 235 points to convincingly win the meet. Amelia Ali ’19 won the
hammer throw, Rachel Donner ’22 won the shot put, Lily Lockhart ’21 won the discus, Maria Garman ’19 won the javelin, Julia Valenti ’20 won the pole vault, Olivia Goodwin ’21 won the long jump, Camille Landon ’21 won the high jump, Breanna Glover ’22 won the 1500m, Danielle Okonta ’20 won the 400m hurdles, Eliza Dekker ’19 won the 800m, Caroline Walter ’21 won the 400m, Nicole DeBlasio ’19 won the 200m, Cha’Mia Rothwell ’20 won the 100m hurdles and the 4x100m relay team took the top spot. Additionally, the women’s team had a run of second and third place finishes. These include Alexandra Collins ’19 in the hammer throw, Lockhart in the shot put, Donner in the discus, Brooke Brunet ’21 and Goodwin in the pole vault, Rothwell in the long jump, Zoe Dainton ’22 in the high jump, Margaret Tuthill ’20 and Julia Stevenson ’20 in the 1500m, Grace Thompson ’19 and Georgia Fear ’20 in the 800m, Elizabeth Wilson ’22 and Kathryn Laskoski ’21 in the 400m as well as Walter and Wilson in the 200m. Next weekend, the Big Green will compete at meets in Princeton, NJ, Charlottesville, VA, and Boston, MA.
Sailing This weekend, the sailing team won second place out of 13 teams in the Women’s Team Race National Invitational at Brown University, and took 13th out of 17 in the Thompson Trophy at Connecticut College. A squad of five seniors and one junior travelled to Providence, where they won 14 out of 19 races. The only team that finished in front of
the Big Green was Brown. Next weekend, Dartmouth will compete in the New England Women’s Championship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the George Morris Trophy at Boston University, the Admirals Cup at U.S. Merchant Marine Academy Kings Point and the Boston Dinghy Cup at Harvard University.
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THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY
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Tuesday BB vs. Middlebury, 4:00 p.m. WLAX @ Vermont, 4:00 p.m. All Weekend MGOLF @ Ivy League Championship WGOLF @ Ivy League Championsip WTRACK @ Virginia Challenge WTRACK @ Larry Ellis Invitational WTRACK @ Carisella Invitational MTRACK @ Virginia Challenge MTRACK @ Larry Ellis Invitational MTRACK @ Carisella Invitational Saturday LROW @ Yale (Durand Cup) HROW @ Boston University (Bill Cup) BB vs Harvard, 11:30 a.m. WTEN @ Columbia, 12:00 p.m. SB @ Cornell, 12:30 p.m. MLAX @ Penn, 1:00 p.m. WLAX vs Cornell, 1:00 p.m. MTEN vs Columbia, 1:00 p.m. SB @ Cornell, 2:30 p.m. BB vs Harvard, 3:00 p.m. Sunday LROW @ Columbia (Subin Cup) BB vs Harvard, 12:00 p.m. WTEN @ Cornell, 12:00 p.m. SB @ Cornell, 12:30 p.m. MTEN vs Cornell, 1:00 p.m.
