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(05/04/17 1:58am)
The Middlebury Track and Field teams kicked off their postseason at the 2017 NESCAC Outdoor Championship hosted by Bowdoin this past weekend. The women, paced by two event titles and a school record, finished third (97.66 points) out of the 11 teams in the conference behind Williams (239.83) and Bates (107); the men, who took home three event victories, wound up fourth (102.50), trailing Williams (175), Tufts (167) and Bowdoin (110).
The top performances for the women came from three different sections of the team: Catie Skinner ’17 represented the long-distance runners by smoking the field in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, beating the field by over eight seconds (11:09.11); Devon Player ’18 did the throwers proud with an event-winning javelin toss of 137’6”; lastly, the 4x100 quartet of Marisa Edmondson ’20, Maddie Pronovost ’17, Natalie Cheung ’18 and Elizabeth Walkes ’20 led the charge for the sprinters, crossing the line in school-record time (48.90) to finish fourth in the event.
For the men, Alex Nichols ’17 put together an impressive day in his last NESCAC meet as a Panther. He took home the crown in the 400-meter dash (48.43), his third win in four years at the conference championships; in addition, with the help of Cameron Mackintosh ’20, Arden Coleman ’20 and Jimmy Martinez ’19, he anchored the winning 4x400 relay team that set a new meet record (3:17.45). In the field events, John Natalone ’19 won the pole vault with a jump of 14’5.25” (teammate Nathaniel Albers ’20 would finish fifth in the same event with a height of 13’11.25”).
Although he was a little hard on himself, Natalone had good things to say about the team’s showing at the meet. “In terms of my performance at the meet, I’m generally happy with how I did,” he said. “I didn’t vault as high as I wanted to, but I was just happy to be able to contribute points to the team. As a squad, we performed really well, and I am exceptionally proud of everyone who went to the meet.”
“NESCACs is a really special competition; the entire team is full of energy and hype. My performance would not have been possible if it weren’t for the vibe set up by my teammates. Everyone contributes to the meet in some fashion, even if it isn’t scoring points.”
The rest of the team followed the leaders with a number of strong performances across all the event types. Pronovost, a multitalented athlete who’s a threat to score in a number of competitions, continued her strong season with a second-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles (14.83) and a fifth-place finish in the long jump (17’0.5”); she also ran the second leg for the fifth-place 4x400 relay team, which was rounded out by Lucy Lang ’19, Kate McCluskey ’18 and Paige Fernandez ’17 (3:59.07).
Other individual highlights for the women included Meg Wilson ’20 in the 800-meter (2:14.49, fourth), Abigail Nadler ’19 in the 1,500-meter (4:36.96, third) and Talia Ruxin ’20 in the 10,000-meter (38:11.38, fourth). Off the track, Kreager Taber ’19 pole-vaulted to a second-place finish (10’8”) and Jane Freda ’17 landed fourth in the triple jump (35’7.75”). In the relays, the 4x800-meter relay team of Anna Willig ’20, Erica Dean ’20, Skinner and Wilson crossed the line second overall (9:22.91).
For the men, additional strong efforts were recorded by a number of Panthers in the 800-meter run: James Mulliken ’18 came in second (1:52.88), Nathan Hill ’20 finished fourth (1:53.88) and Kevin Serrao ’18 crossed the line fifth (1:54.10). Serrao also finished third in the 1,500-meter run (3:52.89). In the sprints, Adam Markun ’17 dashed to third place in the 200-meter race (22.06) and Michael Pallozzi ’18 wound up fifth in the 110-meter hurdles (15.28). On the field side, Alfred Hurley ’19 recorded the second-longest javelin toss of the day (189’6”) and Minhaj Rahman ’19 landed third in the hammer throw (166’9”).
With the Panthers now firmly in the postseason portion of their schedule, every meet and every event means that much more. Natalone felt confident about his team’s chances. “The outlook for the rest of the postseason is great,” he said. “We have many team members who are right on the cusp of qualifying for late postseason meets such as Open New Englands and DIII Nationals, which should make for an exciting upcoming meet this weekend at DIII New Englands.”
“In terms of positives, we have a lot of athletes qualified through this weekend, which should keep the good vibe of NESCACs going strong. Also, a lot of people are hungry for a season PR — myself included.”
He warned that the team wouldn’t just be able to coast through the end of their season, though. “We have some health related things to improve upon,” he said. “I’ve been battling back issues, and many team members are nursing shin and hip issues. Staying healthy through these next couple of weeks will be important.”
Middlebury will head down to Williams this weekend to compete in the Division III New England Championships, the last chance for athletes to qualify for the Open New Englands the following week and Division III Nationals the week after.
(04/27/17 2:50am)
The Middlebury track and field team traveled down to the University of Albany this past weekend to compete at the 33rd Albany Spring Classic, a non-scoring meet featuring over 700 athletes from all three NCAA divisions as well as club teams. Both the women’s and men’s teams turned in a bevy of strong performances, making their presence known on the track as well as in field events.
After the competition had finished, senior jumper Jane Freda ’17 offered her thoughts on the last meet of the Panthers’ regular season. “Albany is always an interesting meet,” she said. “It’s always after the last big week of practices before we start tapering for post-season, so performances definitely vary more than other meets. There’s always some crazy wind at Albany, and the tailwind was great for short sprinters and jumpers, but pretty tough for long sprinters/distance runners. But given the weather conditions and high volume training, I felt like as a whole we did pretty well.”
And according to the timesheet, the Panthers certainly did well by themselves. For the women, the 4x100-meter relay team of Ellie Greenberg ’20, Natalie Cheung ’18, Maddie Pronovost ’17 and Elizabeth Walkes ’20 continued their remarkable string of performances, winning the event with a time of 49.17 seconds. The other Panther victory was secured by Julia Lothrop ’19 in the javelin toss (122’6”), who barely edged out teammate Devon Player ’18 (122’2”).
Other strong track efforts by the women included a second-place finish in the 5,000-meter race by Talia Ruxin ’20 (17:45.28) and two fifth-place finishes by Rose Kelly ’19 in the 1,500-meter race (4:52.51) and Claire Gomba ’19 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (12:05.34).
On the field side, Freda leapt to fifth place in both the long jump (17’) and the triple jump (35’7.75”), finishing behind four Division I athletes in each event.
“I was surprised I jumped as well as I did,” Freda said later. “I took the last meet off to recover from a quad injury so it was a great confidence boost going into NESCACs. I jumped really close to my PR’s so hopefully I can continue these good vibes into the next couple weeks!”
But the men’s team was not without its own share of strong showings, either. For the distance runners, Henry Fleming ’20 crossed the line third in the 3,000-meter race (9:01.41) and Harrison Knowlton ’19 finished fourth in the 5,000-meter event (15:22.70). The Panthers had a pair of strong performances in the 1,500-meter race, with Nathan Hill ’20 winding up fourth (3:59.13) and Connor Evans ’19 finishing sixth (4:01.91). Lastly, Theodore Henderson ’20 snagged sixth place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (9:59.28).
In the shorter events, the Middlebury men had a pair of sixth-place finishes: Jackson Bock ’18 in the 200-meter dash (21.47) and Paul Malloy ’18 in the 400-meter hurdles (58.66). In the 110-meter hurdle preliminaries, Mike Pallozzi ’18 posted the best DIII time of the day and third-best time overall (15.60). Lastly, Tyler Chaisson ’17 finished sixth in the shot put (44’10.25”) and Taylor Moore ’18 finished sixth in the javelin (151’).
This Saturday, Middlebury will head back to Bowdoin for the NESCAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Amid their preparations, Freda explained what she thought would be the keys for the Panthers at their first postseason meet.
