The Dartmouth women's rugby team wrapped up its season with a last-minute 19-14 loss to Middlebury College on May 5. The weekend coincided with the fourth annual Cully's Run, a five-kilometer trail event hosted by the women's rugby team in honor of late Big Green rugby player Katy Cullinan '08 to raise awareness about eating disorders and suicide prevention.
The Big Green was on the offensive against Middlebury for the majority of the game, dominating scrums and line-outs. All 10 of the team's freshmen received playing time, and Dartmouth's offense was helped by strong kicks from captain Karoline Walter '13 and scrum-half Michaela Conway '15.
In the fall, the team's loss in the Northeast Regional tournament prevented the Big Green from advancing to nationals and thus affected the team's spring play schedule, according to Walter.
"I don't think there are particular teams for the spring that we get super excited for, but the season was fun," Walter said. "The Middlebury game over First-Year Family Weekend was awesome because we had a lot of parents out there."
The dearth of upperclassmen including Sabrina Amaro '13, who is on an off-term, and Ashley Afranie-Sakyi '13, who sustained a season-ending injury forced freshmen into larger roles this spring.
"I think part of the reason they were so successful is that a lot of them were already very strong athletes who had good backgrounds in field sports or ball sports," Walter said of the team's freshmen.
By the end of the season, a large portion of the team's backline consisted of freshman starters, according to Emma Vance '13.
The team is now conducting optional spring practices and planning its summer training program, according to Walter.
Recruitment for next year's incoming class will not begin until Fall term when freshmen arrive on campus, according to Walter.
"Traditionally, like many Ivy League teams, we're smaller," Vance said. "We generally have a lot of smaller, faster players who are athletes."
Many players join the team with no prior rugby experience, and the spring and summer are used to devote extra focus to skill training, according to Vance.
Cully's Run was held on May 6 at the Corey Ford Rugby Clubhouse and the surrounding areas of Storrs Pond. The event, organized by Allie Brouckman '15 and Leandra Barrett '15, is held in honor of Cullinan, who struggled with eating disorders and took her own life in August 2008.
This year, 300 participants raised a record $6,000, which will be split evenly between donations to HeadRest, a local suicide hotline, and the National Eating Disorders Association, according to Barrett.
"In Hanover, there are a lot of young people, so it's something that we wanted to focus on," Barrett said.
Prizes were awarded to the group that raised the most funds as well as to the organization that had the highest participation.
Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, of which Cullinan was a member, raised the largest overall contribution, while Sigma Delta sorority had the highest number of participants, according to Brouckman.
Bagel Basement, Stinson's barbecue, the Dartmouth Co-Op and individual rugby players also sponsored the event, according to Brouckman.
"One of the things we tried to do is have the event coincide with First-Year Family Weekend, so a lot of people's parents came out and walked with them," Barrett said.
The event also marked the annual announcement of the Cully Memorial Award, given to the women's rugby player who "has brought to the playing field and to her teammates the qualities we loved in Katy Cullinan '08: indomitable spirt, passionate support and irreverent humor," according to a Cully's Run press release. Theresa Cassano '12 received the award this year.