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THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY
Women’s lacrosse upsets No. 9 Penn after second-half comeback “All of our games have been close games, even the ones that The Dartmouth Staff have ended in losses,” head coach The No. 24 women’s lacrosse Danielle Spencer said. “We’ve team used a second-half scoring played a lot of great competition, run to earn a signature win of its so I’m really pleased with where season against the No. 9 University we’re at.” of Pennsylvania. Down 7-4 one After an early Penn goal extended minute into the second half, the Big the Quakers’ lead to three, the Big Green went on an 8-1 run to gain Green found its offensive rhythm the lead and win the game with a and went on two four-goal scoring score of 15-11. runs. In less than nine minutes, L a s t s e a s o n , t h e Q u a k e r s Dartmouth erased the three-goal defeated Dartmouth in two close deficit and took a commanding games. The Big Green lost 13-11 12-8 lead. Penn closed the gap in the regular season and 16-14 in to three goals with just over four the Ivy League Semifinals. Heading minutes remaining, but the Big into this year’s game, these losses Green withstood the challenge and were on the mind of the Big Green secured its seventh win in its last players. eight games. “It wasn’t as much revenge as it “Our team played a full 60 was unfinished business,” attacker minutes of lacrosse, which is pretty Kierra Sweeney ’19 said. “We had hard to do,” Sweeney said. “Penn two pretty sad losses to them by two is a great opponent and we have goals last season, so we just wanted a pretty strong rivalry with them. to come back and show them how They’re a top-10 team, so it’s really much we’ve improved.” exciting to beat them.” Saturday’s win marked the Big One week removed from a tough Green’s first win over Penn since loss to Princeton University, the 2016. Each of the last four games Big Green responded to its first between the rivals was decided by Ivy League defeat with its most two goals or fewer. impressive result of the season. “The last “Princeton was time we beat “Penn is a great obviously super Penn was my disappointing, but freshman year, opponent and we we are riding on so it’s been a few have a pretty strong our second half,” years running Giroux said. “We rivalry with them. now,” midfielder came out on fire Kathryn Giroux They’re a top-10 in that half and ’19 said. “We’ve team, so it’s really beat them in seen them so pretty much all much, we know exciting to beat of the statistical them really well, them.” categories.” so we’re excited Spencer said to come out s h e w a s h a p py and beat them -KIERRA SWEENEY ’19 with the team’s finally.” performance The Big against Princeton Green battled its way through because the g ame was close a low-scoring first half. Sophia throughout. Turchetta ’20 found the back of “T he g ame could’ve gone the net twice, but Dartmouth only either way, so we haven’t lost our recorded four goals in the opening confidence,” she said. “We just have 30 minutes and entered halftime to focus on the small details of what down by two goals. we want to do a little better on both Playing in close games is nothing ends of the field.” new for Dartmouth, so the halftime Sweeney called the turnaround deficit was far from insurmountable. from the loss to Princeton to the
B y addison dick
LORRAINE LIU/THE DARTMOUTH STAFF
Saturday’s win over Penn moves the Big Green into a tie for first place with Cornell, their opponent next weekend.
win over Penn an “impressive feat.” “Obviously, we wanted to win against Princeton, but we learned a lot,” Sweeney said. “It was a tough loss, but we were able to make the adjustments and come out and play super hard and gritty against Penn.” The Big Green relied on its strengths to dominate the Quakers in the second half. One of the team’s greatest attributes is its ability to gain draw control. After losing seven of 11 draws in the first half, Dartmouth had 10 draw controls to Penn’s seven in the second half. The Big Green used the draws to maintain possession and begin its scoring spree. Giroux has been dominant on the draw for the Big Green. She has over 300 draw controls in her career, ranking 13th all-time in the NCAA. “The more possessions you can get on attack, the more opportunities you get to score,” Giroux said. “The draw is a huge momentum shifter. If we keep winning the draw, the other team doesn’t have a chance to score.”
Another strength of the Big Green this season has been the t e a m ’s d e p t h . O n S at u rd ay, seven different players scored for Dartmouth. Attacker Ellie Carson ’20 led the team with four goals, and attacker Kellen D’Alleva ’19 had a game-high six points. “We have a lot of depth this year, which we haven’t always had in the past,” Giroux said. “In any given game, there could be 10 different scorers, which makes us a really hard team to scout.” Penn is the highest-ranked team in the Ivy League, but the Big Green has faced tough competition this season. The team opened the year on the road against Northwestern University and the University of Michigan and played on the road at No. 1 Boston College. “Our players feel battle-tested, and that helps ease the nerves going into the game,” Spencer said. “We feel like we’ve got some good games under our belt.” Giroux noted how the tough schedule has helped the team play well against Ivy League opponents.
“Part of the thought of making our schedule so tough at the beginning was to prepare us for our most important Ivy games,” she said. The Big Green will look to build momentum as it concludes the regular season. Sweeney said Saturday’s win gives the team confidence heading into the final two weeks of Ivy League play. D a r t m o u t h w i l l t r ave l t o play non-conference opponent University of Vermont on Tuesday before playing its final home game of the season on Saturday against Cornell University. The following weekend, the Big Green will wrap up the regular season with a matchup at Yale University. “We have a few more tough opponents, but I think we can come out with a win against all of them,” Giroux said. The Big Green is hoping that the win will increase its chances of making the NCAA Tournament come May. The team boasts an 8-4 record with a 4-1 mark in conference play.
