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(03/17/16 2:53am)
The Middlebury women’s lacrosse team continued their success with two wins this past weekend. Middlebury defeated Tufts 17-9 on Saturday, March 12 looking for vengeance from last year’s loss, and then beat MIT 19-7 the following day in a non-conference collision. The Panthers improved their overall record to 4-0 and are currently ranked fourth in the nation.
“We had a big week this past week with three games over five days and are so excited about how we played,” Team Captain Laurel Pascal ’16 said. “What is so great about our team is that we have so much depth and talent, so it was truly a team effort.”
Said team effort began with Saturday’s conference matchup against Tufts. The Panthers dominated the first half, scoring the first six goals of the game, two each by Bridget Instrum ’16 and Bea Eppler ’17, to take a commanding lead just 11 minutes in. Mary O’Connell ’17 assisted on two of the scores.
However, the Jumbos came roaring back, scoring four of the next five goals to pull within three, 7-4, with time left in the half. The Panthers quickly pounced by scoring another three, concluding the opening half with a 10-4 lead. Instrum started the burst with back-to-back goals.
Again Tufts did not accept defeat and responded immediately in the second half, scoring the first two goals to make it 10-6. Once again, the Panthers fired back by scoring four of the next five goals in quick succession, bringing the game to 14-7.
While Tufts retorted with two goals, this was not enough to beat the Panthers as they finished the game with three more goals, thrashing Tufts 17-9. Pascal and Eppler had three goals and O’Connell finished with four assists, earning her NESCAC Player of the Week honors. Alli Sciarretta ’16 also netted five goals in the Panthers victory.
Riding high off revenge against Tufts, the Panthers returned to action the following day against MIT for a non-conference game. Similar to the Tufts game, the Panthers dominated on the way to a commanding 19-7 victory.
The game started with a spate of goals, with both teams combining for three goals in the span of 39 seconds. The match was closest with 9:07 in the first half at a score of 6-5. However, that was short lived. The Panthers clenched down on the defensive end of the field by not allowing a goal the rest of the half, all the while scoring the final six goals. Kate Hodgson ’16 scored twice, while Hollis Perticone ’18, Sciarretta and Hailey Cosseboom ’17 each netted one to finish the first half with a 12-5 score.
Middlebury continued to dominate in the second half, scoring three more goals. Building on the scoring, the Panthers led 15-5 with 17:45 left in the game. MIT tried to respond but only mustered two more goals, and Middlebury won 19-7.
Defensively the Panthers once again gave an incredible performance lead by Maggie Caputi ’16 who scooped up four ground balls and Evie Keating ’18 who had three ground balls and caused a pair of turnovers.
“The team has been focusing on aggressive defense and dynamic attack, which has paid off . . . and has given [the Panthers] a big step up against [their] opponents” Pascal said.
After such a dominant start to the season (and on the road no less), it should be a near fever pitch environment when the Panthers host NESCAC opponent Wesleyan at noon on Saturday, March 19th in their home opener.
(03/17/16 2:36am)
The Alpine and Nordic ski teams combined for an 11th place finish at the NCAA Championships this past weekend. The Colorado Buffaloes hosted the Championship in Steamboat Springs, Colo. on March 9-12. The Panthers finished in 11th out of the 21 teams total, with 133 points. Meanwhile, Denver’s 567 points blew away the field on its way to the school’s 23rd national title. Colorado (491) and Utah (485) joined Denver on the podium, while Montana State (406) was the first team off the podium. The University of Vermont finished in seventh-place with 310 points, which led all eastern squads.
The Alpine team kicked off the action with the giant slalom race on Wednesday, March 9. 34 men faced off in the first day of racing, including Panther junior Rob Cone ’17, who was racing to defend his national title. While Cone was unfortunately unable to finish the race, sophomore Riley Plant ’18 and junior Colin Hayes ’17 were both able to finish in the top 15. Plant skied to 14th place, less than two seconds off the winning time, and Hayes finished just 0.17 seconds behind Plant for 15th. First-year racers Caroline Bartlett ’19 and Lexi Calcagni ’19 were the only two Panther representatives on the women’s side, competing against 32 other racers. Bartlett led the duo with a 19th-place effort, while Calcagni finished in 28th.
With the Panthers sitting in 10th place after the first day of the competition, the Nordic teams took to the trails at Howelsen Hill. Annie Pokorny ’16 and Kelsey Phinney ’16 served as the two Panther representatives on the women’s side. Pokorny led the pack, finishing in 12th place overall and second among eastern skiers. Phinney took home 20th place overall among easterners. In the men’s competition, the lone Panther representative was Patrick McElravey ’17 who finished 28th overall and eighth among eastern skiers.
Heading into the third day of racing, the 11th-place Panthers were on the cusp of entering the top 10. Under the lights on the evening of Friday, March 11, the slalom team took to Howelsen Hill. Hayes led the men’s squad, finishing in 18th overall. Plant and Cone were not far behind, placing 28th and 30th, respectively.
“As a whole, the team showed some strong moments and some weaker moments,” Plant said of the championship weekend performances. “Colin and I were really happy to hold down respectable finishes in the GS [Grand Slalom], especially after Rob’s fall. We are certainly left wanting more, but our team is young so the motivation will carry into the next season really well.”
On the women’s side, Bartlett managed to finish 26th, 11 spots better than her first run position. Calcagni finished 31st overall.
Nordic action completed the Championships on Saturday, March 12, with the women’s 15K and men’s 20K classical events. In her last collegiate race, Pokorny was once again the first Panther to cross the finish line, grabbing the 19th position overall. Close behind was Phinney, who finished 21st. McElravey took 23rd in the men’s competition.
“While I would say [they] put in a great effort, they unfortunately did not have their best showing,” said Alpine Head Coach Stever Barlett. But even though last weekend’s performance did not meet the team’s high expectations, the team is optimistic about its future.
“On a positive note all five Alpine skiers and one Nordic are returning next year,” said Barlett. “Our goal is to win a [combined, Alpine and Nordic] National Championship and this team is already working on that for the future.”
(03/17/16 1:26am)
Last Wednesday, March 9, Governor Shumlin visited North Bennington to hold a town hall style meeting with residents and discuss the ongoing water contamination crisis. Shumlin announced that water in the Bennington area had been contaminated by a carcinogen known as perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and assured residents that his administration would make fighting the contamination a top priority.
“We are not going to desert you,” Shumlin told the concerned onlookers. “We’re going to make sure that we not only get through the short-term challenges figuring out how we get clean water to folks on a permanent basis, not just the stuff for trucking in, then figure out how we hold whoever did this accountable.”
The spill can be traced back to a Chemfab factory, which was acquired by Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics in 2000, and shut down just two years later. Saint Gobain is currently embroiled in a similar PFOA contamination crisis in Hoosick Falls, New York, for which it has been fighting a class-action lawsuit since September of 2015. The lawsuit, spearheaded by the law firm Weitz & Luxenberg, will now include evidence from North Bennington.
In the past, PFOA had a variety of commercial uses, but was phased out by the Environmental Protection Agency due to its carcinogenic qualities. At the Chemfab factory in North Bennington, it was used to apply protective coatings onto fabric.
Saint-Gobain released the following statement following the PFOA incident: “We understand that tests commissioned by the Department of Environmental Conservation showed no detection of PFOA in the public water system for Bennington. The tests did reveal elevated levels in three private wells, as well as two commercial sites. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics has contacted state and local officials, and has offered to fund the provisioning of bottled water and point-of-use filtration systems for these locations, and others that might be affected. We will cooperate with all local, state and federal officials as they investigate and manage this issue.”
A spokeswoman for Saint-Gobain said that the company followed strict environmental protocols during its two years of operation in North Bennington. Officials at both the Department for Environmental Conservation and at the Governor’s Office will focus on testing wells in the surrounding mile and a half diameter.
Chuck Schwer, the Director of the Vermont DEC’s waste management and prevention division, explained that this 1.5 mile diameter was an “educated guess.”
“We aren’t sure exactly of how the chemical was released into the environment,” Schwer explained, “Was it an airbourne-type problem, or was it a release at the factory that just got into groundwater? Looking at the topography, understanding a little bit the properties of the chemical, we developed the mile and a half.”
Getting the results from these tests can take weeks, and it is still unclear as to the full extent of the contamination. Schwer urged residents to reach out to the division if they owned a private well in the area.
“The first step is figuring out exactly how widespread the problem is,” Taylor Dobbs, a reporter for VPR, said in an interview. “Once they know that, then they know ... where to target their efforts and who they really need to help.”
One resident living near the plant, Jim Goodine, argued that the smell radiating from it had been a problem since the mid-1970s. Although he had complained to the company that the smell was so bad at times he could not leave his house, his complaints led nowhere.
“You know, I’m a carpenter,” said Goodine in an interview with VPR. “And these were big guys, industrialists with factories in different places, and they show up in Brooks Brother suits, and you feel intimidated by people like that.”
“In hindsight I’m kicking myself as hard as I can ... I feel partly responsible that I didn’t go to the state and say, ‘You have to do something here. You have to find out what’s going on.’”
In an effort to better educate the public about the developing situation, both the Vermont Department of Health and the Department for Environmental Conservation (DEC) have launched websites on the situation in North Bennington. Bennington College also recieved a grant from the National Science Foundation Rapid Response to conduct original research on PFOA, and will offer a six-week course on water contamination and how to manage it in the spring and fall. The class will examine the PFOA molecule chemically and how this chemical might move through soil and groundwater.
“We’re going to have to learn something about how [PFOA] becomes introduced to the groundwater and how it migrates through the groundwater, and how you ultimately wind up getting it out and restoring the safe water supply,” said Tim Schroeder, a professor of earth science at Bennington College.
Still, for residents in the North Bennington area, the PFOA crisis is an immediate one. Many residents are still in limbo, awaiting the results of a week-long test for the carcinogen in their private wells. In the meantime, Saint-Gobain has offered to pay for their bottled water.
(03/10/16 4:13am)
This student has requested to remain anonymous, and given the highly personal and sensitive nature of the piece, the Campus has honored this request.
