Athletes discuss decision to go pro post-Dartmouth
The Dartmouth sat down with three recently graduated Dartmouth athletes who discussed the timeline, process and hurdles faced while attempting to go professional.
The Dartmouth sat down with three recently graduated Dartmouth athletes who discussed the timeline, process and hurdles faced while attempting to go professional.
D'Agostino finished third in her final collegiate race with a time of 15:43.54.
Megan Krumpoch '14 finished fifth in the women's 800-meter race at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Friday, setting a new school record with a time of 2:03.82.
Megan Krumpoch ’14 had a strong performance for the Big Green on the opening night of the NCAA track and field championship, finishing fourth in her eight-person heat on Wednesday to qualify her for Friday night’s championship.
With 38 percent of the vote, nearly 20 percent more than the second place finisher, the Big Green football team's season finale at home against Princeton University was voted the best moment of the year for Dartmouth athletics.
For the second straight year, the Dartmouth women's sailing team has earned the crown of national champions. A second-place finish in the semifinals qualified the team for the finals, where Dartmouth won its fourth title.
This year provided countless highlights for the Big Green. Dartmouth was also lucky enough to play host to many of these memorable moments in front of a rowdy home crowd. This spring, we started a new tradition, The D Sports Awards, that have honored Nejc Zupan ’14 as the best male athlete, Kristen Giovanniello ’14 as the best female athlete and Patrick Caldwell ’17 as the best freshman. This week, our fourth and final installment in the series looks at the best moments, competitions and games in Hanover this past year.
Well, loyal readers, the day has finally come — our last article and the end of the saga of the 2013-14 Rec League Legends. This season, we tried our best and experienced a few victories (we are not going to quantify exactly how many because the details are irrelevant). Most importantly, we had a lot of great times and some unforgettable experiences with some of Dartmouth’s best athletes.
In a competition that saw over 2,100 votes, Patrick Caldwell ’17 was named the best freshman athlete at Dartmouth for 2013-14. Caldwell earned 818 votes in all.
Now that the Celebration of Excellence is behind us and most of the spring sports have started their off-season training, I’ve realized that this is the end of many Dartmouth athletes’ careers in sports. These seniors have trained for thousands of hours, taken countless bus rides and airplane trips, eaten an ungodly amount of peanut butter sandwiches and experienced a blur of locker room memories in just four years at the College. I can almost guarantee that if you asked any athlete in the Class of 2014 about the day they officially found out that they would represent the Big Green, they could recount the rush of feelings as if it were yesterday.
I’ve enjoyed being able to share my stories and thoughts through my column this spring — perhaps more so than the editors who quickly became aware of my chronic procrastination. In my mind, Dartmouth athletics have a permanence thatcomforts student-athletes and fans alike. Part of this permanence is the longstanding history of Big Green sports. Football at Dartmouth dates back to 1876. Women’s sports are a more recent development, but several teams have seen remarkable success. This results in generations of alumni who care deeply about their sports and about Dartmouth.
The baseball and softball teams were two of the Big Green’s most successful teams this season. The softball team won its first League title in program history, then advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time. The baseball team ended its season with an 8-0 run to place in the Ivy League Championship Series for the eighth year in a row, where the team fell to Columbia University. The rest of the Ancient Eight took note. Four members of the softball team and eight members of the baseball team nabbed All-Ivy honors.
For the third straight year, the coed and women’s sailing teams both qualified for the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association National Championships. The women’s team will travel to Annapolis, Maryland, this Sunday, with the coed team competing June 3 in the championships co-hosted by the U.S. Naval Academy and St. Mary’s College.
There have been times in my four years at Dartmouth when I’ve envied my friends at powerhouse athletic schools. For them, Saturday football was a ritual. Everybody, regardless of their knowledge of sports, would get swept up in the fervor of college football and attend the game together. Each winter, they watched their school face off in long-established college rivalries, and then follow the team through the NCAA Tournament.
Twice in her life, Tara Simmons ’17 has hit a hole in one. Once, she said, she was at a tournament during competitive play. But the other occurred during a casual round with her brothers, on a course where the hole had a hidden pin location.
To simulate the Arizona heat in the weeks leading up to the NCAA tournament, softball players practiced in wool pants and Under Armour beneath a bright sun. Upon arrival in Tempe, Arizona, they switched to pants made of a lighter material.
During the 2013-14 season, several freshman athletes have played major roles on their respective teams, becoming crucial players and even superstars in their first seasons in Hanover. To commemorate the achievements of Dartmouth athletes and teams this past year, we introduced the first annual Sports Awards.
The Dartmouth men’s heavyweight crew team traveled to Worcester, Massachusetts, last weekend for the Eastern Sprints Regatta, where the Big Green finished 14th overall out of the pool of 18 crews for the Rowe Cup. First varsity eight took 12th place, while the second, third and fourth varsity eights all came in ninth in their divisions.
As an athlete, one of the key factors that determines a game experience is the crowd that is there watching. With a season of very few home matches and a lot of traveling, home court advantage was not something the squash team experienced frequently this year. While memories of our rowdy home matches are some of my most treasured, much of our season is played far from Hanover, away from the cheering excitement of the Dartmouth faithful.
With a runner on first and no outs in the inning, San Diego State sophomore Leia Ruiz sent the 1-2 pitch by Ashley Sissel ’17 deep to center field. Megan Averitt ’15 chased back, but the ball sailed just out of the reach of her glove as the junior crashed into the wall. The ball caromed off the fence towards right fielder Brianna Lohmann ’16. Lohmann tried to replicate her fifth-inning heroics as she came up firing to try to catch sophomore Monica Downey out at the plate, but Downey slid in just under the tag by catcher Alex St. Romain ’14 for the run that ended the Big Green’s season.