“As cliché as it sounds,” she said, “I think grit and hard work are going to be the keys to our success. Looking at the seeds for this meet, there are so many events that are really really close. Giving that little extra effort to run a little faster, throw or jump just a little further could make a huge difference in the end. We have so much talent and we’ve been training so hard all year—this is the time to get gritty and leave it all out on the track, runway or field!”
(04/21/17 5:55pm)
In this, the fourth week of Middlebury Track and Field’s outdoor season, the team headed over to Brunswick, Maine to compete in the Bowdoin Invitational on Saturday, April 15. Overall, both Panther teams performed rather well: the women wound up second out of four teams, their 89 total points only two behind the victorious Polar Bears’ 91, and the men wound up second out of three teams with 92 total points. In almost every single event a Middlebury athlete finished somewhere in the top three and the men and women combined for a total of seven event victories and one new school record.
Before the meet, Head Coach Martin Beatty ’84 explained how large of an impact being outdoors has on the team. “Everyone is always excited to get outside on the outdoor track,” he said. “It is a different sport. The analogy is going from bumper pool to a regular billiards table. It is also nice to be in the outdoors after feeling cooped up for the winter.”
But that’s not to say the transition doesn’t require some adjustments. “The environment is controlled indoors,” Beatty said. “Outside there are different factors to deal with such as wind, temperature, etc. These elements play a role in performance, and one’s technique needs to adjust accordingly.”
In particular, it was the field athletes who seemed to profit most from the sunshine this past Saturday, accounting for five of the Panthers’ seven event victories. For the women, Kristin Kimble ’19 won the high jump after successfully leaping over 5’0.25” and Kreager Taber ’19 cleared a height of 10’2” in the pole vault. On the men’s side, Nathaniel Albers ’20 jumped over 13’9.25” to win the pole vault, Taylor Moore ’18 finished first in the javelin with a throw of 170’7” and Jonathan Fisher ’20 racked up 5,095 points in the decathlon.
The track athletes had their share of outstanding performances, too. Katherine MacCary ’19 won the 5,000-meter race handily in 18:00.95, some 18 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. Arden Coleman ’20 snagged first place in the 400-meter dash with a winning time of 49.87.
And last but not least, the women’s 4x100 relay team of Ellie Greenberg ’20, Natalie Cheung ’18, Maddie Pronovost ’17 and Elizabeth Walkes ’20 set a new school record of 49.09 seconds, lowering the one set two weeks prior at Point Loma Nazarene University in California.
Cheung couldn’t suppress her excitement about this year’s 4x100 team. “This is the first time the women’s team has had a really solid 4x1 in a few years,” she said, “and it’s really exciting. We’re hoping to drop our time this weekend at Albany and go into NESCACs with a fast seed. [First-year] relay member Lizzie Walkes has nicknamed the relay the ‘4xFun’ with good reason.”
Looking forward, Panther athletes will be competing in two separate meets this weekend: the Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton on Friday and the Albany Invitational on Saturday. They following week, they will be headed back to Bowdoin for the NESCAC championship meet.
When asked how she felt about where the team stood after Saturday’s meet, Cheung had positive things to offer. “The Bowdoin Invite got us all really excited for the end of our regular season and the beginning of post season,” she said. “We’ve really been focusing on running as a team rather than as individuals, and that’s been really important.”
“The team has been having a great year, and we’re all really excited for NESCACs. All our excitement really just comes back to Coach Martin Beatty, so we hope we can earn him a NESCACs victory.”
(03/17/16 3:02am)
The 17 Middlebury athletes who travelled to Iowa last weekend (March 11-12) for the NCAA Division III Indoor Track Championships did more than hold their own against a highly competitive field.
The Panthers entered in six different events — including both the men and women in the 4x400 and distance medley relays, Adrian Walsh ’16 in the 5,000 meter and Alex Morris ’16 in the 400 meter — and secured All-American honors with top-eight finishes in all but one of these races.
Walsh, who crossed the line seventh in the 5k with a time of 17:10.78, described an atmosphere that likely intimidated even the most experienced runners.
“Overall, Nationals can be pretty overwhelming,” Walsh said. “Spectators get rowdy, and the whole corralling process before races can be nerve-racking. We were able to fly out on Wednesday afternoon and preview the track on Thursday, which tends to calm everyone’s nerves. I tried to stay as calm as possible throughout the whole travel process, and especially on race day, since I didn’t race until 5:50 Central Time.”
In fact, Walsh has been through the ordeal multiple times before; she drew upon her experience with a number of finishes just below the All-American cutoff to push herself past the threshold this time around.
“This was my third time to Indoor Nationals,” she explained. “I qualified individually while I was at Hamilton, and then the past two years I’ve qualified with Middlebury. Last year I missed All-American by one place after the laps were miscounted for the women’s 5K, and the year prior I had also missed All-American by a small margin. In total I’ve earned four ninth-place finishes between Indoor and Outdoor Nationals, which has been difficult to say the least.”
But in the end, Walsh cited her teammates as providing her with the greatest motivation throughout her training. She mentioned Alison Maxwell ’15, who won the National Championship in the indoor mile last year, as being particularly influential.
“Watching Alison finish out her senior track seasons with three All-American finishes and a national title was so incredible,” Walsh shared. “She has been such an inspiration to me since — and many others I’m sure. I knew what I wanted and needed to do going into this past race, and did my best to execute.”
Helping to garner enough points to finish 24th out of 77 teams, the rest of the women’s contingent finished eight or better in their respective races. In addition to Walsh’s race on Friday, March 11 the distance medley relay team of Nicole Schachman ’16, Kate McCluskey ’18, Lauren Bougioukas ’16 and Abigail Nadler ’19 barely missed the podium, finishing in fourth with a time of 11:50.96.
Finals on Saturday, March 12 saw Morris finish eighth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 58.05. Morris served double duty, as she anchored the 4x400 relay team of Jackie Kearney ’16, Lucy Lang ’19 and Paige Fernandez ’17 to again cross the line in eighth with a time of 3:58.00.
The men’s efforts were paced by the distance medley relay team of Kevin Serrao ’18, Tyler Farrell ’18, Lucas Carpinello ’16 and Sam Cartwright ’16, who barely edged the squad past NESCAC rival Conn. College for eighth place. In a stunning finish, Cartwright found the extra gear needed to overtake the Camel anchor just before the line, diving across to secure a spot on the All-American team by one one-hundredth of a second for a time of 10:07.24.
But fate wasn’t so kind to the men’s 4x400 team of Jimmy Martinez ’19, James Mulliken ’18, Brandon Cushman ’16 and Alex Nichols ’17, who missed qualifying for Saturday’s final race by one one-thousandth of a second behind a squad from Wheaton.
The fact that this race was the quartet’s fastest of the season by almost three full seconds made the result even harder to swallow. But with three quarters of the 4x400 returning next season, as well as a good number of the athletes who posted impressive finishes in other events throughout the season, the Panthers will be poised to build on their indoor success next winter.
With the spring outdoor season right around the corner, Walsh took a moment to reflect about where she and the rest of the seniors stand at the last juncture of their careers.
“This season has been phenomenal,” she reflected. “It’s been so exciting to train and race in the new facility this year, and I really think every athlete has benefitted from training on such a fresh, fast track. The team has so much to look forward to, and I think everyone will continue to excel from here on out. I’m so excited to see what will be accomplished in the years to come. The team is undoubtedly ready to hit the ground running with the outdoor season.”
The team will take this weekend off to train before traveling to California over spring break to compete in meets at Point Loma Nazarene University and UC San Diego.
(03/10/16 3:57am)
The Panther Indoor Track and Field teams turned in a strong showing at the ECAC Championships on March 4-5, in their last meet before the season culminates in the National DIII Indoor Championships next weekend.