Though the John Doe case was settled months ago and he is no longer enrolled at Middlebury, I nonetheless feel compelled to weigh in. I empathized with Doe. I’m not saying he is innocent, but I’m not calling him guilty either. I, too, was accused of sexual assault (and cleared after an extensive investigation, more on that later). There is a myriad of ways a rape investigation can go wrong. There are several factors that can adversely affect alleged perpetrators, alleged victims and the integrity of the investigation.
We have evolved as a society. Student activists have fought for the rights of silenced voices. Now, previously marginalized voices are heard, and this has changed how we view some of the most painful experiences these individuals go through. Nowhere is this clearer than in conversations regarding sexual violence. I would like to believe that we are slowly moving away from victim-blaming and that we take any allegation of sexual violence with the seriousness it deserves. On this campus, I feel that it is unthinkable to stand in front of someone who claims to be a victim of sexual violence and dare ask: “are you sure?” Anyone who questions a victim publicly would be shamed and ostracized.
Yet in academics, skepticism is the defining trait of a good learner. We are taught to inquire and doubt everything that surrounds us. And so it is striking when we are prevented from doing so in cases involving sexual violence. This “always believe the victim” mentality implies that the person at the other end of the accusation must be guilty. He’s being accused ergo, he must have done it. The presumption of innocence goes out the window, along with due process. How does this affect someone? People might be reluctant to be seen with or talk to the accused. Who wants to be associated with someone who has been called a rapist? As a consequence, the person who has been accused is left isolated and confused, all because of one person’s testimony.
And the effects don’t end there. After a student has reported an incident, a No Contact Order (NCO) will be put in place. This prevents the alleged victim and perpetrator from having any type of contact. While this is a good measure, it poses a different set of challenges. If two individuals happen to have a common group of friends, or live in the same house/dorm, it will reinforce the state of isolation, pushing the accused to move out of his or her room and creating a divide among friends. This also gives the alleged victim an outlet to push his/her own version and interpretation of events. If someone approaches you and asks “did you do it?” it feels an awful lot like the “are you sure?” question we choose not to ask alleged victims.
If someone is (unofficially) accusing another person of rape and causing significant harm, could you initiate an investigation to clear your name? The answer is, surprisingly, no. You are powerless, trapped between bureaucracy and one person’s account of how things happened. At this point, I started questioning the “judicial system” we have at the College. I put it between quotation marks because it is a farce. It claims to be fair, but it lacks transparency and allows for situations like the one I described above to happen. It can make promises, but there is no guarantee they will be fulfilled. Title IX states that students will be protected and not discriminated against in such a way that prevents them from learning or creates a hostile environment for learning, yet I was subjected to a hostile environment where my social life, academic career and mental health were all in jeopardy. All this happened before an official investigation had been launched.
According to Middlebury’s handbook, complaints of this nature need to be resolved within 60 days. My case took over 150 days. This investigation extended from the second week of J-term until two weeks after classes were over. I was forced to balance the emotional burden of my investigation and my academic career for half a year. I thought it would only take 60 days, but as I got deeper and deeper into the process, the further away the conclusion to this awful ordeal seemed. For those unfamiliar with the process, it goes something like this:
1. A report is made to either Public Safety or the Judicial Affairs Officer (JAO).
2. A No Contact Order (NCO) is requested, preventing both parties from having any form of contact.
3. A formal request for an investigation is put forth by the alleged victim.
4. A private investigator is appointed to collect materials relevant to the case. The investigator collects official reports, statements and conducts interviews regarding the alleged incident.
5. The accuser and accused receive all the materials collected by the private investigator and have a chance to review them. They then have the opportunity to hand in a written response regarding the evidentiary materials.
6. Responses are reviewed and those in charge of the investigation decide if the written responses contain any additional leads that should trigger another investigation or further interviews. If the people in charge decide there is a need for further examination, the process goes back to step 4.
7. If the evidence is conclusive, it will be passed on to the Human Relation Officer (HRO) for examination and deliberation.
8. An interview between the HRO and the accused is conducted (merely a formality at this point since no more evidence can be introduced).
9. A decision and rationale for said decision is usually made within a week of the interview.
The first two steps are fairly straight-forward: the alleged victim contacts Public Safety or the JAO. The alleged perpetrator is notified and served with the NCO. The issue with this is that only the alleged victim has access to this “judicial system” and it completely excludes the alleged perpetrator, preventing him/her from ever filing a complaint against someone who unfairly accuses them of a despicable crime. Reputations can suffer on both ends. I also take issue with point five. I was promised the evidence acquired by the private investigator on two separate occasions, but these promises were nothing but lies. When the administration finally delivered the first round of evidence, it was the first week of midterms, on a day I had a test in one of my hardest classes from that term. All of my inquires before this date about the availability of the evidence was met with a firm “by the end of week” and every disappointment generated by the failure to deliver the evidence was met with a vague “next week.” At this point, I was angry and no longer trusted the people presiding over the case. It felt that they were trying to get rid of me. Midterms are difficult enough as is, but I now also had to grapple with reading approximately 15 accounts of the night I allegedly raped someone. Reading the same story from 15 different people’s perspectives, one after the other, is an incredibly tough experience. It requires mental preparation. I was advised to have someone I trust go through this process with me. After two weeks of being dismissed with a “sorry, next week,” the school finally released the first round of evidence. The presentation of evidence was incredibly disorganized and additional evidence, not included in the initial email to me, was added multiple times, creating a long, incoherent record. But I thought that this was the only way I will ever get to clear my name. There was nowhere else to go, so despite the fact that I did not trust the College officials overseeing the process, I needed to gather the courage to finish. So I followed the procedure. I wrote a response defending my account and pointing at evidence that supported it. Unfortunately for me, my alleged victim lied again and told the investigator that my group of friends had covered up sexual assault in the past. This led to yet another investigation. I had to go through points four and five again. New evidence was released “coincidentally” during the second week of midterms (this was, of course, after requesting the evidence twice again). Now the school was making learning impossible. I felt that I was being harassed using bureaucratic means with an end goal of having me fail, so that I would be kicked out. From the very beginning I cooperated with the school. I provided a detailed and consistent account of the events that transpired. Yet I felt that this was not good enough and the school wanted to get rid of me.
The College’s system for dealing with sexual assault does not give you what you deserve, regardless of whether you are an alleged victim or alleged perpetrator of violence. The “preponderance of evidence” standard employed by colleges, in which you are guilty even when you are only 51 percent likely to have committed a crime, is much weaker than the “beyond any reasonable doubt” standard used in courts. There is no reason to prove that you actually committed a crime and this leads to a weak due process. In case the school does find you guilty, you could face a suspension, expulsion or a nasty comment on your record. I have witnessed people do reckless things at parties like illegal drugs, destruction of school property and underage drinking that could land them the same punishment as sexual assault. As a victim, you could end up facing your attacker a semester or year after the incident. You want justice? Don’t go to the administration, go to the police. The college system is not a safe one. The system is very prone to make mistakes, mistakes that weigh heavily on people’s mental health. From a student perspective, next time you hear someone has been accused of sexual assault, take a moment and look at this process critically. Not everyone who is accused is guilty and not all those who report sexual assault are victims. If you think I’m wrong, go ahead, challenge my words. I would love for activists to disagree with me. There is a much needed debate regarding the standards to which we should hold ourselves accountable.
(03/10/16 4:03am)
The Middlebury men’s lacrosse team opened up the season last Saturday, March 5, with a big 5-4 win over their NESCAC rival Connecticut College, followed by a 16-10 defeat of Endicott on Tuesday, March 8.
With the win, the Panthers, currently ranked sixth nationally, continued last year’s trend of domination at home. The Panthers have now won 11 straight games on Youngman Field at Alumni Stadium after going 10-0 on their home turf in 2015.
After the Panthers held Conn. College scoreless in the first quarter, in large part due to the play of goalkeeper Will Ernst ’17 who made three of his 12 saves in the opening period on his way to being named NESCAC Player of the Week, the Camels’ Ross Thompson broke the tie with 13:10 left in the second quarter with an unassisted shot from 12 yards out.
The Panthers refused to stay down for long, however, as Joey Zelkowitz ’17, a First Team All-NESCAC selection last year, responded with a caused turnover and a coast-to-coast goal less than three minutes later. The Panthers kept firing and took advantage of a man-up opportunity at the 7:05 mark when Kyle Soroka ’16 fed first-year Jack Gould ’19 for Gould’s first career point.
The Camels, in typical gritty NESCAC fashion, evened the score at 2-2 with 2:35 left in the first half when Tucker Mscisz scored his first of two goals on the day.
Mscisz’s second tally came early in the second half when he snuck a low burner past Ernst at the 13:07 mark to give Conn. College the 3-2 lead. The Panthers had an answer, however, as Gould fed a pass to Captain Sean Carroll ’16, who smoothly finished to end yet another quarter with the game all knotted up.
Both teams continued to play tight defense in the fourth quarter as neither side could break the tie until Henry Riehl ’18 found a pocket of space at the 8:24 mark and converted on a Parker Lawlor ’18 pass.
The Camels responded quickly with 6:26 left in the game as Thompson assisted a PJ Kelleher goal. At the 5:44 mark the Riehl-Lawlor connection produced what would be the game winner as Riehl’s second goal of the day put the Panthers up 5-4 heading into the final minutes of play.
At a crucial and potentially deadly point with 4:40 remaining the Panthers found themselves man-down for one minute. Ernst came up huge with two saves on Kelleher on back-to-back point-blank opportunities only to make a third on Mscisz, following a timeout from the Camels.
After a high shot with 10 seconds left and an ensuing Middlebury timeout, Conn. College found themselves in an opportunity to win the game with a good look at the net. Unfortunately for the Camels, as was the case all afternoon, that also meant a good look at Ernst who yet again came up big for the Panthers and stopped a Derek Bertolini shot as time expired.
Senior Captain Jon Broome ’16 was happy to start the season on the right foot but he was far from satisfied.
“The first few games of the season are always interesting because every team is still trying to figure out what works, schematically and personnel-wise. Our defense played well and our offense generated some good looks, but we still have plenty of room for improvement,” Broome said.
