1000 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(02/11/15 10:25pm)
The women’s basketball team has hit a rough patch in their season, dropping a handful of tight NESCAC games. The Panthers now sit at 11-11 overall and 3-5 in-conference, but are a lock for a spot in the NESCAC tournament.
Middlebury lost a non-conference matchup with the Owls of Keene State on Thursday, Jan. 22 by a slim margin, 60-56. Keene jumped out to an 11-0 lead before Krystina Reynolds ’17 scored the first bucket for the Panthers.
Middlebury chipped away and tied the game at 25-25 on an Alexis Coolidge ’15 layup on the first possession of the second half. The two squads battled back and forth for the next 10 minutes, but Keene was able to extend the lead to as much as eight with 10:32 left in the contest.
Kaufman led the Panthers with 23 points on 8-13 shooting. Elizabeth Knox ’17 was tops with 11 boards and five assists for Middlebury while also adding nine points, and Rachel Crews ’15 tallied 11 points.
Middlebury had over a week off before taking on conference foe Williams at home on Friday, Jan. 30 in a game that ended in favor of the Ephs by a score of 67-52.
Williams was able to get to the line 28 times in the contest, making 21 of its foul shots, which made the biggest difference in the ball game.
The game remained tight for most of the first half and Middlebury took a three-point lead with 8:51 left in the first frame on a Coolidge lay up.
The Panthers entered the half down just two, and Crews went into the locker room with 10 points at the break. Unfortunately, things got away from Middlebury quickly in the second half. Williams led by as many as 19 with 8:54 left in the game. The Ephs were able to keep the Panthers at bay and win by a comfortable 15 point margin.
Sarah Kaufman ’18 led Middlebury with 14 points and added eight rebounds. Sabrina Weeks ’18, who never came off the floor, also grabbed eight rebounds. Kaufman, Knox, Crews and Coolidge all scored in double figures.
Middlebury got some redemption with a 60-59 win on the road at Hamilton on Sunday, Feb. 1. The victory was an important win for the Panthers, who now hold a critical tiebreaker over both Hamilton and Wesleyan, two teams currently sitting at 2-6 in the NESCAC standings.
Middlebury extended their lead to 14 points just after halftime, but Hamilton never gave in and had a couple chances to tie at the buzzer that would not fall. Scoring was tough to come by in the game’s opening minutes, as Middlebury led 11-10 with 9:44 left in the first half.
Then the Panthers went on a 10-2 run and took a lead that would not be relinquished until there was just 6:42 left in the game. The lead did not stretch beyond five in either direction for the remainder of the contest. Reynolds went 4-4 from the stripe in the game’s final 1:12 (the Panthers were 9-9 on the evening) to help seal the victory.
Two Hamilton three-point attempts failed to fall in the waning seconds. A putback layup with just two seconds remaining brought the line what would prove to be the final, 60-59 in favor of the Panthers.
Three Panthers scored in double figures in the game. Knox led with 16 points, followed by Kaufman with 15 and Crews with 11 on 4-8 shooting (3-6 3PT FG). Kaufman earned her fourth double-double of the season while snagging 10 boards as well.
On the team’s senior night, the Panthers faced another NESCAC rival, the visiting Colby Mules, ultimately falling late in the game by a score of 66-60.
Both sides traded baskets throughout the first half, but Middlebury entered the halftime break with a narrow 27-24 lead. The story remained the same for much of the second half as well, and despite a number of lead changes neither team was able to pull away.
Colby came alive in the final three minutes of play, scoring nine straight points to make the score 59-52 in favor of the Mules. In the final 1:03 left to play the Mules sealed their victory by capitalizing on 7 of 8 free throw attempts.
Despite the outcome, many Middlebury players performed outstandingly in the contest. Knox scored 27 while teammate Kaufman added 11 points, six rebounds and four assists.
The Panthers capped their regular season home game schedule with a loss to 20th ranked Bowdoin on Sunday, Feb. 8. Middlebury played even with the Polar Bears for much of the game, but a high number of second half turnovers allowed Bowdoin to secure the 53-43 victory.
The teams exchanged leads six times throughout the first half, eventually going into the halftime break with the score notched at 24 apiece. The Polar Bears mounted a significant second half effort, starting the period on a 10-2 run accompanied by four Panther turnovers.
Consequently, Middlebury trailed for much of the second half as turnovers and poor shooting held the squad from regaining traction. However, the Panthers were able to tally a late 9-1 run which included three-pointers by Crews and Siobhan Sullivan ’17. Knox led the team with 13 points and nine rebounds while Coolidge also contributed seven.
The Panthers travel to NESCAC rival Trinity on Friday, Feb. 13 before ending their regular season on the road at Amherst on Sunday.
(02/11/15 10:23pm)
On Saturday, Jan. 24 Middlebury Swimming and Diving faced Williams College at home for their last dual meet of the season. The Panthers fell to the Ephs on both the men’s and women’s sides, losing 190.5-103.5 and 185-109 respectively. The highly ranked Ephs proved hard to beat, but the Panthers put up a fight with some fast swims, as Jamie Hillas ’15 even broke her own school record for the second time this season in the 100-yard individual medley (58.91).
The following weekend on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 30-31, the teams hosted the Middlebury Invitational, where they were able to compete with teams from Williams, Springfield, Tufts and the University of Vermont. Team scores were not recorded in this meet, but Middlebury swimmers placed highly in many events.
The men faced stiff competition from all of the teams at the meet. Only Michael McGean ’17 was able to win the 1000-yard free (9:35.08), but the Panther men secured a total of 10 second and third-place finishes in both relays and individual events. Both Stephan Koenigsberger ’16 and Matt Lantin ’18 placed in the top three in two different events, Koenigsberger in the 50-yard free (second, 21.65) and 100-yard fly (second, 51.99), and Lantin in the 200-yard free (third, 1:46.92) and 500-yard free (third, 4:43.51).
The women’s team found a bit more widespread success, starting and finishing the meet on top, with a win in the 200-yard freestyle relay by Hillas, Lydia Carpenter ’15, Ann Carpenter ’15 and Courtney Haron ’15 (1:38.98) to kick off the meet, and a victory in the 400-yard free relay by Hillas, Morgan Burke ’17, Ann Carpenter, and Haron (3:34.74) at the end.
For the rest of the meet, Middlebury women battled swimmers from Williams, Tufts and UVM for first-place finishes, earning five event victories as well as several second-place finishes. In addition to Hillas’s usual wins in the 200-yard individual medley (2:07.21) and the 100-yard fly (56.60), Kimberly Roos ’18 touched the wall first in the 1000-yard free (10:52.25), Claire Treesh ’17 won the 100-yard back (59.97) and Maddie Pierce ’16 clocked a 2:09.28 to win the 200-yard back.
“Four straight wins when not being well rested makes us excited to swim at our full potential at NESCACs,” co-Captain Teddy Kuo ’15 said.
“At this point, the women’s team is a week out of NESCACs and the men’s team is two weeks out. We’re fine tuning our swimming, sleeping a lot, and avoiding stairs to rest our legs,” co-Captain Lucas Avidan ’15 said.
The 28th-ranked men and the 8th-ranked women look forward to showcasing their hard work this season in the upcoming NESCAC all-conference meets. The women will race at Wesleyan on Feb. 13-15, while the men will host the meet here on Feb. 20-22.
(02/11/15 10:21pm)
The Middlebury women’s hockey team made the most of their week off from classes during the February break, rattling off five wins including an overtime victory over in-state rival and national number-three Norwich on Tuesday, Feb. 3. The Panthers have now won eight consecutive games, and have not lost since falling to Elmira way back on Nov. 29.
The Panthers concluded Winter Term with a weekend home doubleheader against NESCAC foe Hamilton on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 30 and 31, taking both games by 2-0 and 3-1 margins respectively.
In Friday’s opener, the teams battled through a scoreless opening period before Panther forward Emily Fluke ’15 beat the Continental goalkeeper to give her team the early lead. That score was assisted by Victoria Laven ’17 and Captain Kate Moreau ’15. Later in the period, Jessica Young ’18 converted on a power-play opportunity to increase the lead to two.
In the third period, the Panthers were able to kill off a pair of penalties as they held Hamilton scoreless until the closing buzzer. Goalkeeper Annabelle Jones ’15 stopped all 24 shots she faced in earning the shutout win. The Panthers, meanwhile, put 29 shots on the Hamilton goal during the game.
Back on the ice in Kenyon Arena for Saturday’s game, the Continentals were not able to play as closely with the Panthers as they had the night before. In the first period alone, Middlebury poured 13 shots on the opponent’s goalkeeper, with Julia Wardwell ’16 managing to bury one of those in the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.
In the second period, Fluke one-upped her performance from the night before by netting a pair of power-play goals – the first assisted by Carly Watson ’17 and Hannah Bielawski ’15 and the second by Watson and Young – to increase the Middlebury lead to three. On the defensive end, the Panthers smothered the Continentals, allowing just two shots during the 20-minute period. Hamilton was able to break through with a power-play goal in the opening minutes of the third period, but it was all they could do to cut into the lead. Middlebury went on to win 3-1.
The Panther defense played so well that goalkeeper Maddie Marsh ’15 faced only 11 shots in the game. Saturday’s finale also featured an unusual number of penalties: 14 for the two teams for a combined 28 minutes.