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Pucks in Deep
with Sam Stockton ’19 Pucks in Deep: Hard to Catch Lightning In a late regular season rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference Finals, the Tampa Bay Lightning hosted the Washington Capitals on March 20. Tied 3-3 late in the second period, Tampa went to a man-advantage. On the power play, Lightning forward Steven Stamkos got his stick in the way of Caps defenseman Matt Niskanen’s clearing attempt, directing a onetouch pass to center Brayden Point along the halfwall. Point zipped a pass to left wing Ondrej Palat as he drove the net, giving Palat an unobstructed path to goaltender Braden Holtby. Yet, rather than take a shot, Palat dropped a no-look pass to Stamkos. Like Palat, Stamkos declined what appeared to be a prime scoring opportunity, opting to send a pass to Nikita Kucherov, just above the goal line along the wall. Kucherov, the National Hockey League’s leading scorer whose 128 points marked the highest total the league has seen since 1996, dropped to a knee and defied the seemingly impossible angle to fire a shot into the gaping net. With each pass, another Washington penalty killer scrambled only to find that the puck had already been passed. By the time the puck found the back of the net, Holtby lay sprawled across the crease with no chance whatsoever to make a play on Kucherov’s shot. While this string of passes certainly deserves individual commendation, it truly epitomizes the style of play that Tampa
THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY
rode to an NHL record 62-win regular season. Even at five-on-five, Tampa’s play in the offensive zone is devastatingly effective, as players are constantly circling and looking for the open man. If you are prone to dizziness, I wouldn’t recommend watching their puck movement with the extra man — and when Tampa has a power play, it’s not even a competition. On the heels of their recordsetting regular season, the Lightning now appear to be one of the best teams of the salary cap era. They have the league’s toprated power play and penalty kill, and utilized their special teams dominance to exploit the tendencies of NHL officiating. NHL referees generally shy away from blowing their whistles in an attempt to keep the number of power plays for each team roughly approximate, especially during the playoffs. Tampa takes advantage of this with their aggressive style, taking penalties while also receiving power plays, turning the game into a special teams competition in which they know they have a distinct advantage. Their netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy posted a dominant .925 save percentage, but a glance at their backup Louis Domingue’s numbers offers a better insight into just how good the 2018-19 season was in Tampa. Domingue registered a rather pedestrian .908 save percentage, and yet, he still won 21 of his 26 games played. That figure is a testament to the dominance of the Lightning’s group of skaters. Kucherov leads the Lightning attack, and is one of the league’s best snipers and playmakers. However, the Lightning did not rack up a league-leading 3.89 goals-per-game soley behind Kucherov’s strong play. T he Lightning have steadily assembled a deep roster of elite players; in fact, the roster is so impressive, it’s drawn outrage from other fan bases who claim the Lightning have an unfair salary cap advantage because of Florida’s lack of state income tax. No, the Lightning did not build the deepest roster in the league off a tax loophole. It does help players see a bit more of the dollar figure when
they actually sign a new deal, but the Lightning are not alone in this regard. Several other NHL teams play in states with no income tax, and players pay taxes in the states they play in. Lightning players don’t get off scot-free. In fact, Tampa’s success stems from their talent identification, reflecting a keen attunement to the game’s direction. While other teams squandered high picks on players based on their size, the Lightning recognized that the combination of speed and skill would best guide them to the top of the NHL table. Take Point as an example. Many NHL scouts focused on Point’s weight, just 166 pounds, rather than his excellent production in junior hockey for the Western Hockey League’s Moose Jaw Warriors, and he fell all the way to the late third round. Beyond talent evaluation, Tampa has successfully created a winning culture, as players are willing to accept below-market deals in favor of building a better roster. Point’s