Riehl, with two goals, Gould, with a goal and an assist and Lawlor, with two assists, led the Panther offense on the day. On the other side of the ball seven different Panthers caused turnovers. Middlebury held a 31-30 edge in shots, while Conn. College won the groundball battle by a margin of 23-16. The Panthers cleared 12-16 opportunities, while the Camels went 15-23.
On Tuesday, Middlebury defeated Endicott 16-10. Carroll led the Panthers with five goals, while Broome scored twice and assisted on four goals.
The Panthers will take on Tufts, the defending national champions, at home on Saturday, March 12 at 2 p.m.
(03/10/16 4:01am)
The Middlebury women’s lacrosse team opened its season on the road with a 17-6 win over Connecticut College on Saturday, March 5 and a 17-5 win at Rensselaer on Tuesday, March 8.
Saturday’s matchup was the women’s first contest without the leadership of former Head Coach Missy Foote, who led the program for 34 seasons. In her final season, Foote guided the team to a 16-4 record and an appearance in the NCAA Final Four. Replacing Coach Foote is Kate Livesay ’03, who returns to Middlebury after serving as head coach of the Trinity women’s lacrosse team from 2010-2014 before joining the Panthers as an assistant coach in 2015. Coach Livesay commented on her first win as Middlebury’s head coach following Saturday’s victory.
“[The win is a] nice affirmation of all the hard work over preseason,” Livesay said. “You never know exactly what team is going to show up when there is no game to scout prior to playing a new team. For us, it was important that we were able to have success in many of the new things we were trying and to have a win on top of that is great.”
Middlebury’s win was a team effort with nine different players scoring goals. However, the undeniable star of the game was captain Laurel Pascal ’16, who matched Conn. College’s entire scoring effort by adding six of her own on the day.
Pascal was not the only midfielder who had an outstanding game. Alli Sciarretta ’16, Hollis Perticone ’18 and Bridget Instrum ’16 each finished the game with two goals apiece, while Mary O’Connell ’17 dished out six assists in addition to scoring a goal herself. The scoring was rounded out by Chrissy Ritter ’16, Bea Eppler ’17, Hailey Cosseboom ’17 and Emma McDonagh ’19, who each contributed a goal to the win.
Middlebury established a fast pace early on in the contest, quickly surging to a 5-0 lead. Conn. College responded with two goals to round out the score at 5-2. From that point, the Panthers dominated the game, mounting a 7-0 run to close out the first half.
Leading 12-2 at the half, the Panthers kept the pressure on Connecticut College by maintaining a strong offensive effort throughout the remainder of the game.
First-year Goaltender Kate Furber ’19 played the majority of the game, recording four saves in her collegiate debut. Madeleine Kinker ’16 finished the game in the net for the Panthers. Livesay believes that Furber is going to make an immediate impact for the Panthers.
“She is very aggressive, vocal and quick. She also anticipates very well,” Livesay said.
The coach expects Furber to be a “big presence” within the team’s high tempo defense as the season progresses. Outside of the cage, the Panther defense was anchored by strong performances from Maggie Caputi ’16 and Jessie Yorke ’17.
“Defense was the strength of our team that day,” Livesay added.
Having an extra week of preseason before their first game this year allowed the team to “both mentally and physically prepare for the season,” Kate Hodgson ’16 said. Several members of the team believe that the extended preseason preparation was an integral part of their win this past weekend.
“As a whole, we are stronger and faster than we have ever been in past years and I think that comes from our conditioning in preseason,” Eppler said.
On Tuesday, Middlebury dominated Rensselaer from the beginning, jumping out to a 3-0 lead within the first 3:20 of play and cruising to a 17-5 win. Ritter and Sciarretta both scored three goals, while O’Connell assisted on two.
The team will travel to the Boston area this weekend for a doubleheader on Saturday, March 12 against Tufts followed by a second contest on Sunday, March 13 versus MIT. Tufts handed the Panthers one of their four losses last season in a tight game that was decided by a score of 12-11.
(03/10/16 3:58am)
The men’s basketball team’s Cinderella run came to a halt on Saturday, March 5 with a 74-72 loss to Keene St. at Stockton University in Galloway, NJ. The previous night, March 4, Middlebury held off 24th-ranked Salisbury’s comeback bid with a 75-73 upset victory, but on Saturday it was the Panthers’ comeback attempt that fell short.
After earning a bid to the NCAA Tournament with a surprising run through the NESCAC Tournament, few outside of Middlebury expected the Panthers to advance beyond the first round. Their first round opponent, the Salisbury Sea Gulls, came into the evening with the second-ranked defense in the country and a desire for revenge against the NESCAC — a year ago, Trinity knocked Salisbury out in the second round of the NCAA Tournament — but Middlebury jumped out to an early lead.
Playing in the early game of the evening, with host Stockton set to play Keene St. later that night, only a sparse crowd got to witness Middlebury’s hot start. The Panthers led 18-7 after 7:22 of play, thanks in large part to Matt Daley ’16 who had four points and a dunk in the opening moments of the game and Matt St. Amour ’17 who had six early points.
Throughout the first half, Middlebury was able to stifle the Sea Gulls’ offense. Salisbury fired up 15 three pointers in the first half alone but only connected on two of those attempts. Meanwhile, the Panthers pounded the ball inside, relying on their size advantage to shoot 14-25 (56.0 percent) from the floor and out rebound their opponent 22-12 en route to a 36-25 halftime advantage.
Salisbury came storming back out of the break, making it a 43-41 game a little over five minutes into the second half. The Panthers tried to stretch the lead, but the Sea Gulls kept fighting back, getting within one point at 62-61 with 4:54 to play.
Nursing a 73-70 lead with under 30 seconds to go, the Panthers fumbled possession and Salisbury’s Justin May came away with the steal. At the other end Middlebury denied the Sea Gulls a chance at a game-tying three pointer, but Salisbury’s All-Conference forward Gordon Jeter laid the ball in off a rebound to make it 73-72 with nine seconds to go. Salisbury then immediately fouled St. Amour on the inbounds pass, sending him to the line where he calmly sank two free throws.
Down by three, the Sea Gulls were on the hunt for a game-tying three point attempt, but St. Amour wisely fouled Salisbury’s point guard Adrien Straughn to send him to the line for two foul shots. Straughn hit the first to make it a two-point game and then intentionally missed the second, hoping to create a tip-in opportunity. The ball ricocheted around the rim and bounced out of bounds with a measly fraction of a second remaining and Salisbury in possession. The Sea Gulls attempted a last ditch effort for a tip in, but the release was too slow and the shot was waved off, giving the Panthers a thrilling 75-73.
Amidst his game-high 27 points, St. Amour became the 20th player in Middlebury men’s basketball history to hit the 1,000 point mark, finishing the game with 1,006. Daley (13 points, six rebounds) and Zach Baines ’19 (14 points) joined St. Amour in double figures, and Jack Daly ’18 grabbed a game-high 11 boards. The Panthers crushed Salisbury on the boards, snagging 37 to the Sea Gulls’ 26, and shot a terrific 21-26 (80.8 percent) from the free throw stripe.
The Panthers felt good about their Second Round match up with Keene St., whom Middlebury had beaten 83-74 earlier in the season on the road, but the Owls proved to be on top of their game this time around.
Middlebury struggled to take care of the basketball in the first half, usually a point of strength for the Panthers. Keene St. forced eight first half turnovers, which allowed the Owls to take 16 more field goals than Middlebury in the first half. The Owls were also lights out in the first period, shooting 17-38 (44.7 percent), and Middlebury failed to find any rhythm offensively. All told, Keene St. entered the break up 41-29 with Sweet 16 aspirations in their sights.
The script completely flipped in the second half, and the Owls sweet shooting was the only thing that kept them afloat. Middlebury hammered the boards, out rebounding Keene St. 30-13, and took care of the basketball, committing just four turnovers.
Middlebury chipped at the Keene St. lead over the course of the second half, playing with a single digit deficit for most of the frame. With 1:25 left, though, the Panthers’ hopes began to fade as Keene held on to a seven-point lead. Then St. Amour injected some life into his team. Despite the team’s struggles from the three point arc all night long, St. Amour confidently jacked up a three that found the twine to bring the Panthers within four, 70-66.
The Panthers entered full press mode, looking to cause turnovers. Matt Daley fouled Keene St.’s Ty Nichols on the next possession, and Nichols made both free throws, again appearing to lock up the victory. On the other end the Panthers looked for the first clean shot from deep, and it was Jake Brown ’17 who got an open look from the left corner. His attempt went far too long, but Jack Daly fought his way into possession for an offensive board. Amidst a sea of opposing Owls, Daly found Brown in the exact same spot who hoisted up another trey and this time canned it to make it a 72-69 game and Middlebury immediately called a timeout.
Almost as if it were scripted, Keene St.’s inbounder did the unthinkable on the following play and made a risky, looping pass towards center court that Jack Daly was able to tip and St. Amour corralled for the steal. Without hesitation, St. Amour took it to the rim for an easy two, making it 72-71. Daley fouled on the inbounds, sending Keene St. to the line with 40 seconds left. Keene St.’s Lucas Hammel sunk both to make it 74-71.
Back on offense, Daly erred on his three point attempt, but Matt Daley kept the play alive with an offensive board and found St. Amour who was fouled. Normally money from the charity stripe, having shot over 80 percent all season, St. Amour made his first but missed his second attempt and the Owls came down with the board.
Up 74-72 with 20 seconds to go, Keene St. had a chance to ice the game. However, the pressure must have gotten to Keene St.’s Nate Howard, because the big man missed both free throws. Jack Daly grabbed the board and pushed the ball up the court where Middlebury called a timeout with 11 seconds to go needing a bucket of any kind.
Inbounding from the left side of the court, the Panthers ran Brown off of a double screen but he was covered well. St. Amour followed Brown and received the inbounds pass. His first look at a potential game-winning three was quickly closed off by a Keene St. defender, so he found Daley near the free-throw line. Daley made a move toward the rim and tried an off balance shot that careened off the cylinder and bounced to Daly. His put back was no good, but somehow the ball once more fell into the Panthers’ hands as the final seconds ticked away. St. Amour, the team’s go-to scorer all season long, had one last chance to tie the ball game - a spinning, fadeaway jumper with three defenders bearing down on him - from the left short corner. Unfortunately his attempt hit the front of the rim with the Owls ahead, 74-72, as the final buzzer sounded.