Following the Hamilton weekend, Fluke was honored by the NESCAC as its Player of the Week for women’s hockey. The senior forward recorded eight points on six goals and two assists during the week, including her 100th career point in Saturday’s game. Fluke now leads the NESCAC in points with 1.72 per game.
After the pair of home conference wins, the Panthers had a quick turnaround before they hosted Norwich on Tuesday, Feb. 3. The game presented a postseason-quality matchup of two of the top teams in Division-III hockey, as the Panthers came in ranked fourth in the country and the Cadets ranked third.
The first period of play was quiet on all fronts, with neither team seeing any man-up time during 20 minutes of scoreless play. That all changed in the 13th minute of the second period, however, when Norwich’s Rachel Bellio beat Marsh to give the visitors a 1-0 advantage. A Middlebury power play in the period’s final minutes came up empty, and the Panthers went into the locker room for the second break needing a goal to force extra time.
Middlebury got the opportunity they were looking for when Norwich’s Liz Gemmiti was sent to the box for tripping in the sixth minute of the third period. Less than a minute later, Bielawski took a feed from Watson and Young and buried it in the Cadet goal to even the game at one goal apiece. The Middlebury defense again came up big in the period’s closing minutes, killing off a penalty to run out the clock on regulation.
The overtime period was over quickly. Katie Mandigo ’16 – with help from Maddie Winslow ’18 and Moreau – scored in the 43rd second of the period to send Middlebury to a sudden victory.
Marsh again got the win for Middlebury against Norwich, stopping 16 of the 17 shots she faced in the game.
The following Friday, Feb. 6, Middlebury travelled to Connecticut College for a weekend road doubleheader against the Camels. Conn. College came into the series as the third-place team in the NESCAC despite a pedestrian 6-6-2 conference record. In order to cement their status as a league contender, the Panthers needed to make a statement against the upstart Camels.
In Friday’s game they did just that. Despite 12 shots on goal in the opening period, the Panthers were unable to break through and score. The shooting barrage continued into the second period, with Middlebury sending another 18 shots on the Camel goal before Winslow was able to convert a power-play opportunity for a 1-0 lead.
Conn. College notched an equalizer in the opening minutes of the final period. After going back on the power play, the Panthers got just the boost they needed from Kelly Sherman ’17, who scored her fifth of the year to give her team the lead. Conn. College pulled its goalie as the period wound down, resulting in empty-net Panther goals from Fluke and Young.
The Panthers got out to a fast start in Saturday’s finale. Young scored a first-period goal for a 1-0 lead, before Bielawski’s third of the year gave Middlebury a two-goal advantage. After the teams traded power-play opportunities in the final period, Mandigo converted a feed from Laven to bring the game to its final 3-0 score in favor of Middlebury.
Now holders of a 16-2-3 overall record and an 11-1-2 mark in conference play, Middlebury has moved up to third in the national poll and assumed the top spot in the NESCAC standings. While they will almost certainly be returning to the NCAA postseason in 2015, the Panthers will first need to finish out their season with a pair of games against Williams on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 13 and 14, as well as a final matchup with number-two Plattsburgh the following weekend.
(02/11/15 10:19pm)
The track teams bracketed their Feb Breaks with meets, competing in the Tufts Stampede & Multi on Saturday, Jan. 31 and the Dartmouth Indoor Classic on Saturday, Feb. 7. The teams originally planned to host a meet in the new Virtue Field House on Jan. 31, but construction delays led to a last minute change of plans and a trip to Medford. Despite these delays, the teams have continued to perform well, breaking school records and recording individual victories in competitive fields.
At Tufts, the women were led by Maddie Pronovost ’17, who took fifth in the pentathlon with a school record score of 2897. The events in the pentathlon include the 60m hurdles, the high jump, the shotput, the long jump, and the 800m, and an athlete’s mark in each event earns a certain number of points. The highest total score wins.
“Knowing that I have good events and bad events takes pressure off me, because I know that if I do not do well in one event, I can make up for it in another event,” Pronovost said of the pentathlon. “This makes competing much more fun, because there are so many events to test your athleticism in.”
Alex Morris ’16 continued her comeback, winning the 600m in a time of 1:41.21 with her teammates, Paige Fernandez ’17 and Kate McCluskey ’18, not far behind, taking third and fourth with times of 1:42.18 and 1:43.30, respectively. In the mile, Erzsie Nagy ’17 led a Panther stampede, winning the event in 5:12.22 while leading Robin Vincent ’18 to a second place finish in 5:13.90 and Sarah Guth ’15 to third just two hundredths behind Vincent. Katie Carlson ’15 joined the winners club, taking the 5000m in 18:03, more than 14 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor. The final winner of the day was Hannah Blackburn ’17, who leaped 16’7.75’’ in the long jump, a half-foot farther than her nearest competition.
Sam Cartwright ’16 paced the men at Tufts, winning the mile in 4:20.70. Sam Klockenkemper ’17 was right behind to complete a Middlebury 1-2 finish, racing to a time of 4:21.06. Nick Blelloch ’16 recorded his first collegiate victory by taking the 60m hurdles. Blelloch ran a personal best of 9.12 seconds in the trials to be the third fastest qualifier and smashed that best by running 8.95 seconds in the final, edging out two Tufts runners. Other strong performances were turned in by Will Bain ’15, who took third in the 60m by running 7.20 and Kevin Wood ’15, whose 5000m time of 14:53 was good for third as well.
A week later, the teams convened at Leverone Field House at Dartmouth College. The women’s day was highlighted by the 3000m. Alison Maxwell ’15 won the event in a school record time of 10:10. Adrian Walsh ’16 — making her track debut as a Panther — finished third in 10:16 and was followed closely by Vincent and Nagy, taking fourth and fifth in times of 10:17.88 and 10:17.91. Rookie Brianna Bisson ’18 ran her best race of the year to finish fifth in the 1000m, recording a personal record of 3:05.16. Summer Spillane ’15 made her indoor debut by taking third place in the mile with a time of 5:16.
On the men’s side, Cartwright took home his second victory in as many weeks, this time winning the 1000m in 2:31.53, the second fastest time in Middlebury history.
“I’m not really used to running the 1000,” Cartwright said. “It was my second time ever running it, so I basically hung back and hoped for a fast race.
Kevin Serrao ’18 continued his strong rookie year by taking third in Cartwright’s race with a time of 2:32.08. Wilder Schaaf ’14.5 — who missed the previous week’s race due to his Feb graduation — was the second place finisher in the 3000m, finishing in 8:42. Luke Carpinello ’16 was second in the 800m by running 1:58.75, finishing just a hundredth of a second ahead of a Williams competitor.
The teams will travel to Boston this week to compete in the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational on Feb. 13 and 14 for one of the biggest meets indoor meets in the country. The combination of BU’s blazing fast banked 200m track — nicknamed the Launching Pad for the fast times it has produced.
(02/11/15 10:18pm)
The ski teams participated in three carnivals surrounding the February break, taking fourth at all three. UVM hosted a carnival at Stowe on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 23 and 24, followed by the St. Michael’s Carnival the following weekend. The teams then traveled to Dartmouth on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 6 and 7.
At the UVM carnival, the men’s nordic team began the weekend with in the 10K skate race with a seventh place finish. Patrick McElravey ’17 placed 15th in the race after posting a time of 26:24.2. His teammates Adam Luban ’17 and Jacob Voltz ’18 placed 19th and 51st with times of 26:42.2 and 28:03.2, respectively. The next day, the men took sixth in the 15K classic race. McElravey paced the team with his first top 10 of the season, taking eighth after completing the course in 42:31.3, 55 seconds off the winning time. Voltz came in 30th while Evan Weinman ’18 came in 31st with a time of 44:27.2, three seconds behind his teammate.
The women’s nordic team fared better. Friday’s 5K skate saw the team put all three racers in the top 10, lead by Heather Mooney ’15 who placed third with a time of 14:35.3, 25 seconds off the pace. Kelsey Phinney ’16 placed ninth in the race in 14:48.4, nine seconds ahead of Stella Holt ’15 in 10th. Despite these individual performances, UVM and UNH were both able to best the women in the race, leading to a third place finish for the Panthers. On Saturday in their 10K classic race, the women again placed third, with Mooney coming in at 33:31.5, 55 seconds behind the winner for fourth place. Phinney came in 7 seconds behind Mooney in seventh place. Holt finished another minute back in 18th place.
On the alpine side of the carnival, the women improved on last weekend’s result to place fifth in the GS race. Mary Sackbauer ’15 again led the team with a 10th place finish of 2:15.53. Elle Gilbert ’16 and Katelyn Barclay ’15 also scored for the Panthers in 12th and 16th, respectively.
“As a whole our girls team had a strong finish,” Sackbauer said of the GS showing. “That was the first time in my four years that all six girls were in the top 30.”
On Saturday, the women took sixth in Slalom. Sackbauer again finished first for Midd, taking 10th with a combined time of 2:00.02. Barclay took 20th, 8 seconds behind Sackbauer, and Yina Moe-Lange ’15 took 22nd, another second behind.
The men’s team fared well in the GS competition, finishing second, the leading the Panthers with the highest place finish. On Saturday, Rob Cone ’17 won his second straight GS race. On each run, he placed second and his consistency earned him the top time, 2:08.12, 0.59 seconds clear at the top. Christopher McKenna ’17 placed 12th with a time of 2:10.61, and Ghassan Gedeon-Achi ’16 placed 15th, finishing with a combined time of 2:10.86.
