Men’s basketball beats Haverford
Last night, the men’s basketball team faced Swarthmore’s infamous rival Haverford and emerged with a well-fought victory, 76-75, in an intense game that went into overtime and saw eight lead changes. Chris Bourne ’17 led the team with 20 points and 12 rebounds. The team was buoyed by a balanced scoring attack, as four players recorded double figure point totals. The win saw the team improve to a 3-6 record within the Centennial Conference and to a 7-9 record overall.
This past winter break ended early for the men, as January 2 marked their return back to the court as well as their first winter break win against out-of-conference Eastern University. The men followed the Eastern victory with a thrilling, double overtime win over Roanoke College, 81-79, to win the Roanoke Tournament.
The team played a total of six games during the break, four of which were against teams ranked in the top five in the Centennial Conference. The men defeated both out-of-conference teams but fell to all five of those in-conference, including 11th nationally-ranked Franklin & Marshall. “We faced some good competition this winter break,” commented Luke McCartin ’17. “Our goal is to get better each and every day.”
Women’s basketball makes big strides
The women’s basketball team competed in seven games during the winter break including two games in the NYU tournament against ninth nationally-ranked New York University and first nationally-ranked Fairleigh Dickinson College at Florham. The team fell 69-49 against NYU and a whopping 108-64 against Fairleigh Dickinson. “The competition that we faced at the NYU tournament was unlike anything else we had previously seen this semester,” Elle Larsen ’15 said. “Despite what the scores reflect, I think we made some big strides as a team as a product of facing such excellent competition.”
Learning from their experiences in New York, the team returned home and went on to win two out of their next five in-conference games. The team’s most recent win came Saturday, when Swarthmore staged an impressive second half comeback, defeating Gettysburg, 69-66. The duo of Larsen and Melanie Ackerman ’18 combined for 41 points, with Larsen leading the way with 24 points, eight rebounds and two assists.
Swarthmore was defeated by Haverford on Wednesday night, 63-55. Haverford’s team led throughout the entire game. Though the Swarthmore women came back stronger for the second half and closed the gap, they were not able to catch up to Haverford. Larsen led Swarthmore’s team with 14 points. Jessica Jowdy ’16 trailed closely behind with 12 points, but with an additional eight rebounds and two assists.
Track and Field team members qualify for ECAC
The men’s track and field team competed at the New York City Gotham Cup at the end of winter break and competed with Division I, II and III athletes in addition to professional runners. The non-scoring meet was a chance for the men to prepare themselves for the onslaught of invitationals looming in the February distance.
Paul Green ’16 just missed qualifying for an Eastern College Athletic Conference time as he finished the 3,000-meter run in 27th place in just a few seconds short of nine minutes.
The ECAC-qualifying performance went to the women’s distance medley relay team, with Indy Reid-Shaw ’17, Anis Charles ’17, Katie Lin ’16, and Sarah Nielsen ’17. Their time of 12:32:86 earned them the fastest mark ever in the country among Division III schools. “I was really proud of our performance at the Gotham Cup because it demonstrated all the hard training we’ve put in over break,” Nielsen said. Nielsen was also named the Centennial Conference Women’s Indoor Track and Field Athlete of the Week this past Monday.
Osazenoriuwa Ebose ’15 also qualified for ECAC at the tournament, placing ninth overall in shot put. “Placing is usually not something I think about, just because these are non-scoring meets,” Ebose said. Instead, she focuses on throwing a mark as close to her personal record as possible in the hopes of eventually improving and setting a new personal record. “The perfect meet would have a PR,” Ebose continued, “but that is not as easily done as said, so for me growth and improvement is what I aim for, always!”
Aiming for new PRs all around, both the men’s and women’s teams will compete in the Tiger Invitational in Princeton, N.J. this Saturday.