On the night, St. Amour racked up a game-high 18 points, while Jake Brown had 17, Daley had 13 points and 13 boards and Daly had 12 points and 11 boards.
(03/10/16 3:54am)
They always say it’s hard to beat a team three times in one season. The men’s hockey team discovered that on Saturday. After defeating defending NESCAC champion Amherst twice in the regular season, the fourth-seeded Panthers could not do so for a third time, falling to fifth-seeded Amherst 4-2 in the NESCAC semifinals on Saturday, March 5 at Trinity.
Amherst advanced to the NESCAC championship for the third straight season, where they fell to Trinity 5-1. The Panthers finished their first season of Head Coach Neil Sinclair’s second stint with an 8-11-7 record, the third straight year they have finished with a losing record following 24 consecutive winning seasons. However, this year’s Panthers advanced to championship weekend for the first time in three years after failing to make it out of the quarterfinals in 2014 and 2015.
Middlebury thoroughly handled Amherst both times in the regular season, getting ahead early and allowing one goal in two games. On Dec. 12, the Panthers traveled to Amherst and shut out the hosts 2-0. When Amherst visited Middlebury on Feb. 21 in the second-to-last game of the regular season, Middlebury won by two goals, 3-1, in the seniors’ last game in Kenyon Arena.
All of that meant nothing when Saturday arrived, and Amherst jumped out to a 1-0 lead 8:48 into the contest when John Festa beat a Middlebury defender and sent a wrist shot into the bottom corner for his first career goal.
“We had our chances,” Sinclair said. “We had chances and weren’t able to capitalize on them early on in the game, so we were fighting from behind for the rest of the game.”
At the 4:54 mark of the second period Middlebury went on the power play and threatened to score numerous times. Amherst netminder Connor Girard saved every shot that came his way as his team successfully killed the Middlebury power play. The Panthers struggled on the power play all season, scoring only nine times, fewest in the conference.
On an Amherst power play later that period, Topher Flanagan found Thomas Lindstrom wide open in front of Middlebury netminder Liam Moorfield-Yee ’16. Lindstrom received the pass and beat Moorfield-Yee to the top right corner, giving Amherst a 2-0 lead.
Still up 2-0 entering the third period, Amherst’s Patrick Arena added one more to his team’s lead early on, batting the puck out of midair and into the back of the net. With only 15:38 seconds remaining in the game, the Panthers faced a 3-0 deficit and the end of the season loomed large. Seven and a half minutes later Mike Najjar ’17 got Middlebury on the board, beating Girard from long-range to bring Middlebury within two goals with 8:06 remaining.
Time worked against Middlebury from that point on and the Panthers pulled Moorfield-Yee with 3:35 left in the game. 24 seconds later, Festa scored his second goal of the game and the first of his career from beyond the red line.
Max Greenwald ’16 ended his career with pride as he scored the Panthers’ second goal of the day with 52 seconds remaining when, he got to his own rebound and pushed the puck home for his fourth goal of the season. But 52 seconds later the horn sounded on the Panthers’ season and the careers of nine seniors: Greenwald, Moorfield-Yee, Evan Neugold ’16, Terrance Goguen ’16, Ron Fishman ’16 (who was named second team all-NESCAC for leading all defensemen in points – Jake Charles ’16, Zach Haggerty ’16, Brendan McGovern ’16 and Paul Falvey ’16. Fishman made the All-NESCAC second team, scoring five goals and assisting on 12 more this season, which led all defenseman in points in NESCAC play.
“The senior class brought a lot to the table for the last four years and they’ve been a huge part of the Middlebury hockey program,” Sinclair said. “I’m very grateful in my first year back here they were welcoming and made the transition go really smoothly, and am proud of what they were able to accomplish on the ice. It’s going to be really sad to see them go.”
(03/09/16 10:49pm)
What is consent? Does consent have to be verbal, or can it be reached through body language? Am I supposed to get my boyfriend/girlfriend’s consent each time before having sex with him/her? What makes for good sex? Why don’t we talk about sex more as a community?
These were some of the questions that were raised in Winter and Spring-term Consent Workshops, organized and led by Amelia Marran-Baden ’17 and Jeremy Alben ’18. In light of recent sexual assault cases in the press and the John Doe case at Middlebury, Marran-Baden set out to create a collective initiative to reframe the way that we think about consent and encourage students to talk about sex. She was inspired by a mandatory “Consent is Sexy” workshop that she attended as a first-year at Barnard College before transferring to Middlebury College.
“The Consent Project is about giving students that space to talk about sex and to enjoy talking about sex,” Marran-Baden explained. “You’re going to have a better time if you’re open with your partner and open with yourself about what you want.”
Over bagels and popcorn, the workshop participants answered light-hearted sex trivia questions such as “how many nerve endings are in a clitoris” (the answer is about 8,000) and then broke off into small group discussions about sex, intimacy and consent. To date, the Consent Project has hosted one male-identifying workshop, three female-identifying workshops and one co-ed workshop, all ranging from six to 30 participants.
“It exceeded my expectations,” said Alben, talking about the male-identifying workshop that he led over J-term. “We really got the ball rolling around subjects that people don’t normally talk about in a group of peers.”
“I thought it was really wonderful to speak in a small circle and to share our perspectives on a generally more intimate topic such as sex,” orkshop participant Kai Wiggins ’16.5 said.
Initially, the workshop participants tended to have negative reactions about what consent means. Many students expressed their confusions and discomfort around the convoluted definitions of consent and the “he said/she said” dialogue that often ensues after cases of sexual assault.
“There’s an inclination nowadays to push back against this movement and say that so many people are being falsely accused,” said two-time workshop attendant Aleck Silva-Pinto ’16. “There have been false accusations, which is terrible, but if there’s more awareness, then more people are safe.”
After acknowledging their discomforts, workshop participants engaged in an open and honest dialogue about intimacy.
“This is in no way a blaming type of conversation,” Julia Lesh ’16 explained. “This is taking consent away from the realm ‘guys are at fault’ and acknowledging that the reason many of us struggle to confront our relationships with sex and sexuality is because of our society, our culture, the things that we watch, the things that we see and that’s not anyone’s fault.”
The Consent Project does not seek to demonize or extinguish hookup culture at the College, but instead to cultivate an environment on campus where students feel comfortable talking about sex and communicating with their sexual partner, whether it’s a one-night stand or a boyfriend of 10 years. Having a conversation is such a basic way to lead to a healthy understanding of intimacy and to normalize the various ways that people relate to sex: whether you really don’t like sex, you masturbate three times a day or you like to engage in kinky role play.
“There seems to be a disconnect between what students are doing and how they’re feeling,” said Marren-Baden, addressing the College’s hookup culture. “Why has sex become so normalized and yet talking about it has become so strange?”
“The more we talk about consent, the less we can justify fudging our standards,” clarified Francesca Haass ’16.5, who has attended several Consent Project workshops. “If this conversation spreads across campus, I think we have a real chance to close the gap between what we think consent should be and how it often plays out.”
As the Consent Project grows, Marren-Baden and Alben hope to draw a more diverse crowd to the workshops and make the space as inclusive as possible. To date, the workshops have consisted of mainly heterosexual, white students. Marren-Baden and Alben recognize that sex is in no way hetero-normative and seek to bring in as many perspectives as possible to their upcoming consent talks.
(03/03/16 2:42am)
Middlebury Women Leaders is a new club on campus founded and run by Jialong Wu ’17.5 and Mariah Levin ’17.5. The club works to empower women and equip them with skills to promote their professional and personal development. Their first workshop, on conflict resolution, will be held on Thursday, March 3, at 4:30 p.m. in McCardell Bicentennial Hall 210. President Laurie L. Patton will host the workshop.
Wu and Levin said they started Middlebury Women Leaders because they wanted to create a space where women could learn to navigate situations in which they were in the minority. They wanted to provide women at the College with the skills they would normally not get in a liberal arts context.
Levin said that existing clubs, such as Feminist Action at Middlebury and the Chellis House, do a “great job” of addressing female inequality and feminist issues. “There’s been no special attention, as far as I know, to leadership skill development. We are just here to fill in the gap,” she said.
Wu and Levin were inspired by life experiences to create this club for the College.
“Last summer, I was working as an investment banking intern and often times, the male interns got more attention even though we were doing the same work,” Wu said. “Usually they got praised and I got ignored.”
Levin attributed her interest in female leadership to a women’s leadership training event she attended in high school.
“I was with a lot of high-powered CEOs,” she said. “I snuck my way in, basically, and they were all talking about these really real inequalities that they saw around them even at their really high-powered positions. Because these were people in high positions, I knew that this was something I could experience, too.”
Although Wu and Levin said that the College does a good job of encouraging female leadership, Wu has noticed specific things in Middlebury classrooms that have revealed the relevance of Middlebury Women Leaders.
“Women students, when they ask questions, will first say ‘You know I am not so sure’ or ‘I am sorry if this isn’t relevant’ or ‘I apologize’ and then they ask the question, whereas men don’t have that problem,” Wu said. “These kinds of things result in people thinking that men should know more than women because they are more confident. So, we want to change that. We want to change how we think about ourselves and how other people think about us.”
The club will hold workshops hosted by women leaders in order to create spaces where Middlebury students can learn tangible skills to use in everyday life.
“Basically all of our events are activity-based where you can get your hands dirty with the subject matter, and I think workshops really lend themselves to that,” Levin said. “The objective is to teach students skills they can apply later.”
“You may walk away with one or two skills that you feel solid about that you may want to apply,” Levin said. “I have taken a couple of workshops and I use skills all the time and I refine them and I have more questions and it is this cool circular process: learning and applying then learning and applying.”
These skills include discussion mediation, negotiation and public speaking. The first workshop, hosted by the College’s president, will focus on conflict resolution skills. President Patton has had national and international training in conflict resolution, especially interfaith conflict resolution. She has led workshops at both Emory University and Duke University and has trained students and department chairs in personal and professional conflict resolution.
“I also think conflict management is a fabulous field in which we can be creative about our solutions. When you are managing or mediating a conflict, you have to think about all the options, not just the ones on the table. And you have to reframe issues so that people can see their way out of the conflict into a livable solution,” Patton said.