The men finished 17th out of 51 teams, while the women settled in 23rd out of 50 schools. A pair of school records fell along the way: Nicole Schachman ’16 won the 1,000-meter race in a Middlebury-record time of 2:56.18, while Maddie Pronovost ’17 improved on her old pentathlon record with a score of 2,992 points, good for sixth place.
Generally pleased with the results, Coach Martin Beatty ’84 couldn’t help but praise one athlete in particular. “It was a solid meet,” he said. “We left with an ECAC Champion in the 1,000 meters — Nikki Schachman. She is a real success story, in that she was a walk-on who had to prove her way onto the team as a freshman in a tryout. Now she is the ECAC champion and going to the NCAA’s as the leadoff leg in the distance medley relay.”
Among the other Panthers who garnered all-ECAC honors (with a finish in the top eight) were the members of the men’s 4x400 relay team — Jimmy Martinez ’19, James Mulliken ’18, Brandon Cushman ’16 and Alex Nichols ’17 — who retained their top-12 national ranking with a third-place time of 3:16.98. Kevin Serrao ’18 placed fourth in the 800-meter race (1:53.95) and Jonathan Perlman did the same in the mile race (4:18.24), while John Natalone ’19 cleared 14’11.5” in the pole vault en route to a seventh-place finish.
The women got a boost from a strong performance in the 3,000-meter run by Katherine MacCary ’19, who crossed the finish line tenth in 10:31.88.
In addition, the Panthers had a handful of athletes compete at the Last Chance Meet at Tufts on Friday, March 4. In the men’s distance medley relay, the team of Serrao, Lucas Carpinello ’16, Mulliken, and Sam Cartwright ’16 turned in the 10th-best time in the country for the winter (10:04.05), good for fourth place. Sebastian Matt ’16 finished third in the 5,000-meter run (14:44.34).
The men’s and women’s teams will be sending 17 athletes to Nationals: the most in school history. However, those athletes’ successes are the entire team’s successes, according to Pronovost.
“The representation of athletes Middlebury College will have this year is remarkable,” she emphasized. “Four relay teams and two individual athletes qualified for Nationals this year, which speaks to the strength and depth of talent our athletes on the Middlebury Track and Field team possess. The hype around nationals this year has been incredible due to the success of so many individuals on the team, and I know that those racing at Nationals will certainly feel the presence and support from those not competing.”
Of course, that’s not to say the rest of the athletes will be twiddling their thumbs back at home. “Track and field is an interesting sport that has back-to-back seasons,” Beatty pointed out. “indoor and outdoor actually overlap, since we still have people competing indoors, while others are training for the first outdoor meet. The NCAA people are doing workouts to be fresh and peak for the championship, while the now spring track people are doing harder workouts. Everyone is excited to watch the webcast of the indoor NCAA and cheer on our top indoor people.”
When asked whether the team’s performance this year had surpassed expectations, Pronovost responded with a definitive yes.
“I strongly believe that the team’s hard work and dedication to the sport has allowed the team to exceed our coaches’ expectations for the indoor season,” she said. “I’m confident that the team will ride this momentum into the spring season, and I look forward to seeing Middlebury Track and Field show the rest of the NESCAC league what it means to be a Panther.”
The men’s and women’s 4x400 and distance medley relay teams will compete at the DIII National Championships at Grinnell College in Iowa. In addition, Alex Morris ’16 will serve double-duty, competing individually in the 400-meter dash as well as anchoring the 4x400 relay; Adrian Walsh ’16 will represent Middlebury in the 5,000-meter race.
(03/02/16 6:11pm)
In a highly competitive Open New England Championships meet, which featured over 70 teams from all three collegiate divisions, the Middlebury track and field team continued to post the type of numbers that should allow them to finish their indoor season very successfully over the next two weeks. Although the events were run on a banked track (which allows for slightly faster times in many events), many of the Panther times landed them on the national DIII leaderboard even after they had been adjusted. Out of 32 scoring teams, the women finished 20th; the men came in 31st out of 36.
Alex Nichols ’17, who anchored the 4x400 quartet that finished third and garnered All-New England honors, spoke briefly about the different atmosphere at the larger meet.
“The biggest difference with Open meets is that they are just a lot bigger,” he said. “ The crowd can be pretty huge and
enthusiastic, the building is louder and there are so many athletes that events become more competitive. When you compete at a smaller meet, there’s a chance that any given event won’t be particularly intense that day, but with so many people at an Open meet you always know that the people racing, jumping or throwing against you will be fierce competition, and that really adds an electricity that makes you want to do well.”
Many of the Panther athletes had no problem matching that higher intensity. The men’s 4x400 team, made up of Jimmy Martinez ’19, Brandon Cushman ’16, James Mulliken ’18 and Nichols, smashed the previous school record by almost a second (now 3:15.92) and posted the 11th-best time in Division III this year. The women’s 4x400 was just as impressive impressive: Jackie Kearney ’16, Lucy Lang ’19, Paige Fernandez ’17 and anchor Alex Morris ’16 finished sixth overall (first among Division III teams) and set their own school record with a time of 3:51.28, good for the ninth-fastest time in DIII. Not wanting to miss out on the fun,
the women’s distance medley relay team (Nicole Schachman ’16, Kate McCluskey ’18, Lauren Bougioukas ’16 and Abigail Nadler ’19) posted the fourth fastest DIII time this season, crossing the line fourth in 11:49.92.
In fact, setting records was the name of the game for all the Middlebury athletes at the meet. Nicole Wilkerson, who spends all year with many of the runners as both the cross-country coach and an assistant track coach, was quick to point out how well the team competed across the board. “Everyone that competed this weekend either matched their best performances or ran their personal bests,” she explained. “The energy on the team was high and everyone was really excited to compete: the results reflected that.”
For the men, other notable finishers included Kevin Serrao ’18, who revised his school record in the 800-meter race en route to a 9th place finish with a time of 1:53.14, and Sam Cartwright ’16, whose time of 4:13.45 placed him 10th in the mile. In addition to her contribution to the distance medley relay, Nadler be-
came the first female Panther to break the 10-minute mark in the 3,000-meter race, smashing the old record by almost 10 seconds with a time of 9:58.71.
With Division III championships at Grinnell College in two weeks, most of the athletes who aren’t competing for a qualifying time this weekend will be laying off the gas in order to finish the season as healthy as possible. “Training this week is definitely going to focus more on recovery for a lot of us who are continuing the indoor season,” Nichols said. “ We’ve now hit the point where we’ve had to run some very intense and important races in back to back weeks, and so practice will focus a lot more on being healthy and making sure we feel good as we head into the last couple weeks before what we hope will be a Midd-filled nationals meet.”
Middlebury will be sending a contingent of athletes to compete in the East Coast Athletic Conference Championships on Staten Island this weekend; a handful of others still vying for qualifying times will head down to Tufts for one last opportunity.
(02/25/16 2:48am)
Bringing the competitive fire they have brought to every meet this season, both the men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams made a splash on the big stage of the Division III New England Championship meets. Middlebury hosted the women’s championships at Virtue Field House, while the men’s team travelled to Cambridge, Mass where the men’s championships were taking place at M.I.T.
The women’s squad raced to an impressive third place finish out of 37 teams and toppled several school and facility records in the process.
Captain Jackie Kearney ’16, who ran the first leg of the winning 4x400 meter relay for the Panthers, was quick to credit the team’s chemistry after Saturday’s strong finish.
“We’re an extremely close team this year,” Kearney noted. “That chemistry really showed on Saturday with the continuous support we gave each other in every event.”
