sportsbriefs

Author: [no author name found]

Women's golf team earns second-straight NCAA bid

While some students are taking their Intermediate Arabic II exam and others are contemplating Microbial Pathogenesis final, on Tuesday, May 13, the Middlebury women's golf team will be in Waverly, Iowa competing in the first round of the Divison III NCAA tournament.

The Panthers earned one of 20 bids after winning the Williams Spring Invitational on April 27. Playing at Centennial Oaks Golf Club, the women will be looking to follow up last year's eighth-place finish.
-Jeff Patterson, Sports Editor


Track and field comes through at Coast Guard

The Middlebury women's track and field team continued its impressive performance this past Saturday in the Division III New England championships at the Coast Guard Academy, placing fourth out of 28 teams scoring.

The women were paced by the individual efforts of a pair of seniors - Jennifer Currie '08 earned first place in the hammer throw and Ceara Danaher's '08 fourth-place finish in the 3,000-meter run was good enough to qualify for the NCAAs.

In the women's 4x800-meter relay, the tandem of Kate Hirschboeck '08, Kaitlynn Saldanha '11, Sophie Spring '11 and Christina Kunycky '11 led the Panthers to the N.E. title with a time of 9:20.30.

The men, who placed 19th in the meet, were led by Jimmy Butcher '08, who broke his own school record in the 5,000-meter run and placed second overall with a time of 14:53.03.

The track and field teams return to action this weekend at the Open New England championships at UNH.
-Jeff Klein, Assistant Sports Editor


Sailing team ends spring with a third-place finish

Not only did the Middlebury sailing club raise $89,890 - well above its target - this year, but it also competed in numerous regattas, including a third-place finish out of 20 at the Northern Series Two at Dartmouth College on April 26 to wrap up its spring season. It was the highest finish for any team without a coach.

Skipper Shannon Donegan '08, working with crew Adam Volwiler '09, earned second runner-up honors, while Haik Kavookjian '09.5 and crew Dave Clark-Barol '10.5 finished 12th in a regatta which featured five to 15 knot winds out of the south.

Earlier on in the season, Middlebury skippers Phil Houten '10 and Max Junda '09 with crews Volwiler and Ashley Bell '09 sailed well in the NEISA fleet racing opener on March 8-9. Despite rainy conditions on the first day of the event, the skies cleared for a beautiful day of racing on Sunday, complete with sun and 15-20 knot winds. The team finished in 10th out of 18 teams.

While the spring was a successful couple of months, there is much to look forward to. The capital campaign effort will yield a fleet of 12 brand-new FJs for next season. The sailing club also plans to compete in 26 regattas in the fall.
-James Kerrigan, Sports Editor