Patton decided to get involved with Middlebury Women Leaders to help women find their voice.
“I remember my first presentation in a class my sophomore year in college. It was all graduate students, and I was completely terrified. And it was only after my professor wrote a long, thoughtful response to the things I had argued that I realized that she had literally heard my voice, and heard the points I was trying to make,” she said.
“There’s nothing like that kind of bringing people into their own voices. It’s magical. I am deeply privileged to be able to be in a position to help others with that. I don’t think that women make better leaders than men. But I do think that we are missing out on some fantastic leaders if we let traditional gender conditioning get in our way and don’t take active steps to overcome it. That is true for everyone: women, men, gay, straight, trans, cis and non-cis folks. We all need to find that voice.”
Middlebury Women Leaders will sponsor a variety of hosts for their workshops and each workshop will explore a different category of female leadership.
Rana Abdelhamid ’15, president of Women Initiative for Self-Empowerment (WISE), will also lead a workshop for Middlebury Women Leaders. WISE works to empower young Muslim women through through self-defense classes and leadership training. Abdelhamid will speak about her experience working with WISE and how to empower women through entrepreneurship programming.
Carolyn Finney, assistant professor of geography at the University of Kentucky, will also host a workshop. She will speak on African-American leadership in outdoor activities.
Wu and Levin encourage all students at the College to attend Middlebury Women Leaders workshops, especially those students who wish to strengthen their leadership skills.
“Women have a lot to offer,” Wu said, “and we want people to see this.”
More information on MWL and future workshops can be found online at go/girl.
(03/02/16 6:27pm)
The men’s basketball team punched their ticket to the Division-III edition of March Madness by beating the NESCAC’s two best regular season teams on championship weekend. Two weeks prior, Middlebury (17-10) lost to Trinity (19-7) and Amherst (22-5) by a combined total of 24 points, but that meant nothing to the Panthers entering this game.
“Playoffs are a different game and it’s all about who wants it more,” Center Matt Daley ’16 said.
Middlebury earned their spot in the semifinals of the NESCAC Championship by beating Wesleyan 86-74 on Saturday, Feb. 20. On Saturday, Feb. 27 Middlebury took it to the hosting Bantams, winning 70-58. The following day, the Panthers eked out an 81-79 victory over Amherst in a game that featured 23 lead changes, clinching the third NESCAC title in program history following previous championships in 2009 and 2011. Unlike in those championship seasons when Middlebury played as the No. 1 seed in the NESCAC tournament, the Panthers were the no. 4 seed this year.
“The difference with this championship,” Coach Jeff Brown said,”was that in order for us to get to the NCAA tournament, it was very clear and very apparent that we would have to win that championship game. So I was certainly a lot more relaxed [in 2011 and 2009]. This past weekend we knew it was do-or-die.”
On Friday night, against top-seeded Trinity, Middlebury led for the majority of the contest, scoring the first basket and maintaining the lead until the 7:11 mark of the first half. Daley had eight of the Panthers’ first 16 points, kicking off what would prove to be a dominant weekend for the senior big man. Trinity took a 23-20 lead on a Jeremy Arthur three-pointer with 6:39 to go in the first, but the advantage would be short-lived for the Bantams once Matt St. Amour ’17 drilled a three-pointer of his own a minute and a half later to regain the 24-23 lead. Middlebury ended the half on a 10-2 run capped by a Zach Baines ’19 lay up to make it 34-25.
The Panthers kept Trinity at bay throughout the second half, never letting the lead go below six. Middlebury was able to halt every Trinity run with a stop and a big bucket of its own. Unlike in their
previous meeting, the Panthers defended the three-pointer well and only allowed Trinity to shoot 6-27 (22.2 percent) from deep by switching all perimeter screens and not giving the Bantams open looks.
Trinity made the Panthers anxious when Andrew Hurd made a deep three with 34 seconds to play to make it a seven-point deficit, but a pair of free throws from Adisa Majors ’18 effectively iced the game.
St. Amour lead all scorers with 20 points and added nine rebounds. Matt Daley (18 points, six rebounds), Jake Brown ’17 (11 points, eight assists), and Majors (11 points, six rebounds) all joined St. Amour in double figures.
Unlike Friday’s contest, there was no time to relax for the Panthers on Saturday against Amherst in a game that went down to the wire. The Purple and White have a long history in the NESCAC Championship. Of the 17 NESCAC title games that have been played since the conference was formed in 2000, Amherst has competed in 14 of them and, after the loss to Middlebury, has compiled a 7-7 record. That history meant nothing to Middlebury, as the Panthers refused to go away, even after falling behind by 11 midway through the first half.
Amherst started the game hot, and their nationally top-ranked three-point defense stifled Middlebury’s shooters all day long. The Panthers began chipping away at the 11-point lead with some contributions from players who do not usually score a lot of points. Jack Daly ’18 made a free throw, Baines tallied six out of eight points at one stretch, and Hilal Dahleh ’19 finished at the rim. The final 2:28 of the first half were crucial for Middlebury. After Jayde Dawson of Amherst made it a 36-29 game in favor of the Purple and White, the Panthers stopped Amherst from scoring for the rest of the half. A pair of baskets by Majors and Baines made it a three-point game, and just before the buzzer Jake Brown went coast-to-coast and made a circus shot to make it a one-point game, 36-35 Amherst, at the end of the first half.
Amherst quickly opened up a six-point lead early in the second half, but Middlebury came right back. From the 18:04 mark until there were 10 seconds left in the game, neither team led by more than three points.
After very few fouls in the first half, Middlebury was able to get to the line 26 times in the second half alone, making 18 of those attempts (69.2 percent), and keep Amherst off of the free throw stripe (9-16, 56.3 percent, in the second half).
With the score knotted so closely, every possession had a unique intensity to it. The turning point came with 33 seconds left in the ball game. Following a missed jumper by Majors, Amherst’s Johnny McCarthy corralled the board and took off down the court. With two Panthers in his way around the free throw line, McCarthy tried a hesitation move and crossed over to his left. But as he rose up to attempt the go-ahead runner, the whistle blew and the official called a carry against McCarthy, a call that is rarely seen even once during the course of a typical game. Down
by one, Amherst was forced to foul and sent Baines to the line. The rookie calmly sank two free throws, McCarthy missed
a three-pointer at the other end, and St. Amour followed that up with two more free throws to make it an 81-76 game. McCarthy’s half court three-pointer fell, but in vain, as time expired and Middlebury went home with the 81-79 championship win.
Daley was phenomenal again with 16 points on 7-8 (87.5 percent) shooting and five rebounds, despite going up against two of the league’s best defensive centers in Trinity’s Eg Ogundeko and Amherst’s David George.
“My body is hurting from this weekend, to be honest,” Daley said, “because of the shots I took from those guys, who are savages in the paint.”
St. Amour’s 22-point, seven-rebound day was enough to earn him NESCAC Player of the Week Honors as the de facto Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
Daly racked up a double-double with 13 points and 12 boards, and Baines added 12 points off of the bench.
“The biggest difference [from the first weekend against Trinity and Amherst] was how motivated we were,” Majors said. “We needed the two wins this weekend 7 and we all played like it.”
Middlebury will travel to Stockton University in New Jersey to face off with Salisbury University in the NCAA First Round on Friday, March 4 at 5:30 PM. A victory will set the Panthers up for a match up with the winner of the game between the host Stockton Ospreys and the Keene State Owls, whom Middlebury beat earlier this season.
After a 3-5 start to the season, Middlebury has played like a different, better team of late, and the Panthers are confident that their season will not end this weekend, including Matt Daley.
“We’ll keep the momentum,” Daley said.
(03/02/16 6:19pm)
The men’s squash team rounded out its season last weekend, on Feb. 26-28, when it travelled to New Haven, Conn., for the CSA National Championships. Ranked 15th in the CSA’s final regular season rankings, the Panthers qualified to play in the second division at nationals for the first time since the program made back-to-back appearances in the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 seasons.
The team had a tough start to the weekend when it lost its top player Andrew Jung ’16 due to illness. On Friday, the Panthers faced tenth-ranked Cornell. They lost 9-0 in the quarterfinal match, but played close games throughout the lineup.
Coach Mark Lewis said the team learned of Jung’s illness a week-and-a-half before nationals.
“As you might suspect everyone was upset first for Andrew and for the team,” Coach Lewis said. “He has been a great number one, captain and teammate, and to see his final opportunity to play for Middlebury taken away was difficult. I can only imagine how difficult it was for him.”
On Saturday, Feb. 27, the Panthers faced Navy for the second time this season in a consolation semifinal game. When the teams first met, Middlebury won a 5-4 squeaker in a match played at the Yale Round Robin. This time when the teams met at the Yale courts, the Panthers dropped the match 9-0. While
Middlebury’s lineup had to be shifted up because of Jung’s absence, the Panthers still played the Midshipmen closely in their individual matches.
David Cromwell ’16 and Wyatt French ’17 had to play in the top two slots in the rematch after both won in the second and third slots during the regular season meeting. Cromwell lost in straight sets but gave Navy’s top player, sophomore Jack Herold, three tough games including a 13-11 second set. French’s match went to five games in the second slot, winning the second and fourth sets 11-6 and 11-5, respectively. French dropped the first and fifth sets 11-8, but almost pulled off a third set victory before falling 11-9. Will Kurth ’18 also took his match to five games in the seventh slot and even led two sets to one before losing the fourth and fifth sets 11-9 and 11-5, respectively.
On Sunday, Feb. 28, the Panthers closed what has been an excellent season with a storybook ending.
In the 15th-16th place game, the Panthers faced a rematch with a talented Brown team who the Panthers defeated 5-4 at home during J-term.
Again, the Panthers faced an uphill battle as each individual was slotted up. But that was not going to stop Middlebury.
“I suspect that on a subconscious level Andrew’s absence in our line-up versus Brown might have served as extra motivation for everyone to step up their games,” Lewis speculated.
ahead when he came from behind Brown’s Foster Hoff in the sixth slot. Krant showed resolve in the comeback effort, as he exchanged 12-10 games with Hoff before dropping the third game 14-12. Fitness paid off for Krant as he followed a win in the fourth game with a 12-10 win in the decisive match.
