In many ways the 2009 spring season was a mixed bag for Dartmouth sports. While baseball was undeniably impressive, other teams like men's lacrosse and women's golf struggled with consistency. But after spending the off-season preparing for their ever competitive Ivy League foes, Dartmouth's spring sports are gearing up for their regular seasons in hopes of the always contentious Ivy League Championship.
BASEBALL
Dubbed as the preseason favorite to claim the Ivy title for the second year in a row, Dartmouth's baseball team will look to live up to those expectations when the season opens this weekend.
The Big Green wrapped up the 2009 season with a conference-best 16-4 record and the Ivy crown. Dartmouth will return its entire pitching staff and welcomes eight freshmen this season.
The team starts the season without its standout slugger, Nick Santomauro '10, who left the program in 2009 after being drafted to the New York Mets in the 10th round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft in June. Santomauro led the Big Green with a .372 batting average, .446 on-base percentage and 61 hits in 2009.
Captain Rob Young '10 said the three weekends of informal games the team played in the Fall were used to evaluate the incoming freshmen and ease their transition.
Other key returning players include Kyle Hendricks '12 picked as the preseason conference pitcher of the year who shut out Cornell University in the third game of the Ivy championships last year. Additionally, Joe Sclafani '12, last year's Ivy League Rookie of the Year, was picked as the preseason Ivy League Player of the Year.
Breaking the team record with 18 saves in 2009, closer Ryan Smith '11 recently began throwing off the mound after an arm injury.
Young said Cornell will pose the biggest threat to Dartmouth's success this season, but the Big Green will also be tested early in the season, facing the No. 1 University of Virginia on Saturday after a game that morning with Wright State University. Both games will take place in Charlottesville, Va.
"We want a tough competition at the beginning of the season," Young said. "It'd be great to have an early-season spoiler for UVA."
SOFTBALL
The Dartmouth softball team hopes to build on last year's 24-24 campaign during which it won the Ivy League North Division and competed in the Ivy League Championship series.
The Big Green returns all but one starter from last year's squad including five players who garnered All-Ivy honors while adding five new members.
Before entering Ivy League play against Cornell University, the team will face a tough schedule featuring several teams that made it to the NCAA tournament last year including Georgia Tech University, Oklahoma State University and the University of Maryland.
Dartmouth opens up the season on March 5 at the Buzz Classic Tournament in Woodstock, Ga. Over the interim break, the team will travel to Florida to play in the University of South Florida Invitational.
EQUESTRIAN
As Dartmouth's equestrian team heads into the tail end of the regular season, co-captain Cristina Herren '12, Liz Wilkerson '11 and Natalie Colaneri '12 have already qualified for the regional show on March 28.
With 184 points, Dartmouth wrapped up the Fall season in third place regionally, behind the University of New Hampshire and University of Vermont.
Co-captain Sam Parsons '10 said the riders felt satisfied with the third-place finish and will now shift their focus to the individual portion of the Spring season.
"Everyone is pretty pumped to start showing again," she said. "Although some of the younger riders are a little anxious, I have confidence in them."
Accumulating points since the beginning of the Fall, the individuals who qualify for the regional continue on to zones and later nationals at the beginning of May.
MEN'S LACROSSE
The men's lacrosse team will look to turn around from last season's 4-11 campaign under new head coach Andy Towers.
"Our biggest strength is investing our time and energy into each other," he said.
The Big Green will once again play a challenging Ivy League schedule, including a game against national runner-up Cornell University at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.
In addition, the team will play several other nationally ranked opponents including the University of North Carolina and Duke University in order to prepare for Ancient Eight competition.
The team opened the season on Saturday with a 7-3 victory over Colgate University.
WOMEN'S LACROSSE
The women's lacrosse team enters this season as the No. 16 team in the country and will look to improve upon last season's 8-8 record returning 11 starters from last year's squad.
Despite the .500 record, the Big Green showed that it could play with the nation's top teams, twice falling in overtime to the second-ranked team in the country.
This year, Dartmouth will once again play a brutal schedule, featuring eight teams that were ranked in the top 20 at some point last season.
"The main goals of the girls is they want to make sure that they are pushing one another to get better each and every day," head coach Amy Patton said.
The team opened the season on Saturday with a 9-8 loss to No. 20 University of New Hampshire.
MEN'S TENNIS
Despite recently losing to Boston College with a score of 3-4, Dartmouth's men's tennis team looks to improve on last season's results.
The Big Green's most notable victory came over St. John's University in the consolation game of the ECAC Championships.
