This year, the women’s ski teams sent two athletes to the NCAA Championships in Stowe, Vt. Kaelyn Woods ‘20 raced the 5K Individual Freestyle and the 15K Classic on March 6 and 8; Griffin Mueller ‘21 competed in the Slalom on March 9 and placed 28th. Altogether, the Bobcats took home 20th out of 24 scoring teams with 11 points.
Author: Vanessa Paolella Page 1 of 2
Bates Rowing prepares to supersede success of 2018
Anyone familiar with the second floor of Merril at 4 p.m. on weekdays and the prevailing smell of hard work wafting from the erg room will know just how hard the Men’s and Women’s rowing teams have been preparing for this upcoming season.
The Women’s Rowing team enters this upcoming season on the throne after two consecutive national championship titles and a stand-out fall season when the team won the prestegious Head of the Charles for the second year in a row.
The Women’s Swimming and Diving team thoroughly outdid themselves at the NESCAC Championship on Feb. 14-17, placing fourth with an outstanding finish of 1,021 points. Nine women will go on to compete at the NCAA national tournament in two weeks (Mar. 20-23), tying the program record set in 2016.
Originally favored to narrowly win fifth, the Bobcats more than beat the prediction, earning almost 100 points more than fifth-place Connecticut College (932.5). Williams dominated the championships (1873), with Tufts (1439.5) and Amherst (1322) earning second and third.
The Men’s Squash team (9-8) posted a fourth place finish at the NESCAC championships, defeating Amherst 6-3, but falling to two-time defending national champion Trinity 8-1 on Feb. 2. The next day, Bates went up against Middlebury in the third place match, but ultimately fell 5-4.
Merrill Gymnasium is home to a variety of facilities enjoyed by both the Bates community and the public. Recently, the athletic department has moved forward with the construction of a golf simulator in one of the two courts on the second floor, often used for racquetball and squash.
The Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving teams came out strong in their first meet since the start of winter break, each team solidly beating Middlebury last Sunday, Jan. 13, in the Panther’s home pool. This marks Bates’s fifth victory over a NESCAC opponent this season, each team having only lost to Div. I Dartmouth earlier this season. The Bobcats will be back in action this weekend, swimming two dual meets against Bowdoin on Friday, Jan. 18 at home in Tarbell Pool at 7 p.m. and at Colby in Waterville, Maine on the 19.
The men’s track and field team set a high standard in their first meet of the season against MIT and Colby, placing second to MIT with a tight score of 149-140. This disparity of nine points marks what is likely the best performance Bates has shown at this annual meet against MIT.
The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams competed against Wesleyan University and Trinity College in their first meet of the year on Nov. 17 at Wesleyan. Bates came out on top against both teams, starting the season on a strong note against two NESCAC teams. Bates will compete against two more NESCAC teams for the Maine state title on Nov. 30, 6:30 p.m. at Bowdoin College.
It is hard not to notice some of the changes in the sports medicine department at Bates this year: new faces, new techniques and an explosion of activity evident to all who pass by the trainer’s room in Merrill.
While many students went home, visited family, or traveled with friends over October break, the field hockey team stayed at Bates to play some of their final games of the season.