In slalom, UVM swept the top four spots after Cone was disqualified for missing a gate on the second run. Middlebury posted a fourth place finish led by McKenna (1:54.12) in 15th, and the duo of Jack Schibli ’18 (1:55.62) and Christoph Niederhauser ’16 (1:56.07) who came in 20th and 21st, both scoring their first points of the season for the Panthers.
At the St. Michael’s carnival on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 30 and 31, the fourth place showing was highlighted on the nordic side by a Panther win in the women’s 5K classic race, and a second place showing in the mixed 4x3K skate relay. In the relay, the two teams of four combined to take second, but Holt, Luban, Mooney, and McElravey crossed the line first by 11 seconds. Mooney also won the individual 5K classic race, with Holt and Phinney in the top 10.
On the alpine side, Barclay, Sackbauer, Kara Shaw ’15, and Moe-Lange all put in top 15 finishes for the panthers for a fourth place finish in GS. Cone again led the men’s GS squad, finishing a half second clear at the top, with McKenna in sixth and Devon Cardamone ’18 in 35th for a third place team showing.
The women also placed fourth in slalom with Sackbauer in 9th, Barclay in 16th, and Gilbert in 21st. The men suffered a sixth place showing in Slalom: Cone placed third and McKenna 15th, but no other panther finished both runs.
The Dartmouth carnival saw another fourth place finish, the third consecutive carnival with UVM, Dartmouth, UNH and Middlebury in the same order. For the first time on the carnival circuit this season, Cone did not win the giant slalom race, coming in second by 0.19 seconds. McKenna (sixth) and Gedeon-Achi (10th) turned in two top 10 times to see the team to a second place finish in the event. The women again put four racers, in the top 15 for a fourth place finish in GS. Gilbert, Shaw and Sackbauer scored for the panthers, placing 11th, 12th and 14th, respectively.
On the nordic side, Mooney led the women both days, winning the classic sprint on Friday. Phinney placed fourth while Nicolette Amber ’16 was 14th. Mooney followed her win with a second place finish in the 10K with a time of 30:51, with Phinney in seventh and Amber in 23rd.
McElravey paced the men with a seventh-place finish in the sprint race. On Saturday, McElravey brought the Panthers home in the 10K with a 20th-place finish in 27:43. Luban followed in 23rd (27:55), while Volz rounded out the scoring.
All teams return to compete on home turf on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 13 and 14, at the Middlebury Carnival.
(02/11/15 9:38pm)
Imagine going online and with just clicks having access to the status of all the laundry machines at the College. No dragging your gargantuan laundry bag down snowy paths only to discover the machine you wanted is full. No waiting hours for a machine to open up. No forgoing laundry for weeks because every machine you try seems to be broken.
This is the Middlebury that Sophomore Senator Karina Toy ’17 envisions. Toy has been working since January 2015 to create legislature implementing LaundryView, a new technology that would allow students to check the status of the College’s laundry machines remotely. With a site similar to Papercut, Toy describes, students could log on and instantly view whether laundry machines in any building are “Available,” “In Use,” “Idle” (stopped but have not been emptied) or “Unavailable.”
In the SGA’s 2015 Middlebury Student Life Survey, 71.77 percent of students who participated in the survey voted “Yes” in approval of the LaundryView system whereas only 33.8 percent of students said they were satisfied with laundry services as they currently are.
Toy explains the appeal of LaundryView: “I am a person who plans my day down to the T. So being able to plan when is best to do my laundry, showing up and having a machine available, or to know that there is a machine available before I even leave is a great thing.”
Toy says the system would also allow the school to monitor laundry machine use, collecting data that would allow them to decide where best to put future machines. This data could help the College please the 39.01 percent of respondents who complain that there are not enough machines near where they live, according to the SGA’s survey.
Additionally, through the system, Facilities Services would be able to be notified when machine are broken or malfunctioning, permitting them to address problems more quickly; currently, Facilities relies on students or custodians reporting broken machines to get their information. 32.55 percent of students who responded to the SGA survey said there were not enough functioning machines at the College.
LaundryView is already in use at many of the College’s peer institutions including Williams, Bowdoin, Trinity, Tufts and Wesleyan. Its use was suggested in SGA meetings in 2012 by former SGA President Charlie Arnowitz ’13 but was shifted to the backburner at the time because of other more pressing budget issues.
Of the fifteen buildings on campus with laundry facilities for students, Toy proposes LaundryView be implemented in ten: Atwater, Coffrin, Forest, Gifford, Hadley, Hepburn, Kelly, LaForce, Painter and Stewart. The proposal excludes facilities in social houses for the time being because, according to Toy, they are less in demand and easier for students to check the availability in the traditional way than the other, larger student residences.
The hurdle standing between Toy and the approval of LaundryView is funding. LaundryView is a system produced by Mac-Gray, the College’s current laundry machine provider, but would require the addition of Ethernet in the laundry rooms. Assistant Treasurer Tom Corbin, who has been working in conjunction with Toy on this project, estimates that the installation cost of LaundryView would be 6,000 to 7,000 dollars in addition to the cost of putting Ethernet capacities in every laundry room. Furthermore, according to Toy, the annual costs of LaundryView would be $2.75 per machine per month. This means that funding LaundryView could cost upwards of $11,000 in the first year alone.
The SGA believes these costs should be paid for by the administration not by the Student Activities Fee, the money the SGA has available to spend, because, in the words of SGA Chief of Staff Danny Zhang ’15, LaundryView is an “infrastructure-related cost.”
Corbin, however, takes the opposite opinion, affirming that funding should come from the SGA because “LaundryView is a convenience item for students.” To address student dissatisfaction with laundry services, Corbin’s office and the College’s Residential Life team has already added several additional laundry around campus in the past five years to address student complaints that laundry facilities were too far from their living spaces.
This question over the funding of LaundryView situates itself in the larger context of the debate about where the administration’s funding should begin and where should the SGA be responsible, a debate that Zhang says is constant. Still, Zhang is hopeful that the shared desire for efficiency on behalf of students and the College will push LaundryView and other similar technological improvements into approval.
“We’re always looking to do things more efficiently on this campus and members of the SGA [are] not the only people who are looking for that. […] [LaundryView] is part of a larger trend. We want to make use of technology if it is beneficial to students and the survey shows that LaundryView would be beneficial to students.”
If approved this spring, LaundryView could be available to students as early as Fall 2015.
(01/21/15 11:53pm)
On Wednesday, Jan. 14, Cursive Coffee posted on its Facebook page that it would be closing its doors as of Saturday, February 21. Located at 58 Main Street, this progressive espresso bar will shut down just eight months after it’s opening on Friday, June 13.
Jim Osborn and Sam Clifton, who met working at Uncommon Grounds, co-founded Cursive Coffee in June 2013. After running a successful pop-up espresso bar inside of Barge Canal Market, an antique shop in Burlington, the team was ready to advance their business to the next level.
“What sincerely makes our product unique,” Jim Osborn articulates, “is a relentless emphasis on transparent quality. We buy exceptional coffee, roast it with neurotic affection, and do our best to ensure that its flavor profile evokes what makes it inherently special and absolutely delicious.”
With their success building, Cursive Coffee caught the attention of Anne Barakat, a Middlebury-based architect and designer, who was in the process of launching Boo + Roxy, a design collaborative. Together, the two companies launched their Main Street storefront to combine a collaborative workspace with an artisanal espresso bar.
Alexis Hughes ’17.5 expressed her appreciation for the coffee shop. “I like Cursive Coffee because it is an atmosphere that isn’t present in any other part of Middlebury – this new-age kind of coffee shop that’s simple and quiet, reminiscent of some of my favorite places back home.”
Sue Stroud-Spyers a Middlebury resident who works at the local library, Sweet Cecily, and takes classes at CCV, voiced a different sentiment. “When Cursive Coffee opened I wanted to try it out. I went twice, but it was closed each time I went, even though it was during the middle of business hours. Carols has always been more convenient for me, so I just went back to my normal routine and sort of forgot about it.”
Despite its initial promise, Cursive Coffee will be closing its doors because its owners were unable to negotiate reasonable terms for the renewal of their lease; its closing sparks questions about the town of Middlebury’s ability to create lasting upward mobility for its local businesses.
Jim Osborn describes the uphill battle for small businesses as “very unpoetic,” and further suggests, “it’s the sort of situation that forces many businesses to vacate their storefronts prematurely. Increasing expenses at a rate that is grossly disproportionate to rate of growth stymies financial sustainability before it has an earnest chance to be assessed for future viability.”
Nancie Dunn, owner of Sweet Cecily, whose store has been in business on Main Street for 28 years offered what she believes, is required for a local business owner to find success in Middlebury. “I think in general you have to know your market and understand the town. You have to have a good product mix and be on top of the vibe of the town. You have to know where you are and what the community is like, and realize that you need to serve and appeal to a mix of locals, tourists, and college-aged students.”
Since announcing the store’s closing, Osborn has had time to reflect on the store’s identity and possibly what went wrong.
“I don’t think that we were truly given enough time to garner widespread community support. Furthermore, we have always been aware and unapologetic about our oddities- lack of food, lack of drip coffee, lack of tea, lack of wifi, lack of ample seating, lack what we perceive as frivolous appeasements to arbitrary conceptions of what a café needs to contain- but all of this was completely deliberate. These choices may have lost us business, but I don’t we had enough time to be sure. Either way, they were fundamental to our identity.”
