Sports Shorts
Openweight crew joins patriot league bowing conference
DAPER announced Friday the addition of MIT to the Patriot League as an associate member in women’s crew. The Engineers will begin competing in the conference during the 2010 campaign, including the Patriot League Rowing Championship in April.
The Engineers join full-time Patriot League members Bucknell University, Colgate University, the College of Holy Cross, Lehigh University and the United States Naval Academy. Though the Engineers have been competing at the NCAA Division I level since 2001, they currently are not in an NCAA-recognized conference. Joining the Patriot League finally gives them a chance to compete in the NCAA National Championship, since the conference winners get automatic bids.
“Becoming an associate member of the Patriot League is an honor — an incredible opportunity to race very fast crews, and continue to move our program to a new level in Division I rowing,” Coach Holly Metcalf said.
“The team is looking forward to joining a conference that complements both our academic and athletic commitments,” said junior co-captain Jenna R. Sternberg ’11. “It will provide us with a challenging competitive opportunity and the possibility of qualifying for the national championship is particularly exciting.”
A 20-5 run that spanned 10 minutes in the second half helped propel Wellesley College to a 60-51 win over MIT in women’s basketball on Saturday.
The teams alternated scoring streaks. MIT jumped out to a 9-2 edge then Wellesley evened the contest at 16. A few minutes later, Wellesley went on a 7-2 spurt, as back-to-back layups from Becca Kimball gave her squad its first lead of the game (24-23) with 3:48 left in the half. The Blue added a layup two minutes later, but Aparna A. Sud ’13’s three-pointer tied the game at 26. Wellesley’s Robyn Burleson responded with a trey of her own before a layup by Kristen E. Whaley ’11 brought MIT within one (29-28) at the half.
The Engineers opened the second half with an 11-5 run for a 39-34 advantage at the 12:23 mark. Following two minutes of scoreless play, the Blue mounted its pivotal run that was ignited by six consecutive points from KD Stearns to give Wellesley a 54-44 advantage with 2:59 remaining in regulation. MIT narrowed the gap to six (55-49) on a three-pointer by Lauren S. Burton ’13 and a coast-to-coast layup from Lauren N. Simmons ’10 with 36 seconds on the clock. This was as close as it would get as the Blue converted three out of their next four shots at the free-throw line. Each side traded layups during the final 24 seconds to cap the scoring.
Burton finished with 10 points and two steals. Stephanie D. Cooke ’13 hauled in a game-high 10 boards to go along with two steals. Simmons dished out a career-high four assists while Whaley contributed eight points.
MIT will return to action Wednesday, hosting Wheaton College at 8 p.m.