The women’s team finished with an impressive total of 82 points, 30 points above the fourth-place finisher, Southern Maine and just 11 points behind NESCAC foe Williams. The Panthers scored in every running event but four.
Highlights for the Panthers included two individual New England champions. Alex Morris ’16 won the 400-meter dash by half a second. Adrian Walsh ’16 joined Morris in the winner’s circle for individual events with her performance in the 5,000-meter race.
Relay victories came for the Panthers in the 4x400, run by Kearney, Paige Fernandez ’17, Lucy Lang ’19 and Morris. The team of Claire Gomba ’19, Isabella Alfaro ’18, Robin Vincent ’18 and Lauren Bougioukas ’16 won the 4x800. The Panthers also won the distance medley relay ran by Alexis Jabukowski ’19, Kate McCluskey ’18, Nicole Schachman ’16 and Abigail Nadler ’19. Additionally, Nadler etched her name in school records with her second-place finish in the 3,000-meter race, clocking a time of 10:08.38. Maddie Pronovost ’17 also set a school record in the pentathlon, registering 2,974 points, good for sixth overall.
As Kearney pointed out, this year’s squad isn’t just full of one-trick ponies.
“We’re a really deep team,” she said, “which showed in how capable we were of placing with a relatively small team competing yesterday. Most people who scored points did so in more than one event.”
A top-eight finish both earns the team points and garners the athlete All-New England DIII honors.
Head Coach Martin Beatty ’84 couldn’t help but be proud of both teams’ efforts.
“There are a lot of strong DII track teams in New England,” he pointed out, “and for us to be 3rd and 6th is terrific. It was nice to see some of our women break school records and set facility records. We had 26 men qualify, which is the most ever, so in share numbers, they proved to be a much formidable force than in recent years.”
In Cambridge, the men’s squad finished tied for sixth, which they managed to accomplish without a single first-place finish.
James Mulliken ’18 continued rewriting the school record books on the men’s side. Mulliken continued his strong season by besting the 600-meter dash record, clocking a time of 1:22.36, good for fifth overall. Kevin Serrao ’18 finished fourth in the 1,000-meter race, Sebastian Matt ’16 crossed the line eighth in the 5,000-meter run, and Alex Nichols ’17 and Jimmy Martinez ’19 finished fourth and fifth in the 400-meter dash, respectively.
For the team events, the distance medley relay squad of Tyler Farrell ’18, Sam Cartwright ’16, Lucas Carpinello ’16 and Jonathan Perlman ’19 finished second, while the 4x400 relay team of Brandon Cushman ’16, Mulliken, Martinez and Nichols finished third. Finally, John Natalone ’19 placed third in the pole vault, while Deklan Robinson ’16 wound up fifth in the high jump.
After the weekend, Beatty harped on his team’s intangibles.
“They’re a great bunch of people, not just good athletes.” Beatty said. “ I love to see the relationships develop and grow strong.”
Next weekend, both teams will head to the Open New England Championships at Boston University to compete against a field comprising both DI and DIII athletes.
(02/18/16 4:03am)
With each passing week, the Middlebury track and field team has looked more and more ready for the New England Division III Championships coming up this weekend, an important step on the road to Nationals. School records have been falling left and right, going back to the Middlebury Invitational three weeks ago when James Lynch ’16 set a new heptathlon score and John Natalone ’19 left his own mark on school history in the pole vault.
The ladies had no shortage of stellar performances either: Maddie Provonost ’17 gave the Panthers a sweep of both heptathlons by winning the women’s, Paige Fernandez ’17 took the title in the 500-meter dash, Abi- gail Nadler ’19 crossed the line first in the 1,600-meter competition, and the squad of Halle Gustafson ’16, Alexandra Morris ’16, Lucy Lang ’19, and Jackie Kearney ’16 out- paced the competition en route to winning the 4x400 relay.
The weekend after, the squad sent athletes to both the Dartmouth Indoor Classic and the Cupid Challenge at Tufts, where the 4x400 relay team of Lang, Kearney, Fernandez and Morris placed second overall and smashed the old school record by almost three seconds at 3:56.72. James Mulliken ‘18 led the charge for the men, separating himself from the field to win the 500-meter dash. Down in Boston, Adrian Walsh ’16 smoked the competition in the 5,000-meter race, finishing more than 10 seconds in front of the second-place competitor in the field of 32.
Just this last weekend, Kevin Serrao ’18 blew past the previous 800-meter record by more than a second at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational at Boston University; in the same meet, Alex Nichols ’17 set a new mark in the 400-meter dash, only to watch Jimmy Martinez ’19 break it again minutes later.
Against a field of female athletes from all three divisions, Fernandez placed first in her 500-meter heat and Lauren Bougioukas ’16 wound up second in her 800-meter heat.
Morris also lowered the 400-meter mark she already held by a little over half of a second. Her time of 56.43 earned her 20th out of 196 athletes and was the top DIII runner at the meet. She currently sits second in the country.
Lynch, whose performance helped the Panther men land first place out of eight teams at the Middlebury Invitational, spoke about some of the unique challenges that ath- letes in his event face.
“It’s a grind over the two days,” he said. “The hard part is going to bed sore on Friday night having competed in the 60-meter dash, long jump, shot put and high jump, and knowing that you have to wake up the next morning and perform near your best in three more events [60-meter hurdles, pole vault, 1,000-meter dash].”
The women almost did equally well, coming in second out of six (behind Williams). That being said, the ladies will have another chance to compete at the Virtue Field House this next weekend when Middlebury hosts the women’s New England DIII Champion- ships.
Newly hired Assistant Coach Jordan Schi- lit, who boasts his own impressive collegiate athletic resume (six-time DIII All-American in cross-country and track), was very excited by the attention that the meet drew. “Several people had marks that ranked in the top 10 in the country for Division III,” he noted. “All of the teams were very excited to compete at our new facility and are looking forward to returning next winter.”
Schilit also reflected briefly on his first year working with the Panther athletes. “My job has been extremely enjoyable so far,” he said. “I try to bring the same passion and enthusiasm I had as a competitor to my coaching role. The most helpful information I can pass along is how to avoid the mistakes I made as an athlete and to convince the team to not set barriers.”
If helping the team avoid barriers has been his goal thus far, things seem to be according to plan; Lynch could barely contain his optimism as he looked forward to the rest of the season and beyond. “I feel great about this team,” he beamed. “We’ve got some great new faces and our returning athletes are excited to be here. This team is hungry. I would be lying if I told you I didn’t know how many days there are until NESCACs. This field house is going to give us incredible momentum into the outdoor season. I am excited for this year, but I think we are really going to see something special out of this team over the next three years.”
Looking forward to next week and beyond, Serrao hoped that the team would be able to put the finishing touches on the training that’s led them to the success they’ve had so far. “Personally, I have a lot of strength in my legs right now, but not a lot of speed,” he explained. “I think across the board the team is working on improving turnover for the championship season. We’ve already done the long slow distance, but we all need to get some speed in us to hang with the big league boys in the weeks to come.”
For the DIII New England Championships next weekend, the men will be at MIT; the women are looking forward to competing in front of a crowd of Panther fans at home.
(01/28/16 12:07am)
As the indoor season begins to pick up more steam, the Middlebury men’s and women’s track and field teams both had remarkable showings at the Smith College Benyon Invitational this past Saturday. En route to a second-place team finish for the women and a third-place finish for the men, a number of Panther athletes distinguished themselves in various events. Jimmy Martinez ’19 stole the show by setting a school record in the 600-meter run (1:22.96) and by finishing first in the 200-meter dash (22.79). Not to be ignored, the ladies made their presence felt in the mile run when a pack of Panthers outpaced the rest of the field and swept the top four spots: Sasha Whittle ’17 led the charge with a personal best of 5:09.15, followed closely by Nicki Schachman ’16 (5:10.51), Lauren Bougioukas ’16 (5:10.93) and Robin Vincent ’18 (5:11.49).