“It was the longest match I’ve ever played in terms of minutes,” Krant said, “and the only time every game except for one was more than 11 points. But it was our senior’s last match so everyone was willing to work as hard as possible.”
French outlasted Jake Blasberg in the second slot, winning close games in straight sets, while Cadienhead and Kurth won in four sets on the third and seventh spots on the ladder. Cadienhead, who played most of last season in the second slot for the Panthers, played well in his return to the top three.
“I think Cadienhead’s mindset for his match was sheer determination,” Lewis said. “He’s a gifted athlete who can open up the court sometimes for his opponent. I suggested that he keep his game simple and use straight hitting to limit his opponent’s options before using lots of angles. Although it is difficult to stick with this plan, he did and it paid off.”
With the teams tied 4-4, Cromwell took the court against Brown sophomore Thomas Blecher, who had defeated Jung in straight sets at the top of the ladder earlier in the season. Cromwell faced a tough task, but with the final match of the season in the balance, he proved up to the challenge.
“Cromwell was simply impressive in his match,” Lewis said. “He slowed the pace of the game down, kept the tempo in his wheelhouse and took away the shooting skills of Blecher.”
Cromwell won a close first set 11-9 before Blecher took the second one 117. Cromwell proceeded to shut Blecher down with an 11-3 win in the third game, but he could not carry this momentum over into the fourth set as Blecher forced a fifth winner-take-all set.
“David knew exactly what he needed to do,” Lewis said when asked about what they talked about between sets. “All I said was, ‘you know what you need to do...keep doing it.’ I felt that it was important to keep things really simple and obvious so his mind wouldn’t be cluttered and so he could concentrate only on things that were effective.”
Characteristic of the season he has had, Cromwell persevered and won a close 12-10 game in thrilling fashion, securing the victory for the Panthers and a 15th place in the season’s final standings — the program’s best finish since 2012.
Lewis reflected that the biggest takeaway in his first season at the helm was getting to know his players.
“This takes time but I feel like everyone, myself included, made significant strides in this area.”
Cromwell and French will be back in action next weekend, March 12-13, when they head to Chelsea Piers in Stamford, Conn., for the CSA Individual Championships.
(03/02/16 6:13pm)
A handful of podium finishes, including Rob Cone ’17’s first-place finish in the slalom, propelled the Panther ski teams to a fourth place finish in the Middlebury Carnival this past weekend. The EISA Championship races were held at the Snow Bowl on Feb. 26-27 for the Alpine teams, and at Rikert Nordic Center on Feb. 27-28 for the Nordic racers. University of Vermont captured the title with 989 points, followed by Dartmouth (826), University of New Hampshire (749) and the Panthers (710).
The Alpine team kicked off the only home carnival of the season in a big way when Cone won Friday’s slalom race. After five top-ten finishes this season, Cone was able to break through with the win to lead the Panther men. Chris McKenna ’17 and Riley Plant ’18 also contributed to a strong team performance, finishing in 15th and 16th places. The women’s team placed three racers in the top-20 to add more points to the team score. First-year racer Lexi Calcagni ’19 paced the group in 15th place, while Caroline Bartlett ’19 and Elle Gilbert ’16 finished in a tie for 16th place.
Cone continued his excellent skiing on
the second day of racing, finishing second overall in the giant slalom after finishing with the fast first run. With his first and second place finishes, Cone earned EISA skier of the week honors. Plant tied his best effort of the carnival season with a sixth place finish, and Christoph Niederhauser ’16 finished out his successful career on the Middlebury Ski Team with a 31st place effort. The women’s team earned their best finish of the season, placing three racers in the top-12. Calcagni, in her best performance yet, placed fourth, and the duo of Gilbert and Bartlett were close behind in 11th and 12th places, respectively.
“I was thrilled with the performance by the girls in the GS,” Head Alpine Coach Stever Bartlett recounts. “Lexi pulled out a clutch performance to gain qualification to the NCAA Championships, and despite big mistakes by Elle and Caroline in the first run they were able to battle back for the best one-day team score of the season for the women.”
Nordic action also kicked off on Saturday, with the women’s 5K free race and the men’s 10K freestyle. Annie Pokorny ’16 earned her second-straight win with a time nearly nine seconds faster than the next opponent.
“Going into Saturday’s race, I knew that I would have the skis and the fitness to win, so long as I could put together the technical details in between,” Pokorny said. “We had a huge cheer squad at the start and finish line, which really gave me the energy to push through the hills, navigate the descents and send it all the way to the line.”
Kaitlin Fink ’16 tied her best finish of the year placing 13th, and just one second behind her was Cate Brams ’18 with a season-best 15th place finish. Patrick McElravey ’17 returned to action on Saturday for the men, finishing a team-best 19th. Lewis Nottonson ’19 was next for the Panthers in 22nd place, followed by Jacob Volz ’18, who finished in 26th.
The Nordic team concluded carnival action on Sunday, competing in the 15K and 20K classic races. Pokorny once again led the women’s team, finishing in sixth place. Brams was next for the women, finishing in 14th, while Katie Feldman ’18 rounded out the scoring in 27th place. On the men’s side, McElravey led the Panthers in 15th place, while Sam Wood ’19 and Volz finished up in 22nd and 26th.
Middlebury is now off until the NCAA Championships held from March 9-12 in Steamboat Springs, Colo. Both the Alpine
and Nordic teams are sending multiple athletes and have high expectations.
“It is a ski race so anything can happen, but I am confident that the guys and girls will put forward great performances,” Stever said. “They have all worked hard and we will take care of the variables we can control, and then just ski as fast as possible.”
(02/25/16 3:01am)
The women’s basketball team made their final road trip of the season on Saturday, Feb. 20. The Panthers travelled to Medford, Mass. to take on top seeded Tufts in the NESCAC Quarterfinal playoff round. As the top seed in the NESCAC tournament, the Jumbos entered with a dominant 21-2 record, highlighted by an undefeated 10-0 NESCAC campaign. The score was 31-19 coming out of the halftime break, and a dominant 26-6 third quarter by Tufts ultimately did the Panthers in.
The Panthers were paced by Sarah Kaufman ’18 with 10 points and Eileen Daley ’18 with eight points and 11 rebounds, both of whom finished their sophomore campaigns strongly.
With this loss, the Panthers fell to 12-13 on the season, including a 3-7 in-conference mark. This was the first year since 2007-2008 that Middlebury made consecutive appearances in the NESCAC playoff tournament.
The future looks bright for the Panthers. The team’s lone junior, Elizabeth Knox ’17, is the most seasoned player currently on the roster, but she was lost for the season to an injury. That left the team to rely on underclassmen for the duration of the year.
First-year Catherine Harrison ’19 had an outstanding opening year as she averaged a double-double with 11.3 points and 11 rebounds per game, garnering two NESCAC player of the week accolades and also surely in the running for All-NESCAC honors. Kaufman led the Panthers with 14.7 points-per-game, while adding 3.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. Daley started all 25 games for the Panthers, averaging 34 minutes-per-game. Colleen Caveney ’19 also came on strongly at the end of the season and averaged 7.6 points and 3.9 rebounds per game.
Middlebury will have the same core group of players for the next two to three years, allowing them lots of time to work as a unit and develop. Some of their highlights on the year included a 76-59 win over Wesleyan and a close five-point win on the road against Bates that clinched the team’s spot in the conference tournament. Looking to the future, Middlebury will have a long but hopeful off-season as they work to qualify for NESCACs for the third year in a row.
“Since we are such a young team we are all really excited for next year because no one is graduating,” Harrison said. “We are returning with everyone extremely invested and everyone already knowing their position and role on the team.”
(02/25/16 2:59am)
Wins by Nordic skier Annie Pokorny ’16 and Alpine skier Colin Hayes ’17 in the second day of racing led the Middlebury ski teams to a combined fourth place finish in the Williams Carnival on February 19-20. The University of Vermont won the competition with 992 points, followed by Dartmouth (919), UNH (720) and the Panthers with 638 points. Alpine races were contested at Jiminy Peak in Hancock, Mass., while the Nordic races were held at the Ski Jump Venue at Lake Placid, NY.
The Panthers got off to a great start in the first day of racing, when alpine racer Rob Cone ’17 took home a second place finish in the giant slalom, only one-tenth of a second behind the winning time. Sophomore Riley Plant ’18 also helped pace the Panthers, finishing 13th, while Hayes turned in his ninth top-20 result for an 18th place finish. First-year racer Caroline Bartlett ’19 continued to lead the Panther women as she has done for most of the season, earning an 11th place finish. Elle Gilbert ’16 was the only other member of the women’s team to finish, placing 21st.
Despite the absence of Kelsey Phinney ’16, one of the team’s top performers who will miss the next two carnivals to represent the United States at the U-23 World Championships in Romania, the women’s Nordic team refused to slow down. Pokorny started off her two-podium weekend effort with a third place in Friday’s 10K freestyle race. Alia Johnson ’16 turned in her best effort of the season, finishing the race in 14th place, and Kaitlin Fink ’16 rounded out the scorers for the Panthers, placing 17th overall. On the men’s side, Lewis Nottonson ’19 earned his best finish of the year, pacing the squad in 13th-place. Jacob Volz ’18 tied his season-best 27th-place finish and Evan Weinman ’18 rounded out the scorers in 33rd place.
Saturday’s events were highlighted by Hayes’s first career carnival win in the slalom. Sitting in fourth place after the first run, he turned in a blazing second run to take the overall victory.
“It was awesome to have such a big day personally and to see all my hard work paying off,” Hayes said of his win. “But, it was even better with Rob’s second place in the GS and Annie’s win in the 5K. It was just an unbelievable weekend for the team as a whole.”
Ghassan Gedeon Achi ’16 earned a top-10 finish in seventh place, while Christopher McKenna ’17 was the third Panther to finish in 25th place. Pacing the alpine women was Bartlett, who placed 12th overall. Gilbert followed in 23rd place and Katy Greene ’17 was 35th.
On the Nordic side, Pokorny’s win in Saturday’s 5K classic race was her first victory of the season, where she beat out the second place finisher by a massive nine-second margin. Johnson turned in another personal best, finishing in 18th place, while Cate Brams ’18 finished close behind in 22nd. For the Nordic men, Nottonson paced the Panthers with an 18th place finish, while Volz and Weinman finished in 26th and 29th, respectively.
