While we have only three more days until Winter Carnival, I have a more pressing concern. A series of events over the past few years have turned the sports world upside-down. In back-to-back seasons, the Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox snapped 86- and 88-year title droughts respectively, and now Peyton Manning has won a Super Bowl, thus crushing Dan Marino's soul.
That said, there are always a few things that you can count on on a yearly basis. The Dartmouth men's hockey team will be above average, playing well enough to be in the upper echelon of the ECAC League standings (currently tied for fourth), and consistently draw around 4,000 fans a game. The men are currently 11-9-3 (7-6-3 in conference action), while the women's hockey team is 19-4-2 (and an unbelievable 16-1-1 mark in conference play). Despite the women's consistent dominance (they are currently ranked third in the entire country), their top home attendance figure this year was 1436 spectators.
Delving into the madness that is college athletics, I found some fun box scores that I missed over the course of the year. Way back on Oct. 28, your women's hockey team faced off here in Hanover against the Union Dutchwomen (apparently Union College does makes its team names gender-appropriate, so kudos to them there). Dartmouth put 41 shots on goal, while Union could only muster nine. Those two numbers by themselves may not mean all that much. They show dominance, but nothing particularly noteworthy. But here's the kicker: Dartmouth won 11-0. Not only did they win 11-0, but they had more goals than their opponents had shots. I would hate to be playing for Union in that situation.
Now fast forward just over three months to this past Saturday. The second time around, this time at Union, the Big Green embarrassed the Dutchwomen by a 9-1 margin. In front of their own fans. To be fair, at least Union 1) scored, and 2) reached a total of 16 shots on goal this time around (although they did manage the unfortunate distinction of not having a single shot on goal in the final period).
To move on to another women's sport, and another team that has had a great deal of success over the last few years, we come to women's basketball. On Friday, December 29, in one of the more impressive jobs of convincing one team to visit another, Dartmouth played host to the then-No. 3 Duke basketball team, as part of the Blue Sky Restaurant Group Classic. The Lady Blue Devils (I honestly have no idea what the female equivalent of a devil is), who are now No. 1 in the country and still remain undefeated, beat the Dartmouth women by a 77-40 margin. However, just four days later, the Dartmouth women would beat Holy Cross by 24 points. For those of you without basic math skills, that is a 61-point swing. Only in basketball could this happen (I guess it could happen in football, but it's a little less likely).
After creating a new award last week, the "Most Under-reported Dartmouth Sports Story of the Week Award," I am going to have to fudge the criteria for this week. The story I found so entertaining happened about a month ago, and while I took note of it at the time, it is just too great not to share.
At the Dartmouth Relays back on January 5, Flo Meiler of Shelburne, Vt., set a world record in the pole vault for women between the ages of 70 and 74. While I doubt there are many women (or men for that matter) pole vaulting past the age of 70, the fact that there are any is pretty impressive to me. But Meiler managed to clear 6-11 in the pole vault, and while I can honestly say I do not know much about pole vaulting, the fact that a 72-year old women is doing it has me very impressed.
Let me leave you with one last note from the larger world of professional sports: new Atlanta Falcons coach Bobby Petrino has announced that Michael Vick will be allowed to call his own plays next year. This might lead to the single greatest series of comedic events in professional sports, as the thought of Vick calling audibles like Peyton Manning is too fantastic to be ignored. Be prepared for at least 10 quarterback bootlegs a game, as the Falcons' dwindling fan base wonders how they managed to be tortured by perhaps the greatest natural athlete of the 21st century year after year. Enjoy your Carnival, and avoid doing anything Michael Vick would do.