Always looking ahead to the national-level meets at the end of the year, Head Coach Martin Beatty ’84 prioritized the season-long development of his athletes in deciding who would be running in what event. “We really planned to train through the Smith meet,” he explained. “That meant keeping some key people home to nurse injuries and running many of our athletes out of their priority event in order to change things up a bit.” Nevertheless, Beatty was pleased with the squad’s showing.
“The team performed great, garnering the school record [from Martinez in the 600] and some impressive PR’s such as Sasha Whittle’s in the mile,” he observed. In fact, he was so optimistic about the team’s development that he couldn’t help but lament having to lose some of his athletes down the road. Using Whittle as an example, he praised the progress she’s made during her time at Middlebury: “Sasha is going abroad for the spring, so I’m very sad that we won’t have her next semester. She’s really come into her own and is finally running the times that we knew she had the potential to run.”
Still, when a team gets contributions from top to bottom, even from first-years like Martinez or Lucy Lang ’19 (who broke the 500-meter school record in last week’s meet)—it’s hard not to be optimistic about the future. Beatty had especially high praise for the young man following this week’s performance: “Jimmy has had a marvelous start to his first year. Breaking Kevin Bright’s 600m record is especially impressive since Kevin was a three time All-American in the 400 hurdles. He has a long range of running well in races from the 200 meters to the 600 meters. But really, Jimmy is just one in a good group of hard workers: our whole team.”
For the men, other victories included Kevin Serrao’s ’18 winning 1,000-meter run (2:30.59) and the 4x200 quartet of Adam Markun ’17, Jackson Bock ’18, Brandon Cushman ’16, and Alex Nichols ’17, who came out on top with a time of 1:33.45. On top of their mile sweep, the women saw Halle Gustafson ’16 win the 600-meter dash (1:42.39), Lang take the top spot in the 800-meter run (2:18.18), and Katherine MacCary ’19 claim the 3,000-meter crown (10:31.88). James Mulliken ’18 posted impressive results with a second-place finish in the 800-meter race (1:59.54), saw the meet as a crucial step in turning the team’s hard work into results.
“As is usually the case with early season meets,” Mulliken explained, “the goal heading into this competition was not necessarily to ‘run fast’ as much as it was to reacquaint ourselves with racing. We have all season to run fast, but now is when we build our training base and start to tap into our competitive focus. There’s a reason why we call early meets like these ‘rust busters.’”
Next weekend, the Panthers will be excited to return home for the two-day Middlebury Invitational, with events getting underway at 3 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 29, and 11 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 30.
(01/21/16 12:16am)
The indoor competition season is now in full swing for the Panther track and field teams after the school hosted the inaugural Middlebury Winter Classic, the first such event held in the new Virtue Field House since its opening in January 2015. Before a packed house that included numerous alumni of the program, as well as the usual crowd of parents and spectators, the meet ran very smoothly for the Panthers. The men dusted the competition with a total of 260 points, 111 better than second-place Springfield, while the women scored a resounding victory of their own, racking up 257.5 points, 41 ahead of Springfield, who came in second once again.
The weekend before that, Middlebury had sent a small contingent of runners who had been able to find practice facilities over the winter break to the Dartmouth Relays in Hanover, NH. Head Coach Martin Beatty ’84 had only positive things to say: “The group did very well. The Dartmouth meet has Division I athletes, so it is always fun to go against that level. At this point in the season, the performances were where they should be, or even a little bit better.”
For the Panthers, the instant celebrities of the event were the four members of the winning 4x200 relay team — Jeremy Carter ’17, Brandon Cushman ’16, Paul Malloy ’18, and Alex Nichols ’17 — who came in first overall with a time of 1:35.23 (1.58 seconds ahead of the second-place team). “The 4x200 win at Dartmouth was totally unexpected,” said Cushman, also a captain of this year’s squad. “A lot of our faster 200-meter guys were still away on break for the race, so the quartet was made up of mostly 400-meter runners looking to get some speed work in. We were surprised to be placed in the fast heat to begin with … So you can imagine our surprise when we crossed the line in first.” When the dust had settled after all the events, the men tied for 8th out of 16 teams while the women snagged eighth out of 19 competing schools.
Still, the elation following the Dartmouth Relays was overshadowed by the buzz generated by this past weekend’s home meet. Before the main events got underway, Coach Beatty decided to let some of the alumni get the first crack at the new surface as thanks for their continued support. “Supportive alumni made this indoor track event happen,” he noted. “In that spirit, I felt that it would be fitting to invite the alumni to run in the very first running races. They didn’t have such a facility, so I wanted them to feel proud of it — it’s theirs as well.”
Current members of the team were equally excited by the inaugural event that, according to Cushman, had been a long time coming. “Saturday was an incredible experience,” he said. “Hosting the first home meet on the track meant a lot to everyone on the team. The seniors were especially excited because we have seen this project through from the beginning, moving from the old bubble into Nelson and finally into the new field house. The alumni only made the day even better. It made you feel the team was more than just the athletes that are here.”
The Panthers found success across the board on their home turf, picking up victories in a total of seventeen events. Of those, the men won nine: the 200-meter dash (Nichols at 23.15), the 400-meter dash (Jimmy Martinez ’19 at 50.60), the 1,000-meter run (Andrew Michelson ’19 at 2:40.7), the 1-mile run (Kevin Serrao ’18 at 4:26.38), the 3,000-meter run (Brian Rich ’17 at 8:59.14), the 60-meter hurdles (Tyler Farrell ’18 at 8.76), the 4x400 relay (Farrell, Nichols, Cushman and Martinez at 3:29.76), the pole vault (John Natalone ’19 at 14’5.25”) and the shot put (Daniel Plunkett ’16 at 46’2.75”).
The women came away with eight victories of their own, including a school record in the 500-meter dash set by Lucy Lang ’19 (1:17.55). The other wins were as follows: the 400-meter dash (Alexandra Morris ’16 at 58.00), the 800-meter run (Isabella Alfaro ’18 at 2:26,02), the 1000-meter run (Robin Vincent ’18 at 3:05.40), the 1-mile run (Vincent again at 5:13.33), the 3,000-meter run (Adrian Walsh ’18 at 10:25.83), the 4x400 relay (Morris, Lang, Paige Fernandez ’17 and Halle Gustafson ’16 at 4:04.97) and the pole vault (Kreager Taber ’19 at 10’6”).
At the end of the day, Cushman felt good about the team coming out of the meet. “It’s hard to get a good impression from the team as a whole this early in the season because Saturday was the first meet for a majority of the team,” he conceded. “But I’m really pleased with how well our team competed during the meet. To my knowledge, there weren’t many people who were disappointed in their performances, which starts the season off on a really good note.” The Panthers will look to continue their success at Saturday’s Smith Invitational in Northampton, Mass. before they come back for another home meet, the Middlebury Invitational, on Jan. 29 and 30.
(11/11/15 9:31pm)
After taking down fifth-seeded Tufts last Friday (25-21, 25-20, 19-25, 25-16) to advance to the semifinal round of the NESCAC championship, the Middlebury volleyball team saw their season come to a close with a difficult loss to Bowdoin on Saturday (21-25, 24-26, 13-25). The Polar Bears would go on to defeat Williams in the championship round on Sunday, earning a berth in the NCAA tournament; the Panthers, finishing their season at 18-7 and 7-3 in the conference, were left to wonder at what could have been, despite having thoroughly exceeded the on-paper expectations for a team with no seniors that finished 12-12 last year.
