Individual performances highlight track and field conference championships
The men’s and women’s track and field teams closed out the indoor track season at the Centennial Conference Championships which took place at Haverford College last weekend. The men’s team placed eighth out of nine teams while the women’s team placed seventh out of ten teams. Despite what was a low team-scoring effort, the championships for both teams were characterized by strong individual performances.
For the men’s team, seniors were the story of the day. Emanuel Schorsch ’15 finished seventh in the heptathlon, breaking his own school record for points in the process. Erick White ’15 and Zack Kronstat ’15 both placed fourth in their own events, the 800-meter run and the triple jump respectively. Jason Heo ’15 added another fine senior result with a fifth-place finish in the 60-meter high hurdles.
The women’s team captured gold in two events. Osazenoriuwa Ebose ’15 continued to improve on what has already been a dominant year in the shot-put, breaking her own school record. Her 44-feet, 8.25 inch effort placed her at 17th nationally and puts her in great position to compete at the NCAA Championships later in the spring. The distance medley relay team also took home gold for Swarthmore; the team consisted of Liz Tawa ’15, Katie Lin ’16, Indy Reid-Shaw ’17, and Jennifer Beltran ’18.
Both teams will begin the outdoor season on March 27 at the Danny Curran Invitational, which will take place at Widener University.
Men’s lacrosse fights hard, earns first victory of the season
Last Saturday, the men’s lacrosse team got their first victory of the season after defeating Widener University at home 8-6 in what was a close, low-scoring affair. The teams were almost on-par with each other in shots taken, and the victory was ultimately determined by timely goals in the final stretch.
Widener was finally able to break through for its first two goals in the final two minutes of the first quarter. Swarthmore easily responded with two unanswered goals of their own within the first five minutes of the second quarter as Ian Lukaszewicz ’15 scored twice to tie up the game. Neither team was able to separate from the other, however, and Widener only had a slight lead of 3-2 at the end of the first half.
Chris Thomson ’15 scored the only two goals of the third quarter to put Swarthmore ahead 4-3. Swarthmore went ahead for good 7-6 after two goals Braden DeWan ’16 in the fourth quarter; Will Black ’16 cemented the victory with an insurance 8th goal for the Garnet. Goalie Cole Fox ’17 deserves recognition in particular for keeping the Garnet in the match with 12 saves in his first career start.
The Garnet will hope to build some momentum against Vassar at home on Saturday, the first of three games the team will play over spring break.
Men’s tennis adds to streak with win against NYU
The men’s tennis team continued its winning streak this past weekend as it defeated NYU, ranked 30th nationally, 5-4. John Larkin ’17 and Blake Oetting ’18 were the MVPs of the night after earning their second doubles win of the season while also defeating their respective singles opponents later in the match. This serves as Larkin and Oetting’s second doubles win of the season as they defeated Division I Delaware 9-8 in a hard fought battle in their season opener last week. Although they defeated No. 3 NYU doubles 8-4, No. 1 and No. 2 doubles went to NYU, leaving the score in favor of NYU 2-1 before singles play.
However, Oetting continued to dominate the court against his opponent in both sets of No. 4 singles and won by a score of 6-0, 6-2. This also serves as his second singles win of the season as he clinched the match against University of Delaware 6-3, 7-6 in his collegiate debut.
Ari Cepelewicz ’18 also defeated his opponent by a wide margin of 6-1, 6-2 in No. 3 singles. Likewise, Mark Fallati ’18 won the No. 2 singles with a convincing victory of 6-4, 6-1.
The match ultimately came down to Larkin in No. 1 singles. After losing the first set 3-6, Larkin rallied and came back from a 2-5 deficit to ultimately win the second set 7-5. Larkin clinched the win for the Garnet during the third set, defeating his opponent 6-4 and earning Swarthmore the extra point to secure the victory against NYU.
Larkin was also named the Centennial Conference Men’s Tennis Player of the Week for his undefeated performance in all of his doubles and singles matches this season. Larkin and the rest of the team hope to continue this winning streak and continue climbing in the national rankings against Stevens Tech, ranked 40th nationally, at 1pm.
Women’s tennis beats Millsaps
The women’s tennis team came back from their loss against NYU, defeating Millsaps College 5-4 this past weekend. The team’s winning point came from their doubles play as Jackie Lane ’16 and Anna Scheibmeir ’18 teamed up to win No. 2 doubles 8-5, while Ashley Gao ’18 and Rachel Bronkema ’18 went on to win No. 3 doubles 8-4. This allowed Swarthmore to move on to singles play with a one point advantage over Millsaps, 2-1.
Gao was the only double winner of the night as she continued to dominate her opponent in No. 5 singles 6-1, 6-1. Gao is currently undefeated in both her doubles and singles play this season against NYU and Millsaps.
Maria Cuervo ’18 also won her No. 3 singles match 6-4, 6-0, serving as her first collegiate win, and Sophia Schuster ’18 won her No. 6 singles match after coming back from a deficit in the second set to ultimately win 7-6.
The women hope to earn a two-game winning streak this weekend in South Carolina as they face Westminster College during spring break.