Jamie Gaucher, Middlebury’s first-ever director of business development, whose role marks the mutual effort of both the College and the town to bring new economic vitality and more jobs to the town of Middlebury, offers his own comments on the vitality of local businesses in Middlebury.
“I think it demonstrates that Middlebury is not unlike any other community in Vermont or New England where some businesses experience exponential growth and some struggle or are unsuccessful,” said the New York native. “I remain convinced that Middlebury is and will continue to be a place where entrepreneurs can be successful.”
Cursive Coffee’s unique identity only targeted a niche market, and although it did create a particular, dedicated following, its expensive prices and uncompromising style did not accommodate to the larger community.
Despite Cursive Coffee’s short-lived career in Middlebury, Mr. Gaucher remains hopeful. “I don’t anticipate any negative effect associated with the unfortunate closing of this business,” said the New York native. “Middlebury’s designated downtown district has experienced change over the years and consequently, I’m hopeful that the space will be occupied by another business shortly.”
(01/21/15 11:12pm)
J-term is generally recognized as a time for intensive academic exploration of typically non-traditional subjects, and the unique format of the four-week semester allows for a variety of options not present during a full semester. This year, Isaac Baker ’14.5 is spending his last J-term leading a student-taught course, ‘Microgrid Feasibility Study,’ with a small group of 13 students.
A microgrid is a smaller, more localized version of the larger power grid that brings distributed energy resources like wind, solar and natural gas closer to where energy is being used. In this case, the larger power grid in the area is operated by Green Mountain Power (GMP), which currently supplies approximately 80 percent of the College’s electrical demand.
The creation of a microgrid would allow the College’s electrical system to better withstand extreme climate events because the microgrid can operate as an island, called ‘islanding,’ allowing the community to operate independently without the larger grid in emergency situations. Energy for this kind of scenario could be generated by the biomass plant, which accounts for the other 20 percent of the College’s electrical needs, and a large part of the course is based on research of other sustainable energy methods to meet needs in the case of a major disaster like an ice storm.
Since microgrids encourage efficiency – production and transportation of energy from hundreds miles away allows for 30 percent of energy burned to reach the College, while microgrids would allow a 70 to 80 percent return – they create financial incentive to build solar panels or invest in other areas of renewable resources. The utility company provides a more marginal service in with this infrastructure.
The idea, which is steeped in academic grounding, first struck Baker while attending the Middlebury College School of the Environment in the summer of 2014, and it developed during a follow-up independent study this fall as he simultaneously crafted an application to teach the J-term course.
“I came out of the summer really jazzed about this idea and the resilience of the college energy system,” Baker said. “I know that there was a student-led course last winter, ‘A People’s History of Middlebury,’ but this was the only other student-led course I had ever heard of at the College. I was really inspired by this kind of alternative, activist-y history that people were really into. So I thought, let’s take that and do something else with it.”
The process of submitting an application is relatively simple, with interested students treated much like visiting professors with the exception of a twelve-student enrollment cap and the involvement of a faculty advisor. Interested students, who are usually upperclassmen, speak with the registrar in the fall to express interest in the option. Baker tried to be realistic in his academic goals, especially knowing that his topic relied heavily on a lot of information not yet obtained.
“I spent the fall interviewing consultants and experts who have been involved in this sort of thing for years. The end goal is a conceptual design, where we spend four weeks and hopefully by the end we get to what I call the 10 percent plan. We can’t build a micro-grid with only the information we have because there’s knowledge that we lack and a lot of work that hasn’t been done. The goal is to reach the next step and hand it off to a consulting firm who would look at it and say ‘Let’s see how the rubber hits the road and get you to 80 percent.’”
As the idea percolated in Baker’s mind, he was concurrently reading about the history of carbon neutrality on campus through the efforts of many of the founders of 350.org, a group committed to cutting carbon and CO2 emissions founded by Bill McKibben and students in 2007. This group created a ‘Midd Shift Report,’ which went to the Board of Trustees and led to the adoption of carbon-neutrality goals completely driven as a result of student efforts. In his desire to envision the future of carbon neutrality once it has been achieved, Baker eagerly took the opportunity to teach a course less about grades and more about ideas.
Instead of opting for a more traditional lecture-discussion format like that used in last year’s student-led course, Baker wanted to draw on his experience with horizontal leadership and project-oriented campaign planning with Sunday Night Group (SNG), creating a forum where all participants were viewed as equals.
“The actual amount of me just writing information on the board is a very small percentage of class,” Baker said. “Most of it is facilitating discussion or calling on and helping other people share research they’ve done with the rest of the group. Really they’re the ones doing the work, they’re the ones creating this.”
Zach Berzolla ’18 decided to take the course because he wanted to explore innovative, alternative energy options for the College.
“We’ve been looking at some of the stuff going on at other campuses, and most schools are doing it because it makes pure financial sense,” Berzolla said. “We’re hoping to approach it with a little bit more of an environmental twist. If we go ahead and find some sort of renewable resource, ours will, to my knowledge, be pretty unprecedented, because very few are set up where the entire microgrid is renewable. Most have mixes and are based on fossil fuels.”
Baker has been pleasantly surprised by the initiative taken by the students. About half of the students in the course worked with Baker independently in the fall in the national *SparkCleanEnergy innovation competition to design a grid resilience API, winning third place, a $1,000 prize and a trip for two students to the ARPA-E Innovation Summit in Washington D.C. Through this team-based project on grid resilience, these students became more energized and confident about furthering their research on the topic.
“They are pulling from many disciplines and previous experiences. For example, some students have brought in some research on distributive generation that I hadn’t even thought of,” he said.
Berzolla explained that the class dynamic in the course extends beyond the usual class meetings.
“Our class ends at 4 but we always stay longer,” Berzolla said. “Conversations always continue. Class ends but things don’t really end.”
Though Baker has spent the better part of half a year carefully planning the course, he has adapted to unplanned challenges as they arise. Baker had assumed that implementing community guidelines would be an easy, intuitive process, but navigating group dynamics is always tricky, and Baker has adapted the curriculum to facilitate a comfortable environment for all class members.
“It’s so easy to just drift through a class and not really see the people you’re there with,” Baker said. “Forming an academic and intellectual community is really hard to do, so I think on a broad level what I’m most happy about is that people are really connecting. We’re spending time with each other inside of and outside of class in these formal and informal settings that are allowing people to get to know each other really well. It’s really special knowing that after I’ve graduated I’ll have people I have shared a really important part of my college experience with.”
Instead of instilling passion in students for only four or twelve weeks, the unique design of Baker’s course is inspiring long-term involvement among younger participants.
Berzolla is passionate about the opportunity to stay with this project throughout his time at the College.
“For me, and I think a lot of the other freshman, this will be our baby going forward,” he said. “This is something we worked on and proposed and it’s something we want to see get done.”
“I think it’s something we will all be passionate about. It will take time, but my hope is that we will see it happen while we’re here,” Berzolla said.
During the final week of the course, on Wednesday, Jan. 28, students in the course will present their original research on college infrastructure, information on the 10 percent conceptual plan, how other students can get involved and how the project will manifest in the future. Taking place at 4 p.m. in the Orchard Room of Hillcrest, the final presentation will be open to the community, with snacks provided by the Campus Sustainability Coordinators (CSCs).
In the coming weeks, Baker will be meeting with a variety of professors to discuss how smaller pieces of the puzzle he has been exploring can be integrated in the curriculum of other classes in the spring. His next meeting is with Professor of Psychology Michelle McCauley to discuss her spring 2015 Environmental Psychology course.
Luke Linden contributed reporting.
(01/21/15 11:06pm)
“On Tuesday, January 13, about 45 people gathered in front of Mead Chapel for a ‘rejection rally’ against the Keystone XL pipeline, joining over 130 rejection rallies nationwide. Encouraged by 350.org and 350 Massachusetts, rallies took place all across the country in the wake of Nebraska’s decision to allow the pipeline to pass through.” - The Middlebury Campus, “Students and Vermonters Rally Against - and For - the XL Pipeline,” Jan. 15
***
For the last five years, since the commissioning of the Keystone XL pipeline, there has been spirited debate from every imaginable sector of the American public as to the pipelines benefits or lack thereof. As the 114th Congress prepares to push the pipeline through and President Obama threatens to veto any such order, it would appear that the debate is continuing its familiar path. However, one variable in the Keystone XL pipeline debate has changed since the issue came to the forefront of the news cycle: oil prices have undergone a sustained drop in price. So instead of picking an ideological side to the pipeline debate I am going to ask how lower oil prices affect the economic and emissions development of the Keystone XL pipeline.
Informed discussion has mainly revolved around the State Department Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS). Though the study concluded that the pipeline would not substantially increase greenhouse gas emissions, there was one major exception to this statement. If oil prices hovered around the $65-$75 a barrel range, then the reduction in transportation costs accrued from the pipeline would tip the economics of Canadian oil production from red to black — thus increasing emissions. Now that oil is currently in the $45-$55 a barrel this point of discussion seems meaningless.
However, it is not the current price of oil that decides whether or not this project makes sense in terms of economics or emissions. It is the long-run price that determines the effect of a pipeline that could be in service for decades. The absolute impact of Keystone XL on both price and emissions depends on how global producers and consumers react to the oil price increase or decrease caused by the pipeline’s completion or lack thereof.