Heading into the final carnival of the season, both the Alpine and Nordic teams are looking to capitalize on their home hill advantage.
“We have a number of seniors wrapping up their Carnival careers and I know they want to go out with a memorable weekend,” Nordic Coach Andrew Johnson said. “On the men’s side I’d like to see us have a full, healthy team racing. If we can get all six guys back to racing this weekend then we stand a good chance of having our best men’s showing in a few years, and if all of the women can have a strong, consistent weekend, then we have the potential to be one of the top teams.”
The Panthers return to action this coming weekend, playing host to the EISA Championships, with Alpine events taking place at the Middlebury College Snow Bowl and Nordic races being held at Rikert Nordic Center.
(02/25/16 2:58am)
The Middlebury women’s club Water Polo team successfully opened their season at the Natatorium last weekend, Feb. 20-21, where they hosted the first tournament of the season for the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA)’s Women’s New England Club Division. The Panthers, who ranked 11th out of the 16 teams competing for the 2015 National Collegiate Club Championship, emerged from the weekend in a tie for first place with their 3-1 record.
Middlebury went 2-0 with consecutive wins over Boston College and Dartmouth on day one of the tournament, followed by their convincing 11-point victory over Northeastern and hard-fought loss to Boston University on Sunday, Feb. 21.
After just four days of official team practices, the Panthers opened the season with a one-point victory over Boston College in a nail-biter on Saturday, Feb. 20. Middlebury got on the board in a hurry against the Eagles, as first-year Kate Claman ’19 scored the first two goals of her career at Middlebury in the first two minutes. Claman went on to sink three of the Panthers’ six goals in the first half, en route to a team-high of four goals.
Hannah Grotzinger ’16, one of the four senior team captains, explained why Claman’s performance was integral to the Panthers’ success.
“I play the set position — in front of the center of the goal on offense — and Boston College decided to double or triple-team me, so the shots on goal had to come from players at other positions,” Grotzinger said.
Following Claman’s initial 2-0 lead, Grotzinger traded goals with Boston College (BC), who brought the score to 5-3 by the end of the first quarter.
Co-Captain Alex Spencer-Wong ’16 then broke the Eagles momentum with a counterattack goal to open the second quarter, and Grotzinger tied the game at five goals apiece three minutes later. BC proceeded with a goal of their own before Claman shot from the outside to knot up the game at six apiece.
It looked like the teams would head into the halftime break tied at 6, but Boston College managed to score its seventh goal in the waning seconds, taking a 7-6 lead into halftime.
Emily Bustard ’17.5 led the charge for the Panthers after her stint as goalie in the second quarter, and added two goals in quick succession to put Middlebury on top 8-7.
Boston College would score with 13 seconds remaining in the third, leaving the fans on the edge of their seats with the game tied at eight as they awaited the final quarter.
The Panthers looked to continue putting pressure on the Eagles.
“Our goalie [Anna Lueck ’18.5] hasn’t been able to play recently, so some of our starters were playing in goal for the entirety of the tournament,” Grotzinger said.
“Because of [Lueck’s absence], our strategy against Boston College (and all teams) was to put a lot of pressure on their offense and guard them tightly to make passing difficult [and minimize their shots on goal].”
The game was in the balance until the very end, as Boston College went up 10-9 with 2:29 remaining on the power-play. One minute later, Claman found the back of the net for the Middlebury equalizer. Then, just as the game seemed destined for overtime, a five-meter penalty shot was awarded to the Panthers with 10 seconds left; Grotzinger’s five meter shot found the back of the net, allowing the Panthers to pull off an 11-10 victory.
The Panthers took on the Big Green of Dartmouth that same evening, coming through with a 9-6 victory.
“We were really excited before the game,” Grotzinger said. “Dartmouth has been our biggest rival for many, many years so we had a very strong desire to win before the game even started. This mentality definitely helped us during the game.”
It only took Grotzinger 20 seconds to get the Panthers on the board.
“In all the games we won this weekend, we scored the first goal of the game,” Grotzinger said. “The first team to score a goal in a game gets a very positive surge of adrenaline, and a lot of the sport is based on mental strength, not only physical strength.”
The Dartmouth game was all but over at the half, which began with a score of 6-1. “I think the most decisive point in the Dartmouth game came at the end of the second quarter after four different players on the Middlebury team had scored goals and we had prevented Dartmouth from scoring.”
“We had great momentum coming out of the second quarter, and one of our goals for the season is to be able to keep that going, even against a high-pressure defense like the one we faced from Dartmouth in the second half,” said Bustard, who scored her second goal of the game in the second half.
The Panthers held on in the second half for a 9-6 win. In addition to two-goal contributions from Bustard and Grotzinger, Co-Captain Christina Denbow ’16 scored 3, while co-Captainn Sam Horn ’16 put away one goal.
The Panthers hit the pool early on Sunday, Feb. 21 at 9 a.m. to commence a 13-2 rout of Northeastern. Middlebury jumped out to a 7-0 lead, going into the half up 8-1 over the Huskies.
“[The] Northeastern game was great because our newer players got to see a lot of game-time [where they could] practice the skills we’d been working on in practice,” said Grotzinger, who found the back of the net five times against the Huskies.
Other goals against Northeastern came from Bustard (4), Spencer-Wong (2), Julie Ehrlich ’17.5 (1) and Amanda Geller ’16 (1), while Denbow won three of the four sprints to start each quarter.
“Our team is naturally fast, so we were able to score on many counter-attacks against Northeastern — despite the fact that we’d only been training for four days before the tournament, compared to the other teams who had been practicing since mid-January,” Grotzinger said.
A few hours later, the Panthers took to the pool for the last time of the weekend against conference newcomer Boston University. The Panthers fell 7-4 but played the Terriers closely.
The Terriers jumped out to a 1-0 lead when they scored just under five minutes into the game. Grotzinger quickly answered with a backhand goal assisted by Horn.
Denbow began the Panthers’ second-quarter scoring as she netted an assist from Bustard off of the counter-attack. But every time the Panthers scored the Terriers had an answer, and then another when they scored just a minute later. Nevertheless, Bustard rounded out the quarter by sailing in a lob shot from the set position.
The third quarter began with another Grotzinger backhand goal, but again Boston responded with a quick goal to break a 4-4 tie. The Terriers followed with another three goals in the final half of play.
Despite ending the weekend with a loss, the Panthers had a successful first weekend and are in good position in the conference standings.
“I’m proud of the way we played this weekend, especially with it being so early in the season,” Bustard said. “I can’t wait to see what we can do in our next home tournament in April,” Grotzinger said.
(02/25/16 2:55am)
The fourth-seeded Middlebury Panthers defended their home court with an 86-74 victory over the visiting Wesleyan Cardinals in the NESCAC Quarterfinals on Saturday, Feb. 20. The Panthers were supported by one of the most energized crowds in recent memory as Matt St. Amour ’17 and Adisa Majors ’18 carried the offensive load with a combined 41 points.
Middlebury kept the momentum of play in their favor throughout the contest. Facing the Cardinals, who had the third-best field goal percentage defense in all of Division-III coming into the game, Middlebury tallied an incredible 45 points in the first half. St. Amour was particularly effective in the game’s opening minutes. The Vermont native opened the scoring with a three-pointer assisted by Connor Huff ’16, and outscored the entire Wesleyan team for the first quarter of the game. St. Amour took seven minutes to record his first 11 points, while the Cardinals required over nine minutes to do the same.
Led by backup junior guard Harry Rafferty, who would finish with a team-high 19 points on the afternoon, Wesleyan began to close the gap late in the first half, but each run by the Cardinals was rebutted by a big shot from one of the Panthers. Wesleyan shrunk the lead to seven with 8:11 to play in the first half, but the crowd soon erupted after a Liam Naughton ’17 three-pointer cut the deficit back to double digits. Moments later it was Huff, who usually does his offensive work from 15 feet in, drilling a three-pointer to give the Panthers a 12 point lead. The first half ended with Middlebury up by a score of 45-32.
The pace slowed to start the second half. The score stood at 51-41 with 16:09 left to play and Wesleyan seemed to be chipping away at the Panther lead when Zach Baines ’19 ignited the Panther fans with a dunk off of a pass from Jake Brown ’17.
“The crowd was amazing,” Brown said. “As an athlete you dream of playing in an environment like that.”
Later in the second half, Wesleyan was more successful in closing the scoring gap. Over a stretch of three and a half minutes, players from the Wesleyan bench added 12 points, shrinking the lead to as little as five with 5:08 to play. From that point on, the Middlebury defense made everything tough for Wesleyan. Offensively, Majors was the key for Middlebury with 12 points of his own in the game’s final 7:44.
The game looked to be over after Majors’ layup with 2:38 remaining gave the Panthers a 74-65 lead. Shortly after, Wesleyan point guard BJ Davis, a NESCAC First Team candidate, converted on a three-point opportunity. Moments later, senior guard Jack Mackey drilled a 35-foot three-pointer to put Middlebury ahead by a score of 77-71. History repeated itself on the next possession when Davis netted a similarly long-distance three-point shot, making it 79-74. With the Cardinals in need of a bucket on their next possession, Majors stepped up once again, getting a hand on two consecutive Wesleyan attempts, eventually corralling the rebound and making two free throws to set the score at 81-74 with under a minute left. Down the stretch it was only a matter of making free throws and contesting some wild shot attempts from the Cardinals. Middlebury earned the victory as time expired, besting Wesleyan by a final score of 86-74.
“The biggest thing is that we trusted each other, we knew if we left our man to help someone else would rotate and force tough looks,” Brown said.
St. Amour led all scorers with 23 points in addition to six boards and three assists. Majors tallied 18 points on 7-10 shooting and had eight rebounds. Baines might have provided the most excitement all day with four blocks to go along with seven points and four boards. Brown was effective throughout the game with his slick ball handling and court vision, finishing the day with 11 points, seven assists and four steals on the defensive end.
