Squash Takes First in Vassar Team Challenge
The men’s and women’s squash teams headed to Vassar for the Vassar Team Challenge over the weekend, with Wesleyan rolling to four victories to repeat as tournament champions. The Wesleyan men took a pair of 9-0 victories over Columbia and Vassar, while the Wes women defeated Columbia 6-3 and edged the host Brewers 5-4.
The Wesleyan men swept six matches against Columbia, with Robert Broadfoot ’10 (No. 1), Matt Candal ’11 (No. 2), Brewster Lee ’13 (No. 5), Lonnie Gibbs ’10 (No. 6), Luke Wherry ’13 (No. 7), and Kyle Baicker-McKee ’10 (No. 8) rolling to 3-0 wins. Eight of nine Cardinals swept their matches against the hosts, with Wherry winning his 3-1.
The Cardinal women’s strength up and down the ladder was on display at Vassar. Against Columbia, the Cardinals won six of seven matches at the 3-9 spots, with Tanesha Jackson ’13 (No. 3, 3-1), Danielle Craig ’13 (No. 4, 3-1), Gwynne Hunter ‘10 (No. 5, 3-1), Jenny Chu ’11 (No. 6, 3-0), Caroline Fox ‘12 (No. 7, 3-1), and Elizabeth Larner ’10 (No. 9, 3-0) winners for the Cardinals. Against Vassar, the Cardinals used sweeps form Casey Simchik ’10 (No. 1), Ashley Garrett ’12 (No. 8), and Larner to complement 3-2 wins from Jackson and Hunter for the upset.
Next up for Wesleyan is the men’s National Team Tournament, which begins Friday. The Cardinals, ranked 26th nationally, will likely be seeded second in the “D” division. The Cardinal women will return to action the following weekend with the annual Howe Cup, hosted by Yale.
Two Wrestlers Place First in NEWA JVs
The Cardinal wrestling team competed in the NEWA Sub-Varsity Championships on Sunday, which were held at Springfield College. Kyle Roosa ’13 finished first in a field of nine at 174 with a 3-0 record, and Jefferson Ajayi ’13 finished first out of 10 wrestlers with three wins of his own in the 184-pound bracket.
In addition to Roosa and Ajayi, many other Cardinals had successful performances in the afternoon. Vin deLalla ’11 (149) and Sam Weiner ’12 (197) each placed second in their respective weight classes, with deLalla accumulating a 3-1 record in a field of 18 and Weiner going 1-1 to place second among six wrestlers. In addition, Abram Rowe ’12 finished fourth of nine wrestlers at 125 with a 3-2 showing, and Gideon Levy ’13 went 1-2 at 184 to take fourth in the field of 10.
Next up for Wesleyan are the NEWA Championships, which will be held Saturday and Sunday at Western New England. Dan Bloom ’10 (125) will look to repeat as a New England champion, and the Cardinals will be looking to build on last year’s sixth-place showing out of 15 teams, a three-spot improvement over their 2008 finish.
Three Cardinals Run in Boston U. Valentine’s Invitational
The women’s track team sent a trio of runners to the Valentine’s Invitational at Boston University on Friday, with Julia Mark ’13, Ravenna Neville ’10, and Rosie Keogh ’13 competing in the 5000-meter run. In a field of 62 runners, Mark took 22nd with a time of 18:04.63, Neville followed at 29th (18:09.94), and Keogh placed 45th (18:58.04).
In addition, Wesleyan served as host for the two-day Collegiate Track Championships. Although the Cardinals participated in the championship, their times were not factored into the final score. The Cardinals did have several top finishers on both the men’s and women’s sides. Chris Coleman ’10 (2:01.36) and Avinash Sridhar ’10 (2:03.66) would have placed third and fifth, respectively, in the 800-meter run, and Justin Spring ’10 (4:24.31) and Matt Katz ’11 (4:26.00) would have finished third and sixth, respectively, in the mile run. In addition, the Cardinal women had a number of strong efforts, led by Julia Frieze ’12 in the 500 (1:20.79) and Ceili Brennan ’13 in the 800 (2:24.42), both of whom would have had second-place finishes.
Next up for Wesleyan is the Division III Championships. The men will head to Bates for the two-day event, while the women will travel to Southern Maine.