Lower oil prices reduce both the costs and the benefits of approving the Keystone XL pipeline by reducing the odds that it will ever be fully built or used. If prices are kept at their current low level, there is a very small chance that the Keystone XL pipeline will never get built because of the economics. This is highly unlikely though, because if Canadian production does not grow, the chances of sustained low prices decreases. The more realistic possibility is that the pipeline is approved and utilized. In this case, lower oil prices reduce the economic benefits without changing the climate effects of the pipeline.
However, the biggest takeaway from this debate is that both the climate damages and the economic benefits from Keystone XL are small in the grand scheme of climate change and the U.S. and global economies. A Keystone XL decision will not drastically alter the current science behind climate change or drastically affect the U.S economy. The debate says more about how we as a nation feel about the economy and climate change than what the science or economics says about this topic.
(01/21/15 3:09pm)
Middlebury (13-2, 2-2) has now rattled off four straight wins, including two in-conference over Wesleyan and Conn. College.
For much of the first half on the road at Castleton St. on Tuesday, Jan. 13, neither team could distinguish itself from the other as the Panthers jumped out to an early lead before the Spartans responded with a 7-0 run to take a 14-12 lead.
Middlebury slowly began to extend its lead behind a balanced scoring effort. By the end of the first half, Middlebury had established a 46-38 lead. Connor Huff ’16 tallied 11 points while grabbing five offensive rebounds, and Matt St. Amour ’17 added 10 points while assisting on five baskets.
The Panthers announced themselves as the better team on that night with a 13-0 run over a span of two minutes early in the second half capped by a dunk and three-pointer from Dylan Sinnickson ’15 to give them a 61-41 lead. When time expired, the Panthers secured a 94-56 victory, outscoring the Spartans 48-18 in the second half.
The Spartans only recorded three made baskets in the second half, shooting a dreadful 10.7 percent from the field. Middlebury scored 26 second chance points, and assisted on 26 of its 32 baskets.
“We are best when we are in transition and that has been the main focus of our team,” St. Amour said.
Huff scored a career-high 20 points to lead the Panthers, while Sinnickson scored 17 points and just missed out on another double-double with nine rebounds.
In the first nine minutes against Wesleyan on Friday, Jan. 16, there was no indication the Panthers would run away with the contest as they trailed 14-13 at the 11:22 mark. Beginning with a transition dunk by Matt Daley ’16, the Panthers went on an 11-0 run to take a 10-point lead and force Wesleyan to take a timeout. The Panthers closed out the half with a decisive 27-10 run, including a 35-footer at the buzzer for St. Amour, giving them a 51-24 lead heading into the break.
With Middlebury on pace for more than one hundred points at the halfway point, guards St. Amour (12 points) and Jake Brown ’17 (11 assists) keyed the Panther offense, while the team’s defense forced more turnovers (10) than the field goals it allowed (eight).
A 25-10 Middlebury run to begin the second half squashed Wesleyan’s hopes of a comeback and gave the Panthers a 76-34 lead. Middlebury went on to secure their second lopsided victory of the week, 97-60.
St. Amour led the team in scoring with 20, Sinnickson added 19 points and 11 rebounds for a double-double and Jake Brown tallied 14 assists for a new career high.
Middlebury returned to the court on Sunday to play 7-7 Conn. College. From the opening tip, it was clear that the Panthers were not going to score more than 90 points for the third straight game. The team opened the game making only one shot of its first nine and quickly fell behind 9-2, culminating in a team timeout by Coach Brown. His team responded with a 7-0 run sparked by a Hunter Merryman ’15 three to tie the game. The game see-sawed to a 22-21 Conn. College lead, before Merryman was fouled shooting another three and sank three free throws to give his team a two point lead and ignite another 9-0 Panther run. At the end of the first half, the Panthers held a 32-25 lead.
Leading by six with 7:45 left on the clock, the Panthers went on another one of their patented 9-0 runs to take a 15-point lead, but the Camels battled back.
Conn. College’s Sean McNally converted an old-fashioned three point play off a Jake Brown turnover to pull his team within four, 58-54, with 33 seconds left. The Camels were forced to foul to extend the game, but the Panthers answered the call, making five out of six from the stripe to seal a 63-59 win for the Panthers.
The team’s solid defensive effort won the game as it held the Camels to 32.4 percent shooting and forced 15 turnovers, turning those miscues into 12 points on the other end.
“Coach Brown gave us the challenge of being the best FG defense in the country,” St. Amour said, “coming into the weekend we were number 2. Our defense allows us to win games even when we don’t shoot well, which is definitely a key for us. ”
Merryman recorded a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds, while Bryan Jones ’17 tallied 11 off the bench on 4-5 shooting.
On Tuesday, Jan. 20, Middlebury blew out Johnson St., 102-54, behind Sinnicksons 21 points and eight boards and Jake Brown’s 16 points and seven rebounds. In all, 13 players contributed points to the offensive explosion.
(01/21/15 2:59pm)
The Middlebury women’s basketball team (10-7, 2-2) garnered its second conference victory of the year with a thrilling 50-46 victory at Wesleyan on Friday night, Jan. 16. The Panthers remained on the road and took to the floor against Conn. College on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 17, playing hard but ultimately falling 54-35. Middlebury then slipped up again on the road at Smith College on Tuesday, Jan. 20, losing 65-59.
The classic battle between Middlebury and Wesleyan was close throughout, as the lead never extended beyond six for either team. The difference in the game was the Panthers’ defense.
Sabrina Weeks ’18 led Middlebury in points with 13 and matched Elizabeth Knox ’17 for the team high with 10 rebounds. With the 13-and-10 performance Weeks notched her first career double-double. Knox and Sarah Kaufman ’18 also chipped in 10 points for the Panthers.
With 7:46 left in the game, Weeks converted an old-school three-point play to put Middlebury up 40-38. The Panthers never let Wesleyan tie the game again, just keeping the Cardinals at bay. Kaufman scored the game-winning basket with a bucket in the lane off of a pass from Knox to make it 48-44. Kaufman pushed the score to 50-46 with a made free throw in the final seconds.
“Every team in the NESCAC is talented, said Weeks, “so getting a second conference win was big for us and was a good step in proving that when we play together we can compete with anyone.”
Middlebury entered halftime during its Sunday contest with Conn. College down just eight, but the Camels outscored the Panthers 24-5 over the final 11:16 of play to win the game by 19. Middlebury led just once, with 15:23 left in the second half, when Rachel Crews ’15 sank two free throws to take the lead 27-26.
Crews led Middlebury with 13 points. Kaufman and Knox also scored in double figures with 12 and 10, respectively.
On Tuesday, Jan. 20 Smith topped the Panthers for the second time this season, despite double-digit points from Weeks, Crews and Kaufman.
“Our focus each and every day is to get better and play as a team,” said Head Coach KJ Krasco, “Some days we are able to do this better than others. But instilling the attitude of no matter what happens WE still need to work to get better each day has been our motto for the season.”
(01/21/15 2:57pm)
The ski teams combined to finish third at the season-opening Bates carnival over the weekend behind winner UVM and runner up Dartmouth. On Friday and Saturday, Jan. 16 and 17, the alpine teams raced at Sunday River, while the nordic teams competed at Black Mountain.
In the men’s giant slalom competition on Friday, Rob Cone ’17, fresh off a stint on the US national team, won the day with Christopher McKenna ’17 a second behind in third place. Ghassan Gedeon-Achi ’16 finished 13th to complete the men’s GS victory for Middlebury. Cone won the first run by .4 seconds over McKenna, who himself was .75 seconds clear of the next finisher. On the second run, Cone placed third to win the race overall, and McKenna finished 13th, 1.5 seconds back of the run winner, William St-Germain of UVM who edged him for second place overall.
“I was excited for the conditions throughout the weekend,” Cone said. “Although temperatures were low or negative, they allowed a great hard, icy snow surface, which all of us enjoy…Otherwise, the sun was up, I kept it simple, skied how I knew I could, and had fun.”
The women’s alpine team tied with host Bates for fifth in GS, led by Mary Sackbauer ’15 who finished 11th. Kara Shaw ’15 and Elle Gilbert ’16 finished 24th and 25th, respectively. In Slalom on Saturday, Sackbauer notched a top 10 finish, placing 9th with a combined time of 1:51.20. Shaw placed 18th (1:52.68) and Gilbert 22nd (1:53.66). This performance again gave the women 74 points on the day, good for a 6th place finish in Slalom and overall.
The men placed second in their slalom race. Cone again paced the team, making up a large chunk of time on his second run to come in second place, 0.03 seconds back. McKenna came in 12th place, and Colin Hayes ’17 came in 18th.
On Saturday, the nordic teams competed in their classic races. In the women’s 15K classic, Heather Mooney ’15 finished strong to win the race with a time of 49:33.7, five seconds clear at the top. Kelsey Phinney ’16 finished 9th (50:02.7), with Stella Holt ’15 rounding out the top 10 with a time of 50:11.3. Middlebury, however, lost out to UVM, and finished second.
The men finished 7th in their 20K classic race on Saturday, with the three scoring members of the Panther squad coming in close to each other. Patrick McElravey ’17 came in 27th with a time of 1:02:42.6, Adam Luban ’17 (1:02:48.1) came 28th, and Evan Weinman ’18 (1:02:50.3) came 30th.
On Saturday, the women skied a 5K skate race. Middlebury won the event, and all three racers placed in the top 10 for the second consecutive day. Mooney again won the race in 13:52.