The Fall season also ended on a high note for Dartmouth as Dan Freeman '10 trumped Harvard's Michael Hayes in the Flight A finals of the Harvard Invitational and then went on to take the doubles title alongside Andrew Malizia '12.
During the Winter season, Dartmouth collected a trio of victories in its opening weekend against Temple University and Sacred Heart University.
WOMEN'S TENNIS
The Dartmouth's women's tennis team followed up on a successful Fall season with a five-meet winning streak before reaching the ECAC championships on Feb 12.
After upsetting nationally-ranked Brown University and top-seeded Princeton University during the first two days of the championships, the team fell to No. 28 Yale University in the finals.
In the Fall, co-captain Jesse Adler '10 and newcomer Sarah Leonard '13 advanced to the finals at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Invitational on Oct. 10.
The duo of Molly Scott '11 and Mary Beth Winingham '10 were the standout performers on the team, ranked No. 30 nationally after the Fall season wrap-up.
SAILING
The Dartmouth sailing team will look to continue a successful Fall season into the Spring. The women's team finished the Fall ranked 11th in the country, while the co-ed team finished just outside the nation's top 20.
The Spring season is sailing's championship season and the team's goal is to qualify for nationals, according to co-head coach John Pearce.
"We probably had our best Fall season since 2002 and that was definitely a building block," Pearson said. "Now, the goal is to qualify for nationals which means we have to beat some of the top teams within the New England Conference."
The women's team will open its season on March 20 at the St Mary's Women's Intersectional Regatta while the co-ed team will open on March 27 at the Boston Dinghy Cup.
CREW
The women's crew team will look to improve upon its Fall results and have a successful Spring season once again with a repeat appearance at the NCAA championships. This will require strong showings, particularly at the Eastern Sprint Championships on May 16.
The women will open up the season with a regatta at the University of Tennessee with the University of Alabama and the University of Louisville before their spring training trip.
The men's heavyweight team concluded the Fall season at the Foot of the Charles, with the varsity four A-boat finishing in ninth and the B-boat finishing in 14th place. The Big Green open the Spring with a regatta against the College of the Holy Cross on April 3 and will host two home regattas this season.
The men's lightweight team finished the Fall season with a seventh place finish for the A-boat at the Foot of the Charles Regatta. The squad will begin its season with a regatta against the University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Institute of Technology on April 3.
TRACK AND FIELD
The Big Green men's track team will make a seamless transition between the indoor and outdoor seasons. In the sprints, Connor Reilly '13 became the first Dartmouth runner to win the 60-meter dash in the Heptagonal meet since 1951 with a time of 6.86. He paces the team alongside co-captain Muhammed Abdul-Shakoor '10.
Head-coach Barry Harwick said he expects the team to do better outdoors than indoors because of the addition of several new events in the Spring.
The Dartmouth men follows up Heps with the IC4A meet in Boston, Mass., before opening the Spring season with the Raleigh Relays in Raleigh, N.C., on March 27.
As the indoor season wraps up at the ECAC meet next weekend, the Dartmouth women's track and field team will also start the outdoor season at the Raleigh Relays.
Head coach Sandy Ford-Centonze said the women's squad will also likely fare better in the Spring season.
"We can pick up more points since we have people who can come in and dominate in those events," she said.
MEN'S GOLF
After the men's team completed its Fall season with an impressive third-place finish at the 75th annual New England Intercollegiate Golf Association Championships, the Dartmouth squad will transition into a short Spring season with only three scheduled tournaments.
Peter Williamson '12 said the team has a new place to practice with the recent installation of a new golf facility at Leverone Field House.
Three freshmen joined the roster in the Fall, with standout James Pleat '13 tying for 15th at the New England Championship.
Williamson said that Dartmouth will have a good shot at the Ivy Championships if the team has four consistent high-scorers.
"If we enter the season mentally focused and physically healthy, I'm confident we'll be contending on the final day of Ivies with a chance to go to Regionals," he said.
WOMEN'S GOLF
After losing Lauren Strickler '09 and Tory Sheppard '09 to graduation, the Dartmouth's women's golf team struggled to fill their gaps in the Fall, despite the addition of three freshmen.
With a score of 1,029, Dartmouth posted a last-place finish in the 2009 championships as Harvard University clinched the title for the second consecutive year.
The team wrapped up the Fall campaign with ninth-place finishes at the Yale Women's Fall Intercollegiate Golf Tournament and the Kelly Gutshall Invitational at Lehigh University.
The Big Green will compete in four tournaments, starting in March, before the season culminates with the 2010 Ivy League Women's Golf Championship on April 23-25.