“We’ve had some lopsided matches recently (good wins, and tough losses), and I think we’re learning what it feels like to really play well together, and we just need to do that consistently this weekend,” Head Coach Sarah Raunecker said. “I like where we are now heading into NESCAC’s. If we play well, we can compete with anyone there so we feel like we’re in control of our destiny.”
After defeating Tufts in their last regular season game, Middlebury drew the Jumbos in the first round of the NESCAC tournament. The Jumbos showed up ready to play, hoping to exact their revenge, but the Panthers refused to budge. The score ran all the way to 22-22 before some strong play from middle hitter Gabi Rosenfeld ’17 and outside hitter Becca Raffel ’18 allowed Middlebury to wrap up the first set. The Panthers capitalized upon that momentum in the second, racing out to going ahead 13-4 and then coasting to a 24-16 lead. Tufts stuck around for a bit, stringing together four straight points, but ultimately fell on a service error that gave the Panthers a 2-0 lead.
With their backs against the wall, the Jumbos fired off a quick eight points to start off the third and would lead the rest of the way. Middlebury made a push to get within five at 19-14, but Tufts regained control with three straight and went on to notch their first set victory, 25-19.
In the fourth set, the match concluded with some hard-nosed play. The two teams fought to a 13-13 tie before the Panthers began to distance themselves from the Jumbos, building a 17-14 lead and then running away with a 25-16 victory and the match. Notable players for Middlebury include Raffel, who led both sides with 15 kills, Rosenfeld, who had 1 solo block and 4 block assists, libero Emily Kolodka ’18 who dug up 25 balls and setter Hannah Blackburn ’17 who dished out 36 assists.
“We weren’t even thinking about the fact that it was Tufts,” outside hitter Alice Roberts ’17 said. “This tournament, we went in saying that we can only focus on what we’re going to do — and we want to win the whole thing. Tufts came back and definitely fought, but we were playing too well.’”
On Saturday, the Panthers found themselves in the opposite situation, trying to get back at a Bowdoin team that had handed them their first conference loss back in September. However, some of the consistency problems that plagued Middlebury at times earlier in the season reared their heads once more, and little errors prevented the Panthers from stringing together runs when they needed them. In the first set, the Panthers stuck with the Polar Bears until Bowdoin, leading 15-14, rattled off seven straight points to go up 22-14. The Panthers fought back to make it 24-21 before the Polar Bears finished off the set.
Always resilient, Middlebury pushed Bowdoin to a 19-19 tie in the second set. The Polar Bears scored four straight points, but the Panthers responded with a 5-1 run of their own to tie things up at 24-24. The Polar Bears took control, scoring two quick points to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
In the third set, nothing seemed to go Middlebury’s way. Bowdoin jumped out to an early lead and never took their foot off the pedal, closing things out with a 25-13 third set victory.
“Our serve-receive went very well in the first two sets,” Roberts said. “Once Bowdoin started to control the match a little bit, we got a little disjointed.We kept bringing ourselves back — we were composed the entire time — but Bowdoin just played a great game. They had almost no errors, whereas we had some unforced errors here and there.”
Looking forward, good things seem to be on the horizon for the Panthers. They return every member from a squad that featured a number of players on NESCAC leaderboards. Raffel finished third in the conference in kills per set with 3.80. Middle blocker Melanie English ’17 was second in blocks with an average of 1.04 each set, and Blackburn was third in assists with 9.68 per set.
Roberts shared that the team is even more excited to see where the added experience, along with a handful of incoming freshmen, might be able to take them next time around.
“Honestly, people were looking at our team as though we weren’t going be great this year, but I was very much expecting us to play well because our team was first-year and sophomore heavy last year, playing-wise,” Roberts said. “Now I’m extremely excited for next year because we went this far, with this team that’s not changing—if anything, we’ll just be adding some more players,” she said.
(11/05/15 12:51am)
Middlebury volleyball wrapped up its regular season with a split this past weekend against two NESCAC foes, losing to Connecticut College on Friday evening, Oct. 30 (25-27, 20-25, 26-28) but bouncing back Saturday, Oct. 31 with a big win against Tufts (22-25, 25-23, 25-20, 25-19). Finishing at 7-3 in the conference, the Panthers secured the fourth seed in the NESCAC tournament in Brunswick, Maine, where they will square off against the Jumbos once more on Friday in the quarterfinals.
This past weekend’s games, combined with those from the prior weekend at the New England Challenge at MIT, brought the team’s regular-season record to 17-6. In Boston, they had come up short against MIT (20-25, 19-25, 22-25) and Wellesley (22-25, 25-17, 19-25, 23-25) but defeated Babson in straight sets (25-19, 25-18, 25-22).
In the week leading up to the New England Challenge, Head Coach Sarah Raunecker was excited to see her team tested.
“This weekend we’re going to play three very good teams in our region, but all non-conference, which will be great,” Raunecker said. “MIT is the top ranked team in NE, Babson is in the top 15, as we are, and Wellesley is always a good team, so the competition should be great all weekend. It’ll be fun to see what we can do against these teams.”
Even though the Panthers didn’t manage to win a single set against MIT, they put together a number of strong runs throughout the match and showed that they felt comfortable against premier competition (MIT was ranked no. 23 in the nation at the time). The game against Wellesley was more or less the same; Middlebury started strong out of the gates, taking the first set, but unfortunately struggled to stay in a consistent groove over the final three.
Against Babson, however, the Panthers controlled the match from start to finish, coming away with a decisive victory in straight sets over a team currently ranked #5 in New England.
In the eyes of middle blocker Gabi Rosenfeld ’17, with just a little extra push, the two games that the team lost might have come out quite differently.
“We had a lot of really great moments this weekend,” Rosenfeld said. “Our serve receive was extremely consistent, which allowed us to run our offense well. We showed that we can beat any team if we’re playing our best and staying positive, but if we don’t play with intensity, we lose to teams that we really should beat. The matches against MIT and Wellesley kind of just slipped away from us because we weren’t playing our own game.We let the other teams set the pace and could never take back the momentum.”
Notably, outside hitter Becca Raffel ’18 earned a spot on the all-tournament team for her play over the weekend, pouring in 35 kills over three matches to the tune of a .272 hitting percentage.
The NESCAC matchup against Conn College last Friday, Oct. 30 turned out to be an especially frustrating one for the Panthers, who stretched both the first and third sets past 25 points but never seemed to be able to take the reins against the Camels en route to a three-set loss. On a more positive note, team captain and setter Hannah Blackburn ’17 surpassed the 2,000 assist mark for her career. She notched 29 to bring her total to 2,003, good for fourth place all-time at Middlebury.
Outside hitter Charlotte Devine ’17 thought the team’s play felt choppy and a tad sluggish against the Camels, but praised the squad’s ability to make adjustments before Saturday’s match against Tufts.
“On Friday in our game against Conn., we were lacking the energy and flow that have allowed us to come together and play cohesively so much this year,” Devine said. “On Saturday, we really found that enthusiasm, and our defense and offense worked beautifully together to play a clean match against Tufts. So while we had our ups and downs on the weekend as a whole, I’m really proud of our ability to pinpoint what needed fixing on Friday and to come ready to play our game on Saturday.”
In fact, Saturday’s game had major implications for the Panthers’ playoff seeding. Had they lost, they would’ve shared the fifth spot in the NESCAC with Conn College (6-4). However, the Camels would’ve had the tiebreak, meaning the Panthers would be facing an uphill battle as the sixth seed.