The Panthers are set to travel to Hartford, Conn., the site of the NESCAC semifinals and finals. They are set to face top-seeded Trinity, and with a win will advance to the finals against either second-ranked Amherst or third-ranked Tufts.
“I think we need to have better toughness [this Saturday against Trinity] than we showed last time,” Brown said. “Our help defense needs to be there like it was last Saturday. If we bring both of those things, I think we’ll be in great shape.”
Two wins would earn the program a third NESCAC title and the opportunity to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2012-13 season.
(02/24/16 9:06pm)
Politics today seems to be more about shouting insults than offering solutions. Fox, MSNBC, Donald Trump, all seem to be more interested in ratings than the issues faced by every day Americans. At this point, we are all numb to it. For years we have looked at politics in terms of red and blue and have failed to consider the motivations of our counterparts. We have refused to listen to any opposing ideas, and arguments now occur more frequently than discussions. As students at Middlebury College, we see this occurring on a daily basis. This has led us to a point where progress no longer seems possible. We believe that progress can be made with thoughtful political discourse. To us it seems that the solution to our current problem lies in better understanding the values and principles that guide us. In this spirit, we would like to introduce our values and principles.
We believe that every person has the right to work towards achieving his or her dreams.
We believe that every American is a unique individual and not simply a member of a group. We believe that each individual knows how best to achieve his or her own happiness. We are conservatives.
With Donald Trump and Ted Cruz both throwing around the word conservative so much, it is often forgotten what the word really means. When defining conservatism, it is important to remember what is being conserved. Fundamental to conservatism is the preservation of our founding principles, the right to life, liberty, property and the federal structure of our nation. These principles guide our understanding of policy, the role of government and how we solve the many issues facing our nation today. It is clear from this that Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are more concerned with promoting populism and the values of the religious right than in conserving these principles.
Conservatives care about the first generation college student who could not find a job. Conservatives care about the little girl who grew up in a poor neighborhood who was forced to go to a failing school when there was a successful one a district over. Conservatives care about the skilled immigrant who wants to start an auto shop, but does not have the money nor the English skills to comply with the licensing requirements. Conservatives care about the single mother who has to work multiple part-time jobs because she cannot find full time employment. Conservatives care about the average American.
We need to change the way that we go about our political discourse, and we want this article to start the discussion. We hope that we can focus our conversation on policy solutions rather than political attacks, and we hope that we can go beyond the talking points and delve deeper into the substance of the issues. Only through thoughtful debate and discussion can we truly achieve a more perfect union.
(02/24/16 4:53pm)
On Feb. 4, the Student Government Association (SGA) sent a statement addressing the College’s MLK Today event, Supreme Court Justice Scalia’s comments on Dec. 9 regarding black students on college campuses and the SGA’s commitment to being “supportive and proactive” in fighting racism on campus.
The Senate voted in favor of sending out the all-student email after a group of senators, including SGA President Ilana Gratch ’16 drafted the statement. In addition to the email, the SGA voted in favor of a resolution condemning the MLK event for its “highly offensive and post-racial actions” and acknowledging the problematic nature of Scalia’s comments. This prompted the SGA to officially recommend that President Patton “send an all-school email addressing the MLK Day event and Justice Scalia’s comments as soon as possible.”
Freshman Senator and sponsor of the bill, Charles Rainey ’19, expressed deep dissatisfaction with the administration’s response to the MLK Today event, which was perceived as a “macroagression” towards the black community. Rainey said that a statement from President Patton would be a start in addressing the “distress deeply felt within Middlebury’s black community” and to begin to address the “poor relationship” that exists between the SGA and students of color on campus.
Rainey commended Patton for her promotion of inclusivity and diversity on campus, but found her silence immediately after the MLK Today event “problematic and disappointing.”
“[Patton’s] silence and that of the SGA on these specific issues has spoken volumes to black Middlebury students … The SGA has failed to recognize and communicate the wide range of discontent that exists within the African-American community stemming from not only the aforementioned missteps but also years and years of institution neglect,” Rainey said.
Rainey hoped that the email would serve as an apology to black students on campus on behalf of the SGA and as its recognition of the issues that black students continue to face on campus.
According to the President of Distinguished Men of Color (DMC) Mario Alberto Picon Jr. ’17, the organization was approached by Senator Rainey and voted to support the statement released to the student body.
“Distinguished Men of Color continues to support the statement sent by SGA to all students as it aligns with the mission of DMC to continually support underrepresented and marginalized communities,” Alberto Picon Jr. said. The resolution was discussed with other cultural organizations on campus, including Alianza, which expressed solidarity with the statements.
The Senate discussed the email statement and resolution in detail during the last two SGA meetings of J-term.
Not all members of the SGA Senate agreed that this resolution was the best course of action.
“I don’t necessarily think it is [the SGA’s] place to speak for, as opposed to highlight the opinions of, various groups on campus,” Senator Reshma Gogineni ’16 said. “I think that the SGA should work harder to represent traditionally underrepresented groups on campus, but this should come through a conversation and legislative change co-sponsored with those groups as opposed to releasing statements on their behalf. Cultural organizations exist for a reason and we should not try to take over their roles.”
According to Gratch, the Senate has been discussing how the SGA can “better serve students of color and other marginalized students on campus” since the fall. This has included SGA members participating in town hall meetings to discuss what “real allyship looks like,” and discussing various relevant initiatives. As well, the SGA is considering continuing the town hall meetings that Chief Diversity Officer and Professor of Spanish Miguel Fernández led in the fall.
“I think one overriding consensus we reached is that the Senate can and should do more to be actively reaching out to students whose voices aren’t necessarily the loudest, particularly students of color and students of other marginalized identities, to ensure that we are doing our job as representatives and members of the Middlebury community,” Gratch said.
(02/18/16 4:42am)
Over the past few weeks, the Panther ski teams have combined for two fourth place finishes at the University of Vermont and Dartmouth carnivals. At the UVM carnival, the alpine team was first to compete on Jan. 29-30, while the Nordic portion of the carnival took place on Feb. 5-6.
First-year Caroline Bartlett ’19 paced the alpine women in the first day of racing with a strong sixth-place finish in the giant slalom. Lexi Calcagni ’19 was next for the Panthers, crossing the finish line with a season-best 11th place. Elle Gilbert ’16 rounded out the scorers in 22nd place. The men’s team had a difficult day, as Rob Cone ’17, Riley Plant ’18 and Christopher McKenna ’17 each went down during their respective first runs. Colin Hayes ’17 was the top finisher on the men’s side, crossing the line in 12th place, while Ghassan Gedeon Achi ’16 finished in 19th place. Christoph Niederhauser ’16 rounded out the group in 31st.
On the second day of racing, Bartlett picked up another top-ten finish for the Lady Panthers, placing ninth overall in the slalom. Close behind her was Katy Greene ’17 in 12th place, and Gilbert, who battled through some second run difficulties to finish in 38th. Hayes led the men for the second-straight day, tying for a seventh place finish. A few spots back was Gedeon Achi, who earned a top-ten finish, placing ninth. Niederhauser was the team’s third scorer, finishing in a solid 18th place over-all.
Alpine Captain Linley Shaw ’17 is doing her best to keep herself and the team motivated during a season that has been plagued by difficult snow conditions.
“In addition, I just want to inspire my team to keep improving until the snow melts! I’m optimistic that as a team, we could place in the top three for these last two carnivals.”
The Nordic ski team returned to action after a week-long break on Feb. 5-6, taking part in the UVM Carnival at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center. The Panther women were paced by the strong duo of Kelsey Phinney ’16 and Annie Pokorny ’16. Phinney continued her excellent season with a second place finish in the 5K freestyle. Competing in her first race since returning to Middlebury, Pokorny earned a fourth-place finish, while senior Nicolette Amber a 23rd-place finish. Patrick McElravey ’17 led the Middlebury men in the 10K free style, placing seventh overall. Next for the team was first-year racer Lewis Nottonson ’19, who crossed the line in 31st place. Rounding out the team’s scorers was Sam Wood ’19 with a 35th-place finish.
Pokorny and Phinney turned in another solid day of racing in the 10K classic race, placing second and fourth, respectively. Kaitlin Fink ’16 rounded out the team score with a 21st place finish. On the men’s side, Evan Weinman ’18 paced the squad, crossing the line in 19th place in the 10K classic event. Nottonson was next for the Panthers in 23rd, followed by Jacob Volz ’18 in 30th. Dartmouth won the carnival with 972 points, followed by Vermont (912), New Hampshire (723) and the Panthers (669).
A pair of podiums and a handful of top ten finishes led the alpine and Nordic ski teams to a combined fourth place finish in the Dartmouth Carnival on Feb. 12-13. The University of Vermont captured the overall title with 888 points, followed by Dartmouth (858), UNH (826) and Middlebury (645).
The alpine team kicked things off in Friday's giant slalom, where Cone landed on the podium in second place. McKenna was close behind in 10th place and Hayes rounded out the scoring in 12th place. Bartlett paced the women's team again with a 14th place finish. Gilbert finished in 22nd place, while Greene was close behind in.
In Saturday’s alpine slalom race, Hayes led the men’s team, earning a season-best fourth place finish. Cone was next for the men, finishing in seventh, and Gedeon-Achi crossed the finish line in 18th. Calcagni was the first finisher for the Panther women, claiming 16th place. Gilbert just missed the top-20, placing 21st overall, while captain Shaw finished in 23rd.
Saturday’s Nordic races were highlighted by another win from Phinney. Phinney’s win in the 15K classic race was her third of the season. Pokorny was the next to finish, coming in 11th place, while Amber placed 18th in the race. Pacing the Nordic men in the 20K classic was Weinman in 32nd place. Volz and Nottonson were close behind, finishing in 36th and 40th place, respectively.
The Panthers have placed fourth in all four carnivals thus far, but are hoping to improve on that for the last two carnivals of the season.
“We are hoping to build on the strong results from the men’s race at Dartmouth,” Head Alpine Coach Stever Bartlett said.“With a little luck and a few less mistakes, the goal [for the guys] is to win the giant slalom and slalom in the final two carnivals. For the women, we are really hoping two more people for NCAA’s.”
The Panthers return to action next weekend on Feb. 19-20 at the Williams Carnival before hosting the NCAA Regional Final during Winter Carnival weekend.