“Historically I’m a better classic skier, so it was huge for me to win in the skate race too,” Mooney said. “It was a great weekend for the women’s team especially. One of our goals was to win a carnival weekend, and we did that, in the first one!”
Mooney was not alone in her success. Middlebury was able to dominate the skate race, with Phinney coming in 5th, 30 seconds behind Mooney, and Holt coming in 10th, 52 seconds back. The Panther women won the skate race overall, and edged UVM and Dartmouth over both days.
The men also improved in the skate race, finishing fifth. Luban lead the team with his first top 10, finishing 9th with a time of 24:55.4, 1:38 behind the winner. McElravey finished 14th in 25:13.2. Jack Steele ’16 came in 30th with a time of 26:21:8.
“It’s always a relief getting the first weekend out of the way, knowing where we all stand, and in this case, we’re stacking up very well in the east,” Mooney said.
Next weekend, the EISA carnival circuit heads north to UVM for their winter carnival with races to be held at Stowe.
Cone is excited for the week to come.
“We have a great group of athletes that are pushing each other and building strength every day of training at the Snow Bowl,” he said. “This week, we’ll continue with our preparations as we look forward to Stowe.”
(01/21/15 2:53pm)
In an away meet last weekend on Saturday, Jan. 17, the Middlebury men’s and women’s Swimming and Diving teams outscored Union College in Schenectady, NY. The women sped to an easy 149.5-86.5 victory, adding to a 6-2 record on the season, while the men (4-4) continued their 4-meet winning streak, edging the Dutchmen 122-119 by just three points.
A victory in the opening event set the women’s team up for more success as the crew of Sarah Bartholomae ’18, Jamie Hillas ’15, Megan Griffin ’16, and Morgan Burke ’17 clocked a 1:50.92 to win the 200 medley relay.
As reflected by their high overall score, the women recorded many first-place finishes, including Jennifer Koide ’17’s finishes in both the 200 individual medley (2:15.82) and the 200 breaststroke (2:29.93) along with Jamie Sawyer ’16’s finish in the 200 butterfly (2:13.21).
In fact, the women swept every freestyle event except for the 50 free, with wins by Burke in the 100 freestyle (54.44), Hillas in the 200 freestyle (1:58.95), Elinor Reinhardt ’17 in the 500 freestyle (5:27.20), Kelly Delane ’18 in the 1000 freestyle (11:05.02), and finally, Hillas, Burke, Stephanie Andrews ’18, and Courtney Haron ’15 in the 200 freestyle relay (1:40.27).
Matthew Lantin ’18 again managed to win both 200 free (1:47.23) and the 500 free (4:45.70), while Michael McGean ’17 also earned a first place finish for the men in the 1000 free (9:59.86). Senior captain Teddy Kuo ’15 led his heat in the 200 butterfly (2:01.36) to earn nine points.
The swimmers with second, third, and even fourth-place performances made especially valuable contributions on the men’s side. Every point counted, including the total of 10 points accumulated by Dylan Peters ’16 and Adrianna Baker ’15 in the one and three-meter diving competitions. So when it came time for the last event, the 200 freestyle relay, the men’s team was trailing by six points.
“We were all really pumped because we knew that if we won that relay we would win the whole meet,” said Taylor Moore ’18, who swam the first leg. Luckily, Moore, Noel Antonisse ’17, Andrew Lee ’15, and Paul Lagasse ’16 touched the wall with a time of 1:29.37 to win the event and the meet.
The Panthers will host Williams Swimming and Diving in a dual meet this Saturday, Jan. 24 at 1:00 p.m. at the Middlebury Natatorium. Middlebury will see how its recent successes can measure up to Williams’ almost perfect record of 5-0-1 for the men and 6-0 for the women.
(01/21/15 2:49pm)
In a long-awaited matchup of conference front-runners, Middlebury and Amherst played to a pair of hard-fought ties in their weekend doubleheader on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 16 and 17 in Kenyon Arena. The teams scored two goals apiece on Friday night, before coming back Saturday to tie at one all.
Entering the weekend, the Lord Jeffs held down the top spot in the NESCAC standings by virtue of their unblemished record in conference play. The Panthers, whose only NESCAC loss was by a goal to Trinity in November, sat just behind in second place. Middlebury, meanwhile, held the advantage in the national poll, ranking second while Amherst was ranked ninth.
Middlebury got out to a fast start in Friday’s opener with a goal from Carly Watson ’17. Watson was assisted by Maddie Winslow ’18 and Katie Mandigo ’16. Amherst tied it up with a goal four minutes into the second period, but were unable to capitalize on three power-play opportunities later in the period, and went into the final 20 minutes with the score locked at one.
In the third, Amherst finally broke through on the power play to take a one-goal lead midway through the period. Winslow scored the equalizer for Middlebury – with assists from Hannah Bielawski ’15 and Mandigo – to force sudden-death overtime.
Neither team was able to score in the extra period, and the game ended in a tie.
The Panthers earned the tie despite finding themselves on the penalty kill five times in the game, while earning only one power play. Middlebury outshot Amherst 31-28, including a 3-1 shooting advantage in overtime.
Annabelle Jones ’15 played the entire 65 minutes in goal for Middlebury, stopping 26 of the 28 shots she faced.
Friday’s tie only heightened the pressure for Saturday’s match, creating a rubber-match atmosphere inside Kenyon Arena that often is not seen until the postseason.
The Panthers would need all the crowd support they could get, however, as they quickly fell behind and were forced to come back late. After Bielawski went to the box on a tripping call, Lord Jeff skater Erin Martin pushed the puck past Panther senior goalie Maddie Marsh ’15 to give her team the early advantage.
The teams traded man-up opportunities during the second period – with the Panthers seeing their first significant power-play time of the weekend – but neither was able to score.
Untimely penalties prevented Middlebury from gaining an advantage as they looked for an equalizer during the third period. Just as things began to look bleak for the Panthers, Jessica Young ’18 took a feed from Bielawski and Emily Fluke ’15 and buried it in the net to tie the game with less than two minutes remaining.
Amherst failed to convert a power play in extra time, and the final whistle sounded with the score still tied at one.
Middlebury again outshot Amherst in game two, holding a 28-22 advantage in that category.
The Panthers took an uncharacteristic number of penalties in both games, with 13 over the weekend for 26 penalty minutes.
With the pair of ties, Amherst and Middlebury remained locked in first and second place in the NESCAC. If the current standings hold out for the remainder of the season, hockey fans can expect to see the teams square off during the conference’s postseason tournament in late February.
“Amherst has always been one of the top-ranked NESCAC teams, so it’s no surprise that these were competitive games,” Fluke said. “We’re going to keep moving forward as a team, and it starts with these Bowdoin games.”
Middlebury returns to action this weekend, Jan. 23 and 24, for a pair of road matchups with Bowdoin. If there is a team that is capable of breaking up the Amherst-Middlebury grip upon the NESCAC, it is likely the Polar Bears. The Panthers will need to play sharp hockey if they hope to emerge from the weekend with two more wins to their record.
(01/21/15 2:47pm)
On Friday, Jan. 16, the track teams traveled to New York City to run in the Gotham Cup at the historic Armory track. The meet featured top NCAA Division-I teams and professional athletes, giving the Panthers a chance to square off against some of the best athletes from around the country.
On the women’s side, Alex Morris ’16 made her season debut in the 400-meter dash after studying abroad in the fall in Uruguay, racing to a time of 61.20 seconds. Right behind her was first-year Kate McCluskey ’18, who finished in 61.27 seconds.
Morris, a two-time All-American and individual NCAA qualifier in the 400 meters, commented on her first race back.
“I didn’t really have many expectations for this race,” she said. “For me, it was a way to start getting back to the level I was last year and almost try to race myself back into shape. It was helpful not just physically, but mentally as well because now I know where I am and can only move forward.”
“Practice has definitely been a reality check,” Morris said. “I tried to keep up with the workouts as much as possible when I was abroad, but life often got in the way. There’s not a feeling I love more though than really training hard and feeling like I’m making progress. I’m most excited to be back and see where the rest of the season goes.”
In other sprinting events, Paige Fernandez ’17 and Perri Silverhart ’16 both competed in the 500 meters, finishing in 1:19.86 and 1:22.23 respectively. Gigi Miller ’18 was Middlebury’s top finisher in the women’s 60 meters, crossing the line in 8.65 seconds.
A small contingent of distance runners made their season debuts in New York as well. Most notably, Sasha Whittle ’17 competed in the mile, running 5:23.99 while winning her heat by more than 10 seconds. In the field, Maddie Pronovost ’17 had her second good meet in a row, jumping 4 feet 11 inches in the high jump and a personal record 16 feet 10.75 inches in the long jump.
For the men, Will Bain ’15 led the sprinters in the 60-meter dash, running 7.19 seconds — slightly off his mark of 7.15 from the previous week. Captain Fritz Parker ’15 cut more than a second off his 400-meter time from the previous week, finishing the dastardly distance in 51.58 seconds.
The men also had distance runners make their debuts in New York. Wilder Schaaf ’14.5 opened his season in the mile with a run of 4:23.29. Schaaf, an NCAA qualifier in the event with his personal best of 4:10.98, started his season last year by running 4:30, so his improved result is indicative of more fast times to come later in the season. Accompanying Schaaf in the mile was Panther assistant coach Jack Davies ’13, who took a fourth-place finish in 4:14.08, continuing his trend of never losing a race to Schaaf. Luke Carpinello ’16 just broke the two-minute mark in the 800 meters, running 1:59.73.