restricted free agency this summer will act as a test to this culture. Stamkos set a precedent by inking his deal at a below-market rate, and Tampa’s other stars followed suit. So far, Tampa’s front office has successfully signed Stamkos, Kucherov, Vasilevsky and reigning Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Victor Hedman to long-term deals significantly slighter than the ones they would have been offered on the open market. If this were the English Premier League, we would already be talking about the Lightning as one of the great teams in the history of the sport. Instead, the Lightning’s season will be evaluated not based on the 82-game sample size that is the regular season, but instead on the two-month, loosely regulated chaos that is the Stanley Cup playoffs. To deem the Lightning’s season a success or failure based on whether they capture the Cup for the second time in franchise history is not entirely unfair. After all, it is almost certain that the Lightning will do so. However, as we settle in to enjoy the year’s most frantically
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entertaining hockey, let’s not forget just how impressive Tampa’s regular season campaign was. More so than any other American sport, NHL games are decided by razor thin margins — shots that nick the inside of the post and go in, goaltenders who stand on their heads during an opposing onslaught, the bizarre bounces of a rubber baseball with the top and bottom sawed off. To see the league’s top team felled by a cellar dweller is not entirely out of the ordinary. Amidst this chaos, the Lightning were the league’s most dominant team from start to finish, leading the league with a +98 goal differential. The second best mark in the league? Calgary, all the way back at +66. It took just two games of postseason play for their regular season domination to give way to playoff desperation. The Lightning jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in game one of their series with the Columbus Blue Jackets, and it looked as though the Bolts would face little resistance taking down the East’s wild card. Then, the Jackets stormed back for a 4-3 win and dominated two nights later for
a 5-1 win to take a 2-0 series lead. To make matters worse, Kucherov threw a reckless hit that earned him a meeting with NHL player safety and a one-game suspension. This is not to say that the Lightning are doomed. The Caps trailed the Jackets 0-2 going back to Columbus in last year’s first round series and rallied to win four straight and eventually the Cup. But both games were extremely close, and the Caps roster was also at full strength as they made their run. This is the way of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Wherever there appears certainty, it is an illusion. To see the Lightning look mortal, — let alone in dire straights just two games into their quest to re-take the Cup — is astonishing, especially given their dominant regular season. Whether they rally from this deficit or flame out in spectacular fashion, it’s crucial to recognize how special this Tampa season has been. Remember that when they inevitably shred some poor penalty kill with crisp, one-touch, tape-to-tape passes. Remember that when their year ends in a handshake line — whether as the victors or the vanquished.
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THE DARTMOUTH SPORTS WEEKLY
Track and field dominates in only home meet of spring season B y gretta pickett The Dartmouth
Gray skies and less-than-ideal temperatures did little to quell the Dartmouth track and field teams’ success in their first and only home meet of the outdoor season. The combined efforts of the Dartmouth women earned them first place overall with 235 points, nearly twice as many points as secondplace University of Vermont. The Dartmouth men also secured first place with 181 points, a 27-point lead over Vermont. Taking place on Friday, the Dartmouth Outdoor Invitational offered many athletes a chance to improve their marks and gain confidence going into the upcoming conference and regional meets. One-two finishes seemed to be all the rage for the Dartmouth throwers, led by a pair of personal bests by Andrew Palermo ’22 and Myles Schreck ’22. Palermo took first place in the hammer throw with a mark of 55.18m, improving his record by nearly six meters. Schreck’s throw of 53.01m in the same event earned him second place behind Palermo. On the women’s side, Amelia Ali ’19 and Alex Collins ’19 also took first and second in the hammer throw, earning a