Instead, Middlebury fought through a tough loss to Tufts in the first set to take the next three and come away with the win. The Panthers hit .227 to the Jumbos .166, with a number of players getting in on the action: outside hitter Isabel Sessions ’19 led with 15 kills and Raffel poured in 13, while middle blockers Eliana Schaefer ’18 and Melanie English ’17 combined for 18 kills and 6 blocks.
Still, Devine stressed that, regardless of whether the team had won or lost Saturday’s game, the team would need to focus on its own play rather than their opponent in the NESCAC tournament.
“We can take any team in the conference when we play our game: this season has proven that,” Devine said. “We’ve had some of the best teamwork on the court that I’ve seen in the three years that I’ve been playing here, and I know every single person on our team is committed and willing to place the team above everything else.”
The Panthers will face Tufts at 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6. If they win, they will face the winner of the Bowdoin-Bates matchup on Saturday with hopes of making it to Sunday’s championship game.
(10/22/15 12:02am)
This season is certainly shaping up to be one of the stronger ones in Middlebury Volleyball’s recent history. After seeing their winning streak halted at ten games with a loss against Williams two weekends ago, the Panthers promptly started another streak by sweeping NESCAC opponents Colby and Bates this weekend Oct. 16-17, pushing their overall record to 15-3 on the season.
To anyone who’s been following the Panthers this year, the difference between on-paper expectations and actual performance has been nothing short of impressive.
Emily Kolodka ’18, who has served as the team’s libero for most of the season, recalled some of the group’s uncertainty from back in August.
“Coming into this season...initially, everyone was a little on edge. What [will] our freshmen be like? What is it going to be like having no established, older leaders on the team?” Kolodka wondered.
However, “everyone [has] done a really great job stepping into leadership roles,” Kolodka said. “On the court it doesn’t really matter how old you are or if you’re playing with much experience, if you can be calm under pressure… and can step up when you need to — whether you coming off the bench and...haven’t played a game the whole season, or you’ve started every game ...and [just aren’t] having a good game — that’s what counts,” Kolodka said. “I think everyone on our team has done an amazing job of that this season, and I think that’s what’s made us so successful, regardless of the fact that we don’t have any seniors and regardless of those question marks people raised.”
The squad, which has yet to lose a conference game on the road, used all five sets to take care of the Mules Friday evening (22-25, 25-23, 25-16, 17-25, 15-11) before rolling over the Bobcats in four during Saturday’s day game (25-19, 15-25, 25-14, 25-16). These two wins gave Middlebury a 6-2 record in the NESCAC, locking the Panthers in a four-way tie for second place with Amherst, Tufts and Williams.
Despite the unsettling loss to Williams the week prior, the team stuck to its principles in this week’s preparations, Kolodka insisted.
“We definitely didn’t have a different attitude. If anything, it was important for us...to keep moving forward. Especially when you come out from a loss like that, that’s so close—it makes you realize how important every single NESCAC game is [and] how important every single point is,” said Kolodka. “So we really paid attention to detail in practice, trying to do our best …[on] every rep.”
Despite their 3-4 conference record coming into the game, Colby came out more than ready to play on Friday, leading for most of the first set and finishing things off after a Panther comeback tied the game at 22-22. Middlebury responded in a hard-fought second, which ran to 23-23 before the Panthers managed to put the Mules away with a kill from middle blocker Gabi Rosenfeld ’17. It seemed that the third set would be just as close until, knotted at 14-14, Middlebury rattled off ten straight points on the service of outside hitter Isabel Sessions ’19.
Colby took the momentum back from the Panthers in the fourth set as they raced out to an early 12-6 lead. The Mules held Middlebury at arm’s length the rest of the way, forcing a fifth and final set.
Showing the closing strength that’s helped them throughout the season, Middlebury jumped out in front, 6-1. The Panthers fought the Mules’ valiant comeback attempts to finish things off (15-11) on a kill by captain and setter, Hannah Blackburn ’17. Team leaders were outside hitter Becca Raffel ’18 with 13 kills, middle blocker Melanie English ’17 with 4 blocks, and Kolodka with 24 digs.
While the game was closer than the Panthers would’ve liked, especially against a team that’s out of reach of a top spot in the NESCAC, Kolodka wasn’t one to complain.
“Wins are wins, no matter what—so at the end of the day, we’re all really happy that we did what we needed to.” Koldoka said. “I don’t think we were necessarily as clean as this weekend, …but we still pulled it out.”
The team played with more authority on Saturday against Bates, posting decisive wins in the first, third, and fourth sets by margins of 6, 11, and 9 points, respectively. They stumbled briefly in the second, hitting at an unusually low .065 clip as a team.
They didn’t look back though, hitting at .293 the rest of the way and holding the Bobcats to a percentage of .033 over the last two sets. Like in Friday’s game, Raffel led the team in kills (16), English led in blocks (4), and Kolodka led in digs (18).
The Panthers will take a break from NESCAC play this weekend as they travel to Boston for the New England Challenge. They will take on MIT on Friday, Oct. 23 and Babson and Wellesley on Saturday, Oct. 24.
(10/15/15 12:21am)
The Panthers managed to come away with a 1-1 split this weekend in their home matches against two of the top teams in the NESCAC. They decisively handled Amherst in four sets on Friday (25-20, 21-25, 25-17, 28-26), before succumbing to Williams in a nail-biter on Saturday that went the distance (21-25, 18-25, 27-25, 25-18, 12-15).
The Panthers knew they would be facing two well-rounded squads this weekend, as Amherst and Williams perennially provide staunch opposition. However, outside hitter Becca Raffel ’18 stressed the importance of staying focused on their own play and eliminating such distractions.
“We prepare for every team the same way,” she emphasized. “We don’t want to think about their overall standings. We just go into every game with the same mindset: we want to perform the best we can.”
Determined to avoid some of the slow starts that plagued the team earlier this year, Middlebury came out more than ready to play Friday night against the Lady Jeffs. Both teams displayed strong fundamental volleyball at the start, but the Panthers proved able to keep their focus while Amherst lost theirs; after forcing a timeout with a 13-8 lead, Middlebury took the next five points to go up 18-8. Not to be done away with so easily, Amherst battled back to 22-19 before two quick points from the Panthers captain, setter Hannah Blackburn ’17, brought the squad closer to finishing the set. They did so off a kill from Raffel, ending at 25-20.
In the second set, the teams stayed mostly even in the beginning, reaching equality at 8-8. Amherst tried to pull away, but Middlebury stuck around and even took the lead at 17-16 behind strong play from middle blocker Gabi Rosenfeld ’17 and outside hitter Isabel Sessions ’19. Unfortunately for the Panthers, Amherst took back control, gaining a 24-19 lead before closing out the set.
The Panthers rebounded in a big way in the third set, jumping out to an 8-3 lead on kills from Sessions, Raffel and middle blocker Sarah Staver ’19. The Panthers continued their domination, hitting their way to a 19-12 lead; not even the officiating crew was safe, as a hard Middlebury spike ricocheted up to hit the head line judge in the face when Amherst couldn’t control it. Middlebury then coasted to a 25-17 finish.
The real drama came in the fourth and final set. After Middlebury raced out to another 8-3 lead, the Jeffs clawed their way back into the match, finally catching the Panthers at 16-16 and taking a 20-19 lead shortly thereafter. Determined not to let one slip away, the Panthers arrived at match point, 24-21, behind a kill from Blackburn and two from Raffel. Amherst came back to knot the score at 24-24 and the teams traded the next four points before Sessions and Raffel put the Jeffs away for good, sealing the victory with a score of 28-26.
In Saturday’s contest against the Ephs, the Panthers’ old demons seemed to rear their heads once again, as the team got off to a slow start in each of the first two sets against a stout Williams team. On top of strong defensive play at the net from the Ephs, errors in communication and trivial penalties prevented Middlebury from gaining any momentum. For the first time in a while, the Panthers played like the young and inexperienced team they seemed to be on paper coming into this season.
