Brian KattenThe Cardinals are having an incredible spring season. The baseball team locked up a NESCAC tournament spot with a double-header sweep at Middlebury April 20. At 7-2 in league play (and in the tournament for the first time since 2010), the team has a showdown with 8-1 Amherst this weekend. The winner of that series will be the top seed in the West and host the tournament May 10-12. Softball is on the cusp of clinching a playoff spot for the first time since 2010, when they won the NESCAC title. An 8-7 come-from-behind home victory over Tufts, April 20, clinched a first-round NESCAC tournament home game…
In this issue of The Wesleyan Connection, we speak with hockey player Nick Craven from the Class of 2013. Craven signed an amateur try-out contract with the Binghamton Senators of the American Hockey League in March. He played in each of the Senators' games March 8-10 as they defeated the Conn. Whale, 3-0; knocked off the Rochester Americans, 4-3; and beat the Hershey Bears, 3-2. Q: How old were you when you first developed an interest in playing ice hockey? How would you describe the opportunity you had to fulfill your ice hockey desires growing up in Ft. Collins, Colo.? A: I first…
Olivia DrakeWhat do you get when you cross Wesleyan student-athletes with four racket sports? The answer: the first American team to represent the U.S. in racketlon! In racketlon, a player challenges his/her opponent in each of the four biggest racket sports: table tennis, badminton, squash and tennis. The sport is a cousin of the triathlon and decathlon. Each team plays their opponents in all four sports. Shona Kerr, head squash coach teaches racketlon at Wesleyan and coaches the Wesleyan team. Last summer, Wesleyan team represented America in the Racketlon World Championship in Sofia, Bulgaria. They placed 11th overall. Team members included Ethan Moritz '14;…
Nick Craven '13 signed an amateur try-out contract with the Binghamton Senators of the AHL (an affiliate of the Ottawa Senators of the NHL) March 6 and played in each of the Senators games on March 8-10 as they defeated the Connecticut Whale, 3-0; knocked off the Rochester Americans, 4-3; and beat the Hershey Bears, 3-2. Craven did not score but had four shots on goal over the three games. He also had no pluses or minuses while skating a consistent shift at right wing on the fourth line. He remains under contract at this time. Craven was a first-team…
Hannah Norman '16Two Wesleyan skiers took podium spots in the McBrine Division League Championships Feb. 16 and 17 at Magic Mountain, Vt. Michael Creager '15 and Chris Delaney '14 came in second and third respectively in the Men's Ski Division. Two snowboarders, Dylan Penn '15 and Atticus Swartwood '14, qualified for nationals. The Wesleyan Ski Team is a student-run club team that competes in both Giant Slalom and Slalom events. The men’s ski team, led by captain Adam Freed ’14, took first place overall in the 2013 season, qualifying for USCSA Eastern Regionals at Sugarloaf on Feb. 23-24. The women’s team, led…
For the first time in men's basketball history at Wesleyan, three members of the same class are 1,000-point scorers. All-time leading scorer Shasha Brown '13 has 1,745 points; Mike Callaghan '13 finished with 1,175 career points to rank sixth; and Derick Beresford '13 ranks 18th with 1,055 points. Brown, who averaged 18 points a game over his career, also will graduate as the Cardinals' all-time leader for assists (393) and free throws made (438). During the New England Division III Women's Indoor Track Championships at Southern Maine, Sierra Livious '14 set a Wesleyan record in the shot put with a…
Gabe Rosenberg '16Mateusz Burgunder ’15 returned recently from competing in the 2013 Ski Mountaineering World Championships, where the U.S. National Ski Mountaineering Team finished ninth out of 23 competing teams. This year was Burgunder’s third time competing for the U.S., participating in both the sprint race and the men’s individual race. He placed 51st and 65th, respectively. The U.S. won its first medal in the world championships, with Dartmouth College alumna Nina Silitch taking a silver medal in the sprint race. The Ski Mountaineering World Championships, hosted by the International Ski Mountaineering Federation, were held in Pelvoux, France from Feb. 9–16.
Three Wesleyan women's soccer players, two of whom are graduates of Newtown (Conn.) High School, took part in Soccer Night in Newtown Jan. 7 as Newtown continued to heal from the tragic incident at Sandy Hook Elementary School Dec. 14. Team quad-captain Jen Brewer '13 of Sandy Hook, Conn. and Madeline Keane '16 of Newtown, Conn. were joined by Kaylin Berger '13 of Farmington, Conn., at the Newtown Youth Academy Sports and Fitness Center for the festivities. Nearly 50 major professional soccer players, including Major League Soccer (MLS) stars Landon Donovan and Kenny Cooper, women's national team standouts Kristine Lilly,…
For the second year in a row, the Wesleyan Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) sponsored a gift drive known as "Stuff the Nets" on Dec. 8. During this time, hockey goals were positioned around the Freeman Athletic Center and athletic-contest goers donated unwrapped new toys for students at the MacDonough School, one of the eight elementary schools in Middletown. The result of the drive was more than 100 items, which were then wrapped by a combination of Wesleyan student-athletes, coaches and staff members as well as personnel from the MacDonough School. The gifts will be distributed to students at the school…
This fall, the Wesleyan softball team has expanded its efforts beyond the sports field in order to help others. In November, the team "adopted" a 13-year-old Cromwell, Conn. girl who struggles with multiple health problems, and donated to the Red Cross' Hurricane Sandy relief effort. Joining the Wesleyan softball team through the Team IMPACT program is 13-year-old Stephanie Lubogo (shown seated in middle of photo with younger sister Emily on the right). Team IMPACT matches local youngsters suffering from a variety of maladies with college athletic teams to boost their confidence and sense of belonging. Stephanie was born with an…
Between 2000 and 2011, Wesleyan garnered just four New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Players of the Year honors. The first came in the spring of 2001 when John Landay ’01 led Wesleyan to a 17-3 record in men's lacrosse and a spot in the ECAC Championship game by leading the nation in scoring with 121 points on 73 goals and 48 assists. The following fall, Alexis Keeler ’02 paced women’s volleyball to a best-ever 30-6 mark and a spot in the NCAA Division III tournament with 548 kills and a .379 hitting percentage. She was all-New England and…
Wesleyan student-athletes on the men's ice hockey team are growing mustaches in support of the Movember, an initiative that brings vital awareness to men's health issues, specifically prostate and testicular cancer. Once registered, the men started Nov. 1 clean shaven. For the rest of the month, the "Mo Bros," groom, trim and wax their way into the "annals of fine moustachery," explains the Movember website. The Mo Bros raise funds by seeking out sponsorship for their Mo-growing efforts. Through their actions and words they raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often ignored issue of men’s health. The…