total of 16 points for the women’s team. Lucas Ribeiro ’19 and Ethan Ruh ’20 did the same in men’s discus, as did Lily Lockhart ’21 and Rachel Donner ’22 in women’s. Donner and Lockhart reversed their finishing order in the shot put, earning first and second respectively. Maria Garman ’19 took first in the javelin. Olivia Goodwin ’21 also ended the day with a handful of personal bests. They won the long jump with a leap of 5.63m and took third in the pole vault with mark of 3.85m. Two other Dartmouth women also jumped 3.85m, with the win going to Julia Valenti ’20 after a jump off. The women’s high jump ended in a similar fashion with a jump off between Camille Landon ’21 and Zoe Dainton ’22. The pair both cleared 1.65m with the same number of attempts at previous bars;
however, Landon won the jump off at 1.68m to take first place in the meet. The two commented on the nature of competing against a teammate and training partner. “I think that even though we’re teammates, we’re still pretty competitive with each other,” Dainton said. “It’s a lot of fun competing with [Landon]... I want her to succeed just as much as I myself do.” Landon said that the jump off required “a different competitive mindset” because it gave her and Dainton a chance to take attempts at higher heights. “If I had cleared a bar, I also wanted [Dainton] to clear that bar so that we could continue the jump off,” she said. “I think if it were another situation, and I weren’t competing against my teammate, I might just prefer to clear a height that they didn’t clear.” Another champion was Greg Crowley ’21, who walked away from the meet feeling well after winning the men’s steeplechase in 9:22.60. Crowley’s time tied his personal best of two years and made him excited for the upcoming season. “Having not steeplechased in two years, I was pretty happy with how it went,” Crowley said. “Being able to tie my [personal record] for the first time running the event in two years was a really good start to the season. I know I can take off a lot of time and run much faster under better conditions.” Breanna Glover ’22 led a pack of six Dartmouth women in the first heat of the 1500m to win in 4:34.74, a personal best. After the race, Glover commented on the transition from running the 1600m in high school (as most high schools across the country do) to running the 1500m in college. “This was my first 1500m of college because I’m a freshman, and this is the shortest race I’ve done since high school,” she said. “The 1600m was always my event, and there’s something really great about four laps because it’s really easy to break it up.” Later in the day, Nicole DeBlasio ’19 added 18 points to the women’s
team score with wins in the 100m and 200m races. Her contribution was one of many track events the women won as the team also raced to victory in the 400m, 800m, 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles. Caroline Walter ’21, Eliza Dekker ’19, Cha’Mia Rothwell ’20 and Danielle Okonta ’20 won those races respectively. Julien Hinz ’22 won the men’s 800m while Ryan Cashman ’22 and Shawn Ohazuruike ’20 took first in the men’s triple jump and 110m hurdles, respectively. Competing at home can be a different but welcoming experience, especially for the track and field team, which is used to travelling by bus or flying to meets on weekends.
Assistant coach Tim Wunderlich described the experience. “Sleeping in your own bed and being on your home facility and being really familiar with it helps people to relax, resulting in some really good performances,” he said. However, some athletes said that competing at home made the meet seem almost too similar to practice. “It’s pretty nice to be able to come out of your house in the morning and walk straight over to the track for a meet, but also it’s kind of a tough mental thing to break through switching it onto meet mode rather than just practice mode,” Ruh said. Ben Ose ’19, who won the long jump, offered a different perspective
about competing at home. “It’s awesome,” he said. “We don’t get a lot of opportunities to compete here at Dartmouth, so you have to cherish each one of them. It’s always fun to have some of our friends come support the track team.” The Big Green is roughly three weeks away from the 2019 Ivy League Heptagonal Championships which will take place on May 4 and 5 at Princeton University. The New England Championships will occur the following weekend and several athletes hope to qualify for regional and national meets. Pickett is a former member of the Dartmouth track and field team.
