Big Green skiers plowed through the regular season to win the NCAA team championship in Bartlett, N.H., marking the first time a Dartmouth varsity team has won a national title since 1976. The Big Green went undefeated in the carnival circuit and four Dartmouth skiers -- Dave Chodounsky '08, Evan Weiss '07, Lindsay Mann '07 and Michelanne Shields '08 -- earned All-American honors for their performances at nationals.
Dartmouth football, armed with the slogan "Bringing It Back" -- a reference to the Big Green's four Ivy League titles in the 1990s -- continued to struggle in 2006 under second-year coach Buddy Teevens '79. The Big Green finished 2-8, with wins over Columbia University and Brown University and four losses to Ivy opponents by 10 points or fewer.
Men's basketball started off its Ivy campaign with an exciting 80-73 home overtime win over Harvard, but the Big Green's season went downhill after that as the squad finished 9-18 overall and just 4-10 in league play, good enough for seventh place in the Ancient Eight. Women's basketball could not repeat a trip to the NCAA tournament in 2007, but the Big Green earned a spot in the women's National Invitational Tournament behind the play of Ivy League Player of the Year Ashley Taylor '07.
This spring, Dartmouth baseball looked to duplicate its 2006 run for an Ivy League championship series berth, but 2007 was not kind to the Big Green. The team finished a tough year with an 8-29 overall record and a 5-15 mark in the conference play. Several players quit the team prior to the spring season, and offensive star Will Bashelor '07 gave up his last year of college eligibility when he signed with the New York Mets to participate in spring training.
Softball rebounded nicely from the 2006 season, as the Big Green made a strong conference run to finish just shy of first place in the North Division and a place in the Ivy title series. Ashley Gleason '10 was tabbed as first-team All-Ivy, while honorable mention pick Kelly Fry '07 became the Big Green's all-time home run leader.
Both Dartmouth ice hockey teams had impressive seasons. The men's side, led by first team All-American forward David Jones '08, who recently signed with the NHL's Colorado Avalanche, won a share of the Ivy League title, its first since 1980. The Big Green men finished third in the ECACHL, but fell to Clarkson 5-4 in the semifinals of the conference postseason tournament.
The women's skaters boasted four Olympians in Sarah Parsons '10, Gillian Apps '06, Cherie Piper '06 and Katie Weatherston '06, the last three of whom were members of the gold medal-winning Canadian team from the 2006 Salt Lake City winter games. After winning the ECACHL title, the Big Green dropped a heartbreaker in two overtime periods to Boston College in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
The men's lightweight crew team had one of Dartmouth crew's best seasons in recent memory. In addition to upsetting then-No. 1 Cornell in the cup season, the first team All-Ivy Big Green varsity eight won the EARC Eastern Sprints in a nail-biting grand final race. Dartmouth fell just short of a national title at IRAs, finishing in fourth place, about two seconds behind champion Cornell. The women's varsity crew finished second in the petite final of the NCAA championships.
Dartmouth soccer had a solid fall season. The women's team finished second in the league with a 6-1-0 conference mark and 12-4-1 record overall, narrowly missing an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament despite having six players named All-Ivy. The men's side, Ivy champions in 2004 and 2005, went 6-8-3 overall and 3-3-1 Ivy to tie for fourth place in the league. Daniel Keat '10 had a stellar freshman campaign en route to receiving first team All-Ivy honors.
After making it to the national title game in 2006, the women's lacrosse team had a bit of a down year, finishing 9-7 overall and 4-3 in the Ivy League and missing out on an NCAA berth. Standout Whitney Douthett '07, a three-time first team All-Ivy pick and a third team All-American in 2007, became the Big Green's all-time leader in assists during the season. On the men's side, Ivy League Rookie of the Year Ari Sussman '10 and first team All-Ivy and honorable mention All-American Nick Bonacci '07 could not propel Dartmouth to a conference crown, and the team ended the year at 5-10 overall and just 1-5 Ivy.
Men's track star Ben True '08, who also runs cross country and is a member of the ski team, recently ran the 400 meters in 3:42:00, a school record, at the NCAA regional qualifying meet in Florida to qualify for the NCAA outdoor track championships from Wednesday, June 6, to Saturday, June 9, in Sacramento, Calif.
And who can forget equestrian? The Big Green riders, led by captains Tim Malone '07 and Daisy Freund '08, took the Ivy League crown at Morton Farms, Dartmouth's home facility, in April. Malone went on to take 10th place in open fence at the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association national championship.