Toward the end of each set, when Middlebury finally seemed to have settled down, it was too late to catch up: the Panthers dropped both, 21-25 and 18-25. However, Middlebury snapped out of that downward spiral in the third set. Raffel felt that the team came back out revitalized and ready to play how they knew they could.
“We completely changed our energy in the third set,” Raffel recalled. “In the first two we were a little flat and we realized that, if we just came out with a ton of energy, we could really change our game. So once we started celebrating every point, having a lot of fun, we definitely played better and performed.”
Strong all-around play — kills, blocks, digs — allowed the Panthers to jump out to a 13-6 lead. Of note were some incredible saves by defensive specialist Claire White-Dzuro ’19 that further energized the squad. Williams, however, would not go down so easily, fighting back to tie the set 19-19. What followed was some of the most exciting volleyball played by the Panthers this season: the two teams traded scoring, point for point, all the way up to 25-25, when Middlebury finally took the set off consecutive kills from Raffel and Sessions.
That momentum carried over into the fourth set, which Middlebury controlled from start to finish. Great facilitating from Blackburn and excellent hustle from outside hitter Charlotte Devine ’17 helped the Panthers secure a comfortable 25-18 victory and force a fifth and final set.
With the game on the line, though, the Ephs seemed to find an extra gear, fighting off the Panthers to take a 10-4 lead off the bat. Determined not to go quietly, the Panthers strung together five points on Rosenfeld’s serve to come back to within one. Falling once again to 13-10, two straight kills from Raffel kept Middlebury close. The Panthers ran out of steam as Williams took the final two points to close out the match, 15-12.
This weekend, Oct. 16-17, the Panthers take on Bates and Colby.
(10/07/15 11:47pm)
The ladies of Middlebury volleyball have really begun to hit their stride as their season passes the midway point, mowing down NESCAC opponent Trinity on Friday in straight sets (25-13, 25-19, 25-23) before proceeding to dispatch another pesky conference foe, Wesleyan, just as quickly on Saturday (25-22, 25-20, 25-18). After opening the season at 3-2 and dropping their first NESCAC matchup against Bowdoin, the Panthers have not looked back. The squad is now riding an eight-game win streak, the last six of which have come on the road. During the entire streak, the team has needed a full five sets to secure a victory only twice.
Middle blocker Melanie English ’17 was quick to credit the team’s acumen and poise, likely unexpected from such a young team back at the start of the season.
“We were a little unsure of what was going to happen, having such a young team with all these new people being dropped right into the game,” English said. “I’ve been very impressed by the attitudes and the mental toughness, especially of the newer people on the team ... Frankly, there’s even more mental toughness than last year. The moments when people would get frustrated or maybe panicked, I’m not seeing that this year.”
On Friday, Middlebury made their presence known early against the Bantams, jumping out to a 9-2 lead in the first set and never even giving Trinity a chance. The strong early play helped to build confidence for the Panthers, as they brought their high level of play to the latter stages of the next two sets. They pulled away from a 17-17 tie in the second and allowed their opponents the tiniest bit of hope before closing them out in the third, overcoming a 21-23 deficit with four straight points for the match victory.
In past weeks, the Panthers had often struggled to come out firing on all cylinders; at Wesleyan on Saturday, they continued to reverse that trend by putting away the Cardinals 25-22 in the first set. Middlebury’s play only got stronger as they won the next two sets by increasing margins of five and seven points, respectively. The defense really stood out in the third set, where the Panthers held Wesleyan’s hitting percentage to .000.
However, English feels that the team still has room to improve, especially in view of this week’s conference foes, Amherst and Williams, who sit tied for second in NESCAC standings.
“I think we’ll have a much bigger challenge coming from Amherst and Williams this week. Even when we do come out and play really well in the first set, sometimes we’ll still have periods during the middle of the game where we sort of let it slide a little bit,” English said. “Coach Raunecker wants us to be playing good volleyball all of the time, rather than just 80% of the time or 90% of the time. We’re looking not to let points go on silly things.”
As usual, outside hitter Becca Raffel ’18 had a strong weekend for the Panthers, leading all players with 13 kills on Friday and 19 on Saturday. Emily Kolodka ’18, who often plays as libero or defensive specialist for the Panthers, separated herself with 17 digs against Trinity and 23 against Wesleyan.
Overall, English expects good things from the team for the rest of the season.
“I feel really good about our capability, physically, to win. The piece that gets tougher — if you’re playing a game against Williams and you know it’s going to be really even — who wants to win,” English said. “Who can bring it that day? I think that’s what this week will start to tell us: where we are, and how much we need to do before NESCACs.”
At home this weekend, the Panthers face Amherst at 8 p.m. on Friday and Williams at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
(09/30/15 9:59pm)
Panthers’ volleyball kept the ball rolling on this past weekend’s road trip, extending its winning streak to six games and improving its overall record to 9-2 on the season. Having started the week off on the right foot with a Wednesday win over St. Michael’s, the team spent four sets taking care of NESCAC foe Hamilton in Friday’s matchup (21-25, 25-16, 25-20, 25-15), notching its first win in conference play this year. After that, Middlebury cleaned up at the Skidmore Classic on Saturday, taking down Ramapo College in five sets and Sage College in four.
Friday’s conference win was not without drama, however, as the Panthers had to scramble to get ready in New York after a late arrival threw off their warm-up schedule. Coincidentally, during the 2014 season Hamilton arrived in Middlebury about about three hours late, and went on to top the Panthers, 3-1. Facing similar circumstances, Middlebury was angling to turn the tables this time around.
Yet at the beginning, the Panthers seemed to be unsettled by the hectic rush to get ready. They came out of the gates slowly, dropping the first set 21-25 to the Continentals. However, setter Hannah Blackburn ’17 credits what happened next to the team’s tenacity and ability to refocus.
“I think we sometimes take a little bit of time to get going,” Blackburn said. “But this weekend (and in our other games) the good takeaway is that we have that mental endurance to bounce back,” she added.
The Panthers certainly didn’t let their slow start dictate the rest of the match; they quickly found their groove, ripping off victories in the next three sets by decisive margins of nine, five and ten points, respectively.
As a team, Middlebury scored its highest hitting percentage of the year, putting up a .381 (compared to Hamilton’s .214). Outside hitter Becca Raffel ’18 led both sides with 17 kills and pushed her season total to 160 over the weekend, good for tops in the NESCAC. Isabel Sessions ’19, also an outside hitter, added 14 kills. Blackburn, the team’s starting setter, poured in 40 assists on Friday; she sits second in the conference with 9.51 assists per set. Lastly, middle blocker Melanie English ’17 continued her strong play at the net this season with a pair of blocks. She is currently tied for the NESCAC lead with 1.12 blocks per set.
Looking forward, the Panthers will try to keep up their road success as they face NESCAC foes Trinity (3-6 overall, 0-3 conference) and Wesleyan (4-5, 1-2) on Friday, Oct. 2 and Saturday, Oct. 3.
Although this year’s team is young, Blackburn feels that its success will depend largely on its depth.
“For us, having that depth is really good,” Blackburn said. “If someone has a few bad points and needs to be pulled out, being able to give them a breather and have them go back in is something we’re going to be working on for the rest of the season. Everyone who’s jumped in has been ready to go so far for us, which means we can really use that depth without any ‘lag’ when someone comes onto the court.”
The Panthers will return home the following week, when they warm up with a non-conference game against Skidmore on Tuesday, Oct. 6 before taking on conference foes Amherst on Friday, Oct. 9 and Williams on Saturday, Oct. 10.