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SPORTS
Baseball scoring and giving up runs at an alarmingly high rate B y Baily Deeter
of those 10 games and gave up more than 10 just once in a 12-3 loss to the University of Texas at San Antonio. While the pitching did its part during Many people criticize baseball for being a slow-paced game without a lot of that stretch, the offense was ineffective. scoring. Scores like 3-1 and 4-3 are very Dartmouth didn’t score more than six common at all levels, and Major League runs even once in its first 15 games, which Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred was largely to blame for the team’s 5-10 has been trying to increase the number start. Since then, the offense hit its stride. of runs scored since he took office. But lately, the Dartmouth baseball team has It has scored nine runs or more in seven found itself in more high-scoring affairs of their nine games from March 23 to with scores that would be more common April 6, even breaking the 20-run mark in football games than baseball games. twice. “We’re really talented offensively Sometimes these offensive explosions have favored the Big Green while other this year,” Ubaldo Lopez ’21 said. “Our times they have come at Dartmouth’s lineup is deep. Even the guys we bring expense. Dartmouth beat Princeton off the bench keep driving in runs.” Even amidst the offensive explosion, University 23-3 and Columbia University 23-1 earlier in conference Dartmouth finds itself at 5-8 during that 13-game stretch. play, but it has also That’s largely due to lost high-scoring “On offense, we don’t recent struggles on affairs by scores really get as tired. the mound. Before of 23-9, 16-10 taking two out of and 21-15 against There’s a big drop-off three games against C o l u m b i a , from the top pitchers. Brown University College of the this weekend, the Holy Cross and Pitchers start to make Big Green had the University mistakes, and if you surrendereddoubleof Pennsylvania, make a mistake as digit runs in seven of respectively. its nine previous “If you do this a pitcher, you go games, including as long as I have, from hitting a spot to five consecutive you’re going to defeats. be on both sides leaving balls down the The recent shift in of [those types middle.” pitching and hitting of games] more performance came than a couple right at the start of of times,” head -UBALDO LOPEZ ’21 Ivy League play, coach Bob which might not Whalen said. be so coincidental. As Whalen indicated, every team inevitably has Twelve of Dartmouth’s last fourteen good and bad games, but the nature of games have been against other Ivy the team’s games is especially noteworthy League opponents, as it plays a new given the way that the Big Green started conference foe each weekend in an the season. In its first 10 games, all against exhausting three-game series over the non-league opponents, Dartmouth span of the two days. “There’s no conference in the thrived on the mound and defensively. It surrendered three or fewer runs in half country other than the Patriot League The Dartmouth Staff
MICHAEL LIN/THE DARTMOUTH SENIOR STAFF
Dartmouth pitchers have struggled down the stretch, giving up double-digit runs in several games.
that fits 18 innings into one day,” Whalen said. The way the Ivy League season is formatted wears on all teams equally, but one possible explanation for the recent flurry of offense could be that the tiring season wears on the pitchers more than the hitters. “On offense, we don’t really get as tired,” Lopez said. “There’s a big dropoff from the top pitchers. Pitchers start to make mistakes, and if you make a mistake as a pitcher, you go from hitting a spot to leaving balls down the middle.” While teams can obviously substitute their pitchers regularly, there are only so many that can stay fresh when the team is playing 27 innings of baseball in two days. Dartmouth also had a few fourgame series in the span of three days earlier in the season, but the team had plenty of time to rest between them. However, Ivy League play started abruptly and without much rest after spring break due to a change in the
schedule that was implemented before the 2018 season. Before that season, Dartmouth and other Ivy League teams would play four games in a weekend, either a four-game series or two against one opponent and two against another. One game each day was seven innings and another was nine, totaling a whopping 32 innings over the course of a weekend. The Ivy League season was completed in five weekends, whereas the season now takes seven weekends. “We had to open up at Princeton straight from the spring trip without having all of our pitchers [rested],” Whalen said. “Everybody’s in the same boat, but it’s just a different dynamic.” With every Ivy League opponent making do with tired pitchers, it’s only natural that we’ve seen so many offensive outbursts. In the MLB, the league average for runs scored per game in 2018 was 4.45. While that low number is partially due to the use of less powerful wooden bats in contrast to alumnium
bats in college, a lot of the difference in runs scored is due to the increase in quality pitchers and the depth of MLB pitching staffs and bullpens. This allows teams to keep their most talented pitchers rested throughout the season, whereas college teams may not have as many quality arms in the rotation. Even in comparison to lower levels of baseball though, Dartmouth’s recent games have been high-scoring. “They’ve been more high scoring than I was used to in high school,” Bryce Daniel ’22 said. After its fourth weekend of Ivy League play, Dartmouth is past the halfway point and has three more weekends to try to earn a spot in the Ivy League Championship as a top-two team in the conference. If the first half of conference play was any indication, the next few weeks will consist of exciting baseball as the Big Green look to climb back into the race for the Ivy League crown.