Well, they say all good things must come to an end. It appears that there will be no postseason this year for men’s basketball. The 76-73 loss to Trinity on Friday Feb. 9 effectively ends the season for the Bobcats, who needed a win and some help from other teams to find their way into the playoffs.
Category: Sports Page 2 of 5
Men’s hockey overcomes adversity and looks to end 2019 with triumph
The men’s hockey team has seen two critical road bumps at the start of the 2018-19 season. One, Underhill Arena, the team’s home rink and site for tremendous school attendance and support has been under construction with a broken freezer since the beginning of the fall semester. Two, Michael O’Brien, the men’s head coach during the 2017-18 season, who brought tremendous enthusiasm and spirit to the organization, is no longer with the team. The team is now coached by Josh Choiniere with assistant coach Aaron Rand. Both have already added noticeable energy to the team. However, this is still a notable change to the team’s dynamic from last year.
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.
Before going to bed, most Bates students probably are not thinking about waking up before six the next morning to brave freezing temperatures, rain, or even snow in order to work out for an hour and half knowing that they’ll have to go back and do it for two more hours later that same day. For members of the Bates Swim and Dive team however, this has been a reality since November.
After winning the Maine State meet for the fourth year in a row, competing against Division I Dartmouth for the first time in program history and continuing to have swimmers racing season and even lifetime-best times each meet, the training is paying off. None of this is more true than for first-year Anna Barrow ’22.
The no. 19 nationally ranked Bates Women’s Squash team has had a roller coaster of a season so far with five losses and five wins. This weekend, Jan. 25-26, was a big one for the Bobcats as they played against Tufts (L 6-3), William Smith (W 7-2), Mount Holyoke (W 8-1) and Amherst (W 5-4). This will be the last set of games before the NESCAC tournament begins on Feb. 8.
Bates Nordic Skiing captain Kaelyn Woods ’20 has led the women’s team in every race dating back to the start of the 2018 season, including the start of 2019. She is on a terrific run, slowly writing her way into the Bates skiing record books. After every race Woods is able to celebrate her success with her teammates and coaches. Lots of athletes will call their parents or talk to them in person afterwards if they were able to attend, but for Kaelyn it’s even earlier.
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.
Last Saturday, the women’s Track and Field team traveled down to Cambridge, Mass. to compete against MIT and Colby for their first meet of the indoor season. This meet served as an ideal opportunity for the Bobcats to show their abilities after several weeks of preseason training.
Starting the year 4-12 isn’t the way they drew it up, but there are still plenty of reasons to watch the Men’s Basketball team this season. This past weekend, the team welcomed the Middlebury Panthers and the Williams Ephs for two home conference games. For those who don’t know, Middlebury and Williams are consistently two of the top teams in the NESCAC and this year is no exception. Middlebury was 11-4 coming into the game and Williams sat at 13-0 while holding a No. 3 national ranking. Despite coming out of the weekend with two losses, there are several positives and definite building points for the guys moving forward.
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.