SPORTS SHORT
The MIT Heavyweight Men’s Crew swept Colgate University in two races Saturday morning in the Charles River Basin. The freshman eight, stroked by Michael R. Klinker ’14, started off the day’s action. The Engineers’ firepower proved too much for the Colgate Raiders, as MIT took a lead at the start and extended it throughout the race. MIT won with a time of 6 minutes 14 seconds, 30 seconds ahead of Colgate. The freshmen race next weekend in Hanover, N.H. against Dartmouth College and the University of Wisconsin.
Tennis earns two more wins
Last Wednesday MIT Women’s Tennis had a long match against Brandeis University. The number one team of Lauren C. Quisenberry ’14 and Candace L. Wu ’14 lost 8-3 to their opponents. The number two doubles team of Julia C. Hsu ’14 and Bianca M. Dumitrascu ’13 dominated the court and won their match 8-4. The doubles team of Melissa A. Diskin ’11 and Katharine A. O’Neal ’14 defeated their opponents 8-5, giving MIT a 2-1 lead.
Baseball scores five in ninth, upsets Babson 6-5
When he stepped onto the mound to face the Engineers in the top of the ninth inning, freshman phenom Michael Bortolotti of Babson College had given up just one earned run in 39 innings. The Engineers’ offense, dormant for eight innings against Babson starter Andrew Aizenstadt, exploded against the best pitcher in Division III baseball at just the right moment.
SCOTT T. LANDERS ’13 Duathlons, dynamics, and development
Meet Scott T. Landers ’13. When Scott isn’t busy tooling away at psets like the rest of us, he trains for — and competes in — duathlons and triathlons. In fact, Scott will be competing in both the Short Course and Long Course World Duathlon Championships this fall. But first, a short background.
SHAENA R. BERLIN ‘13 Sophomore competes in cycling and triathlon
Shaena R. Berlin ’13, a sophomore in Course 12, spends on average 15–20 hours per week training. As a member of the MIT Cycling team and the MIT Triathlon team, she spends most of her time training on her bike. Hailing from Jackson, Wyo., she was an active member of the cross-country and Nordic skiing teams in high school.
Cycling competes at Tufts
It’s notoriously difficult for a host school to win its own race weekend because of all the other responsibilities that the club must manage. From working with local police to close the course roads to coordinating housing for visiting athletes, there’s a lot that goes into a successful weekend of collegiate racing. In an exceptional organizational effort led by Zach A. LaBry G, MIT not only successfully adapted the weekend’s events to the nor’easter that blew through the weekend of Friday, April 1, but also had enough energy left over to dominate in the races themselves.
Gymnastics wins!
The MIT Gymnastics teams competed at the National Association of Intercollegiate Gymnastics Clubs (NAIGC) championships last weekend in Richmond, Va. The women’s team took first place overall in the team competition. The men’s team did not have enough entrants to enter the team competition but still performed well.
Women’s lacrosse wins against Wellesley College
Holding a one-goal advantage midway through the second half, MIT’s Stephanie C. Leger ’11 won the first of four straight draw controls, helping spark a 5-1 run that secured an 18-13 victory over Wellesley College in a NEWMAC women’s lacrosse game on Tuesday afternoon. Leger finished with a game-high 11 draw controls, just one shy of tying the Institute record, and also posed two of her three goals during the late spurt.
Women’s hoops is boring?
For some people, watching women’s basketball is about as exciting as watching stalactites grow and as unpredictable as Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation. For the past few years, it has been easy to see why. After all, Stanford and Connecticut have made it to the Final Four for each of the past four seasons, and Connecticut has won six titles since 2000. This year, nobody expected anything but a matchup of those teams — both number one seeds — in what would have been a rematch of last year’s title game. However, Notre Dame’s upset of Connecticut and Texas A&M’s upset of Stanford in the national semifinals set up a final with no number one seeds for just the second time in women’s tournament history, and resulted in Texas A&M’s first NCAA championship — for either the men or the women — in the school’s history.
Tennis sweeps Bates for sixth straight win
The MIT Women’s Tennis team swept Bates on Saturday to bring their overall season record to 11-4.
Sport Taekwondo dominates in West Point Tournament
The MIT Sport Taekwondo Club recently competed in the Eastern Collegiate Taekwondo Conference (ECTC) West Point Tournament. Despite the 3 a.m. bus trip down to Princeton, N.J., the Engineers — coached by Dan Chuang and led by captains Jason J. Uh ’10 and Erika Lee ’12 — achieved a landslide victory. MIT is currently leading the conference with 1589 points — 164 points over the second-place Cornell and several hundred points ahead of 28 other universities.
Sports Shorts
The Men’s Volleyball team finished up their postseason run this past weekend, advancing to the quarterfinals of the North East Collegiate Volleyball Association (NECVA) Championship tournament and collecting many awards along the way. Seeded No. 5 in the tournament, MIT swept No. 12 Stevenson University (25-18, 25-17, 25-19) but lost to No. 4 Philadelphia Biblical University (17-25, 19-25, 26-24, 25-17, 15-6). Timothy R. Lee ’11 and David R. Thomas ’12 represented the nationally-ranked No. 10 Engineers (29-7) on the NECVA All-Tournament Team.
Cinderella makes it to the ball, but then trips...
This year’s Division I NCAA Men’s Basketball National Championship game featured the third-seeded University of Connecticut Huskies against the eighth-seeded Butler Bulldogs. Despite possessing the lead after a brutal, defense-dominated first half, the Butler team completely fell apart in the second half, losing their second NCAA Championship game in a row in what will no doubt be considered one of the least memorable finals in the history of the tournament.
Baseball takes two out of three against Coast Guard
MIT’s offense, rendered dormant by WPI pitching last week, erupted for 22 runs in two games as the Engineers took two of three games from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy this past weekend, improving their overall record to 14-6.
BETH STAVELY ‘11 Flying, soaring, and winning
Elizabeth L. “Beth” Stavely ’11, who was named an All-American diver this year at the NCAA Division III championship, enjoys falling from great heights. Before coming to MIT, Beth completed a skydiving course and earned her “A” license, which allows her to jump from an airplane alone. She has also been honing her daredevil skills by taking classes at a trapeze school in Reading, Mass., since the summer. This love for falling and soaring through the air may have begun in her early years when she started gymnastics at age 4. A competitive gymnast since elementary school, Beth continued with the sport here at MIT.