Dartmouth baseball had high expectations to live up to going into the 2007 season, as the Big Green tried to replicate last year's near-miss of an Ivy League championship game berth. However, Dartmouth had a disappointing year, finishing the season with an 8-29 overall record, going just 5-15 in Ivy play for last place in the Red Rolfe division. The season was also marked by the departure of several players from the team for myriad reasons, while Will Bashelor '07 passed up his last year of varsity eligibility to sign with the New York Mets for spring training. The Big Green placed three players on the All-Ivy team, with Nick Santomauro '10 making the first team, Damon Wright '08 earning second team honors and reliever Kyle Zeis '08 receiving honorable mention accolades.
Women's lacrosse also set a high standard in 2006, as the Big Green qualified for the national championship game before losing to Northwestern in the title bout. This season, a stellar year by first-team All-Ivy Whitney Douthett '07, the school's new leader in all-time assists, could not bring Dartmouth back to the NCAA tournament. The Big Green finished 9-7 overall with a 4-3 Ivy record, good enough for fourth place in the conference. Kristen Barry '08 was also selected as a first-team All-Ivy choice, while Sarah Sfezi '07 was tapped for the second team.
Softball, on the other hand, reversed its fortunes from 2006 to make a strong move toward the Ivy championship series, but fell just short with a late-season loss to Harvard. The Big Green turned in a record of 16-24 overall, but Dartmouth's 11-9 Ivy mark was good enough for second place in the four-team North Division. Kelly Fry's four home runs this season helped make her the Big Green's all-time leader in homers. Fry was an honorable mention All-Ivy pick along with Nikki Yee '10, and Alyssa Parker '10 earned a nod to the first-team.
The crew program saw varying levels of success. The men's varsity lightweight eight had one of the most successful seasons in recent memory for the Dartmouth crew program. Along with an upset of then-No. 1 Cornell, the Big Green lightweights won the EARC Eastern Sprints, which is akin to a conference championship, and the entire varsity eight boat received first-team All-Ivy accolades.
"It was satisfying to win Eastern Sprints since Dartmouth hasn't won since 1994, and it's the third time in history that Dartmouth has won," Emerson Curry '08 said. "It feels like we're bringing the program back to where it was in the early '90s."
The women's program, which went 11-4 in cup races, recently placed second in the petite finals at the NCAA championships in Oak Ridge, Tenn., on Sunday, May 27. The men's varsity heavyweight team struggled throughout the spring season, finishing fourth in the third final at Sprints.
Both the lightweights and heavyweights will compete at the Intercollegiate Rowing Associate regatta, the national championship of men's rowing, on the Cooper River in Camden, N.J., from Thursday, May 31, to Saturday, June 2.
"Going into IRAs, our expectation is to win, which no Dartmouth lightweight crew has ever done," Curry said. "I'd say the team is rowing well, the boat is looking pretty polished. But so many things can happen. Because you win Eastern Sprints doesn't mean you win IRAs. It's pretty rare that a crew repeats [from Sprints to IRAs]."
Men's and women's track hosted the New England outdoor track championships at Memorial Field in Hanover, and both squads turned in strong showings in a packed field. The men's side finished second out of the 36 teams, and the women's side placed third out of 33 squads.
On Saturday, May 26, standout runner Ben True '08 qualified for the NCAA championships in the 1,500-meters with a school-record time of 3:42.00 at the Eastern regional meet in Gainesville, Fla. The championships, which will be held beginning Saturday, June 9, in Sacramento, Calif., marks True's third NCAA championship appearance in 2006-2007. True was accompanied by five of his Big Green teammates to the regional meet, but no other Dartmouth athletes qualified for nationals.
The equestrian team won the Ivy League championship at Morton Farms on Sunday, April 21, beating out six other teams in the Ancient Eight. Tim Malone '07 won the open flat and open fences competitions at the championship, leading a number of Big Green riders who took first place in multiple events. Malone took 10th in the open fences at the IHSA national championships, held from Thursday, May 3, to Sunday, May 6.
Men's lacrosse failed to repeat the magic of its 2003 season, when the team won a share of the Ivy title and qualified for the NCAA tournament. Unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection and honorable mention All-American Nick Bonacci '07 led a young Big Green squad to an overall record of 5-10, with a 1-5 record in the Ivy League. Dartmouth played two of the four teams in this year's men's lacrosse Final Four, posting a 17-11 loss to Duke in Durham, N.C., in the season opener and a 17-3 rout at the hands of top-ranked Cornell in Hanover. Ari Sussman '10 had an outstanding freshman campaign, as he won the Ivy League Rookie of the Year award, the first time the award was given to a Dartmouth player since Jamie Coffin '06 garnered the honor in 2003.
Tennis did not fare well in league play, both on the men's and women's sides. The men's team had a strong overall record at 15-8, but six of those losses came in Ivy play, as the Big Green finished 1-6 in the league. Captain Dave Waslen '07 was named honorable mention All-Ivy in singles and doubles, along with playing partner Steve McGaughey '07. The women went 8-12 overall and 0-7 in the Ivy League.
For men's golf, Jamie Wallace '08 shot a three-round total of 228 to take 10th in the individual standings at the Ivy League championship as the Big Green finished tied for sixth place in the team standings. The women's side finished sixth as well at Ivies, as Sunny Zhang '10 placed 19th individually with a final score of 248.
The sailing team will compete at the ICSA team race nationals from Sunday, May 27, to Tuesday, May 29, in Annapolis, Md., and then will race in the ICSA dinghy nationals on Wednesday, May 30, to Friday, June 1, in Annapolis. The women's team took 12th out of 16 teams at the women's national championships which concluded on Friday, May 25.