The teams were originally scheduled to host Virtue Field House’s inaugural meet on Friday, Jan. 23, but construction delays have led to the meet’s cancellation. The teams will take the weekend off from competition before hosting the Middlebury Invitational on Jan. 31, which will take the place of the cancelled meet as the inaugural competition in the new indoor track facility.
(01/20/15 12:46am)
After defeating Plattsburgh State 63-53 on Jan. 6, the Middlebury men’s basketball team suffered its first two defeats of the season to Bates and Tufts and fell to 0-2 in the NESCAC this week on its three-game road trip.
The Panthers extended their unbeaten streak when they traveled to Plattsburgh and toppled the Cardinals in a relatively low-scoring affair. After no scoring for the first three minutes of the contest, Middlebury drew first blood and built a 10-4 lead seven minutes into the opening half. Much of the first half followed the general pattern of more defense than offense — neither team shot better than 31 percent from the field — and Middlebury took a 28-22 lead into the break.
The Cardinals began the second half on a 6-0 run to tie the game at 28. With a one-point lead at the 15:23 mark, the Panthers exploded on a 9-0 run behind four points from Dylan Sinnickson ’15 and a three from Nick Tarantino ’18.
The margin ballooned to 49-36 in favor of the Panthers as they held the Cardinals without a made basket for almost five minutes. Plattsburgh State refused to cave, cutting the lead to six with just under eight minutes left, but they couldn’t get closer than that. Once again the Panther defense responded by allowing only five points over the final 7:42 to secure a 63-53 victory.
Sinnickson led the Panthers in scoring with 13 points, while also pulling down 13 rebounds. Brown stuffed the stat sheet, tallying 10 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and four steals. First-year Tarantino provided a welcome spark off the bench with 11 points, including nine from beyond the arc.
The team then traveled to Lewiston, ME to do battle with Bates in its first NESCAC game. The game began as a see-saw affair — foreshadowing what would turn out to be a very tightly-contested contest — only to see Middlebury gain a 19-11 lead with 7:36 left in the first half. The Panthers couldn’t muster much else offensively in the half, and even fell behind 24-23 on the heels of a 7-0 Bobcat run to end the half.
The beginning of the second half was reminiscent of that of the first half with the teams exchanging blows, including a Sinnickson three that would give the Panthers a 33-32 lead, its last of the game. Bates went on a 10-0 run to take a nine point lead as it held the Panthers scoreless for more than four minutes, but the game was far from over. Middlebury hung around and even made it a one possession game, 48-46, with 5:20 to go.
The Panthers just couldn’t do what they had to offensively to win the game, and the Bobcats took good enough care of the ball and made their free throws to put the finishing touches on a 57-53 win.
In defeat, Sinnickson was the only scorer in double digits for the Panthers, finishing with 17 points and 10 rebounds for his eighth double-double in eleven games.
On the final leg of this three-game road trip, the Panthers hoped to get in the win column in NESCAC play against Tufts. The fact that Middlebury’s largest lead was 2-0 at the 18:35 mark summarizes the game for the Panthers. Following a 13-5 run, they trailed 18-11, and were playing from behind for the remainder of the contest.
At the halfway point, Middlebury trailed 38-26, with its only comfort being there are two halves in a basketball game. The tables turned at the beginning of the second half as the Panthers came out firing on all cylinders to knot the game at 47, scoring 21 points before the 13:50 point in the second half. The Jumbos answered right back with a 7-0 run and never looked back, extending its lead to 19 with a little of over five minutes left.
The final score read 80-63 in favor of the Jumbos who shot a blistering 61% in the second half, and got an amazing contribution of 41 points from its bench (compared to only nine from the Middlebury bench). Despite the loss, Sinnickson turned in another outstanding effort, scoring a very efficient 26 points on 10-16 shooting.
The Panthers hope to get back on track after its disappointing opening weekend in the NESCAC against Castleton in another nonconference game on Tuesday, before returning home for NESCAC games this weekend against Wesleyan on Friday and Connecticut College on Sunday.
(01/15/15 1:34am)
On Tuesday, January 13, about 45 people gathered in front of Mead Chapel for a “rejection rally” against the Keystone XL pipeline, joining over 130 rejection rallies nationwide. Encouraged by 350.org and 350 Massachusetts, rallies took place all across the country in the wake of Nebraska’s decision to allow the pipeline to pass through.
The purpose of the ‘rejection’ rallies was to continue to show opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast in the hope that President Obama will veto Congress’s decision to allow the pipeline.
Middlebury’s rejection rally was lead by a combination of individuals and groups on campus, including Sunday Night Group, Divest Midd, Zane Anthony ’16.5 and Emma Ronai-Durning ’18.
“I helped organize this rally because I think it’s really important that Middlebury be part of a national movement against the Keystone pipeline,” said Michael Shrader ’18. “While this one is not necessarily local, the affects are global and affect us here at Middlebury, so people have a right to know more about it.”
In addition to students, a number of protesters in the crowd were members of local communities and organizations.
“I definitely support the cause here,” said Jennifer Vyhnak, a resident of Bristol and an environmental activist. Vyhnak condemned the “dinosaur fuels” of the past, and stressed the need to usher in a new era of green energy.
“We really need to be supporting the energies of the future, the energies that do as little harm as possible, and allow us to live on this good earth with respect for one another,” she said. “It feels like its time. It’s time for us to grow up.”
In contrast, Phil Hoxie ’17 and the College Republicans held a rally in support of the pipeline and in support of the jobs it would create. The rally was called ‘Students 4 Jobs’ on its Facebook page.
“We want to reassure people who have dissenting views that there are other people who share [them],” Hoxie said, “and that they are worth expressing – especially in an academic context.”
One of the signs that the students opposing the pipeline brandished irked Hoxie.
“I was kind of upset by ‘Middlebury College rejects Keystone XL’ as a blanket statement,” he said. “That’s supposed to cover the whole student body. It doesn’t. [We] are here to remind the students of Middlebury that there is a dissenting opinion, which is very important in any debate. It’s important to have two sides.”
The rejection rally began on Mead Chapel steps with opening remarks by several students. Michael Schrader ’18 stated their purpose of the rally as “urging President Obama to stand up against the interest of foreign oil companies” by vetoing the Keystone XL pipeline.
“Tar sands development spells increased pollution, greenhouse gasses, heavy metals, polluted aquifers, and climate chaos,” Schrader said.
He encouraged people to rally for the good of all Americans.
“Not just Americans,” a voice yelled from the crowd, to cheers and clapping. “All kinds of people!”
“We’ve all been fighting this pipeline for a ridiculous number of years,” Hannah Bristol ’14.5 said in her opening remarks. “We’ve had the largest climate march in history – and then beat that record and had another largest climate march in history,” Bristol added to laughter and more cheers.
“Many of us here have been arrested. I don’t know how we can possibly say any louder that this pipeline is bad news. But the Republicans in Congress don’t seem to get the message,” Bristol said.
Phil Hoxie ’17.5 disagreed, and stated that the pipeline would relieve a strained American economy.
“The green energy market is not a competitive market,” he said when asked about funding green energy instead.
“I want to see incentives for companies to invest in greener technologies – companies like Tesla, by boosting demand for those items, not necessarily through [direct investment].”
Alexander Khan ’17, who was unable to make the event, agreed with Hoxie in a prewritten statement: “The pipeline will provide jobs which in turn with strengthen our economy. Only with the help of a robust economy will the United States be able to solve the problems that the world faces.”
Most importantly, Hoxie stressed that no matter what the United States did, the tar sands were likely to be used regardless.
“Whether the United States builds this pipeline or not, that oil is coming out of the ground and there’s no way for anybody to stop that,” Hoxie said.
The Chinese will buy it up in a second. The Canadians are still waiting for their ideal situation – for the pipeline to go through the United States, for it to be refined in the United States, and be sold through the port of Louisiana to it’s final destination, wherever that may be.”
Participants in the rejection rally certainly did not believe their efforts were in vain; the excitement among the demonstrators was palpable.
Many of them were demonstrating for the first time to such an event.
Max Greenwald ’18 acknowledged that he normally doesn’t show up to rallies like this, because Middlebury is such a “liberal and environmentally conscious school.” However, something caused him to change his mind.
“I saw some people were actually having a counter rally to this,” he noted, referring to the ‘Students 4 Jobs’ rally that had occured minutes before the march began.
“Clearly there is some division on this issue, so I thought I’d show my support. You can’t always expect someone else to do it. When you see crowds on TV supporting something that you care about, you have to be one of those people in the crowd if you expect your movement to gain any momentum.”
As students and townspeople milled about by Mead Chapel sharing stories of their inspiration to attend the rally, and their experiences with past climate activism at events locally and in Washington DC. Ross Conrad, a local beekeeper, attended the rally.
“I feel like I need to apologize for my generation because we have failed to deal with this issue and we’re dumping this on your laps, and that’s not right,” Conrad said. Conrad likes the format of these local rejection rallies, rather than one centralized rally.
“Everything’s going to have to be more localized, more decentralized, if we’re going to be better stewards of this earth, in my view,” Conrad said.
Anthony and Ronai-Durning led the procession down Mead Chapel hill with a banner that read “Middlebury Rejects KXL” with a picture of a pipeline dripping black oil. The crowd consisting of students and members of the Middlebury community followed behind in groups of twos and threes carrying candles and signs. As they walked down to Old Chapel, people chanted “Barack Obama, yes you can! Stop the dirty pipeline plan!” and “Tar sands kill! Pipelines spill!”
In front of Old Chapel, the procession stopped to for a photo with their signs, as did many other rejection rallies. The rejection rallies across the country followed a very similar format, as most were developed from a toolkit provided by 350.org. The picture “will join a national mosaic of these pictures, banners, et cetera to be broadcast to various larger news outlets,” Anthony said.
Following the photo, the procession walked back up Mead Chapel hill chanting and into Proctor. The procession walked into the serving area and through the dining hall. On Proctor Terrace, the group gathered for one last picture and dispersed.
(01/15/15 1:20am)
The College has offered admission to 280 students for the Class of 2019 under its Early Decision I plan. Decisions were released on Saturday, Dec. 6, via an online portal, and physical copies were mailed to applicants’ homes a day prior. The admitted students will represent about 40 percent of the class, which is expected to total around 690 students.
The College recieved 8,864 applicants in total, an 8 percent increase from last year’s pool of 8,196. This year marks the second largest applicant pool in Middlebury’s history.
Gregory Buckles, Dean of Admissions, said that 667 students applied under the Early Decision I plan, a three percent decrease from last year’s Early Decision I applicant total. The College deferred 80 applicants, who will be considered in the regular admission pool, and denied admission to 307 applicants.
Last year’s admissions process exhibited similar trends. Of the 686 Early Decision I applicants for the Class of 2018, 287 were admitted, 96 were deferred and 303 denied. Over the past three years, the acceptance rate for Early Decision I applicants has consistently hovered around 42 percent.
Buckles said that the 280 accepted students are from 32 states, the District of Columbia, and 13 countries. These statistics are lower than those for the Class of 2018, whose early decision applicants hailed from 35 states, D.C., and 19 countries.
The College has allotted $4.2 million in need-based financial aid to award to early admits. 42 percent of the Early Decision I class will be awarded financial aid, marking a significant increase from last year. Middlebury’s early decision program binds applicants to commit to attending if accepted.
Furthermore, Middlebury has expanded its partnership with the Posse Foundation, which pairs minority students in urban areas with participating colleges across the country.
As a part of this program, thirty students in the Class of 2019 will receive full-tuition scholarships as they pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Middlebury has hosted a new Posse group of ten students from New York each year since 1999 and added a second Posse of ten students from Chicago in the fall of 2012. The third and newest Posse group of ten hails from Los Angeles as part of an initiative by the White House to improve the presence of minorities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers.
Several faculty members at the College will visit the Posse Foundation’s Los Angeles office in the spring to meet the students and to hold science workshops and classes.
“I’m particularly excited about the addition of our third STEM Posse,” said Buckles. “Our science faculty are looking forward to working with the group.”
The deadline for regular admission applications was January 1, with notification in late March. Applicants admitted via the Regular Decision plan will have until May 1 to decide whether or not to attend.
(01/14/15 11:50pm)
This past Tuesday, Jan. 13, award-winning New York Times columnist and best-selling author William C. Rhoden addressed the College community as the keynote speaker for the 17th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration.
Rhoden has been a sports writer for The New York Times since March 1983. Before joining The Times as a sports columnist, he worked for various print media companies including Ebony Magazine, The Baltimore Sun and the Sunday Week. Rhoden graduated from Morgan State University, and during his time there he played football and acted as the assistant sports information director for some time.
Rhoden has dedicated much of his life to playing and covering sporting events. He is the author of best-selling book 40 Million Dollar Slaves and Third and a Mile: The Trials and Triumphs of The Black Quarterback. He also wrote the Emmy-winning sports documentary Breaking the Huddle: The Integration of College Football.
Rhoden has worked hard to incorporate his passion for sports with a number of outreach programs. He created a sports-oriented program for young kids in Harlem that provides a variety of activities such as basketball, ping-pong and video games, for local kids aged 7 to 14. The program works to integrate these students into the community and has events at places such as Yankee Stadium and local museums. The program is funded in part by Rhoden but also through contributions from friends who share his passion for outreach.
The program began six years ago with about 10-15 kids and has grown every year since – now, 50-60 kids participate in the program. The program is held at the Church of the Intercession in Harlem, where Rhoden has an office and does his work there when he is not on the road.
Rhoden was chosen as the keynote speaker for the MLK Celebration because of his dedication to his work and his community. Rhoden spoke once before at the College in January 2007.
Associate Professor of Writing Hector Vila helped to bring back Rhoden to campus.
“If you look at Rhoden’s career, at The Times and his books, as well as in the community, you see that Rhoden is a model of King’s ‘I have a dream.’ Rhoden always speaks truth to power; he, as King says, is always working on the inside, inside an institution, and in the community – Harlem, where he still lives – he has built a boys’ club to help the youth use sports as a way to learn about very important principles, such as fairness and collaboration, hard work and diligence, and the most important: education. That’s why he’s a good MLK lecturer,” said Vila.
For Vila’s J-term class, Media, Sports and Identity, 40 Million Dollar Slaves is required reading for all students.
“In 40 Million Dollar Slaves, Rhoden lays out several important themes: that professional sports are based on a plantation model – a master and hired hands, and that these hired hands have very limited power, never the power of ownership, for instance; that every time the black athlete gains some success, rules are changed, more obstacles are placed in his/her face; that the popular – and successful – black athlete has a responsibility to the communities from which s/he comes,” Vila said.
“This last piece is very important because, in Rhoden’s work, many athletes – Michael Jordan comes to mind – have turned away from their communities, instead of helping and educating. LeBron James, for instance, totally the opposite of MJ, embodies these principles, including working against the plantation model (he runs his own show). The Williams sisters, in tennis, embody Rhoden’s ideas as well,” he concluded.
Kyle Dudley, Assistant Coach of the men’s basketball team, is also Rhoden’s nephew and was instrumental in bringing Rhoden back to campus. Dudley remarked that Rhoden had a strong influence in his decision to play sports in college and then to become a basketball coach at Middlebury.
Vila added, “As a columnist, Rhoden looks to find the story that’s not on the surface, thus working against the way most media operates, which is focusing on the surface structure; he is not scared to provoke and challenge, whether it’s a player or ownership.”
(01/14/15 4:38pm)
Middlebury squash continued its strong start to the season, as both the men’s and women’s squads swept the weekend to improve to 6-1, both teams’ only defeat coming at the hands of second-ranked Trinity. The 19th ranked men’s team set the tone on Friday, Jan. 9 in Cambridge, Massachusetts against 33rd ranked MIT, seizing the day with a 9-0 victory and no Panther player needing more than four games to win their match.
Highlights for the Panthers were Andrew Cadienhead ’17, David Cromwell ’16 and Cameron Dewey ’18, who all won a game 11-0. Cromwell’s strong showing comes on the heels of his performance last month in the Division III Individual Championships, where he advanced to the finals of the “B” bracket.
The Panthers stayed in Massachusetts on Saturday, Jan 11. playing in Williamstown against 22nd ranked Bowdoin and 23rd ranked Colby. The Panthers had no problem handling both the Polar Bears and the Mules, defeating Bowdoin 8-1 and Colby 7-2.
Ben Krant ’17 had a strong day, winning both of his matches, capturing both in the minimum six games. After defeating the Polar Bears’ Max Bearse in just three games (eight, eight, five), Wyatt French ’17 went ahead of Colby’s Ben Kwass two games to nothing in the day’s second match. With the exception of the Trinity match at the beginning of the season, French has yet to drop a match. However, in the third game against Kwass, French played a scrappy game that went down to the wire, ultimately losing 13 to 11. After dropping another chance to close out Kwass and lock up a point in the third slot for Middlebury, French would not be denied in the rubber match, defeating Kwass 11-5. The bottom of the Panthers’ lineup continued its consistent play, as Dewey ’18 and Robert Galluccio ’14 swept their opponents in both matches.
The Middlebury women’s side also had continued its success this weekend. On Saturday, Jan. 10 the Panthers defeated 19th ranked Bowdoin 9-0 and 22nd ranked Colby 8-1. The only loss of the day came when the women’s number one player, Saskia Powell-Gray ’16, took on Colby’s top player Devin Mullaney ’18. After losing the first match, Powell-Gray maintained her composure and fought back, leading two games to one. Mullaney evened up the score by winning decisively in the fourth game, 11-2, and then carried the momentum into the rubber match, narrowly edging out Powell-Gray 11-7.
On Sunday, Jan. 11 the women’s team continued to dominate its competition. The Mount Holyoke squad was no match for the Panthers, as Middlebury emerged victorious in each match. Audrey Ellen ’17 played in the seventh slot for Sunday’s match, but was a highlight for the women’s team on an already very bright day as she swept her opponent by a combined 33-3 score. Lizzy Hurst ’18 saw the first in-match action of her career for the Panthers on Sunday. She played in the ninth slot and put an exclamation point on the strong effort by the Panthers with her 33-4 victory over Mount Holyoke freshman Amanda Lee.
Next up for both teams is the Yale Round Robin this Saturday and Sunday. The men and women face Columbia and George Washington on Saturday, Jan. 17 and Sunday, Jan. 18, respectively. The weekend’s highlight will be the women’s match against the fourth ranked host school Yale at 12:30pm on Saturday, Jan. 17.
