Alex Barker
Number of articles: 19First article: February 8, 2013
Latest article: April 24, 2014
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Tennis squads see mixed results in matches at Middlebury
On Saturday, the women’s tennis team topped No. 10 Middlebury in a hard-fought match, winning by a final score of 5-4.
The Polar Bears have now won three in a row after losing to Amherst and Emory two weekends ago, and are now 13-4 (6-1 NESCAC).
“Emory and Amherst—although we lost both of them—we definitely learned a lot from them and they were close matches,” said Tiffany Cheng ’16. “[The games] proved to us that we are at the top level and can compete there.”
Tomorrow, the women will host Williams at 10 a.m. The Ephs are expected to be a tough opponent, according to the team.
“Regionals usually break down to us versus Middlebury,” said Cheng. “Last year we unfortunately lost and didn’t get the chance to advance to nationals. However this year we’ve got a pretty good shot.”
Cheng mentioned that the Polar Bears’ consistency in doubles matches has improved tremendously since last year.
“In the last couple matches we’ve been able to go up 2-1 even against the top schools in doubles, which was unusual last year,” she said.
MenThe men’s tennis team’s long ride home from Vermont felt even longer after an upsetting 7-2 loss to the No. 8 Middlebury Panthers last weekend.
Middlebury grabbed an early advantage by taking two of three doubles matches. The Polar Bears’ lone doubles win came from the No. 1 team of Sam King ’14 and Luke Trinka ’16. The No. 3 team of Chris Lord ’14 and Chase Savage ’16 fell by a heartbreaking match score of 9-8 (8-6).
During singles play, Savage saw an injury flare up within the first two points of his match.
“Against a tough team, even the littlest things will make a difference,” Hugh Mo ’17 said of Savage’s injury.
With Savage’s quick defeat, a series of other first set losses were set into motion. King was the next one to step off the court, with a straight set defeat to the Panthers’ Brantner Jones.
Trinka followed with a convincing win at the No. 2 position (6-3 6-2), which turned out to be the Polar Bears’ only singles win for the day. At No. 1, Noah Bragg ’15 battled the Panthers’ Alex Johnston into three sets, but ultimately lost.
The Polar Bears lost against Bates on Wednesday 5-4. The team returns to action at home tomorrow against Williams at 2 p.m. and again Sunday against Stevens.
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Women's water polo wins North Atlantic Regional championship
The women’s club water polo team won its conference for the second time in three years. Following a 11-5 victory against top-ranked Yale last Saturday and a 9-5 win over Boston University in Sunday’s North Atlantic Regional championship game, the women will travel to the national championship tournament, held in Geneva, Ohio.
The women’s success this year is especially significant as it follows a rebuilding effort last year. Following a conference championship in 2012, the Polar Bears struggled to perform in 2013 after two new teams—Yale and B.U.—joined their conference.
“At the beginning of the year, we were kind of looking at this as a rebuilding year,” said Theresa Faller ’15. “Most of our team had never played water polo before and didn’t know the rules.”
“Our goal was to make it to the top half,” said Head Coach Spencer Vespole ’13. “We expected to do better than last year, but we didn’t expect to win [the conference] until we beat Yale last Saturday.”
The team’s prospects changed following the arrival of several new players.
“A lot of the swim team girls decided to join this year and that made a big difference, but we also got a lot of girls who aren’t involved in the swim team...and they contributed a lot,” said Faller.
Vespole said the team is enormously athletic.
“We have a few really good players,” he said. “Patty Boyer [’15] and Lela Garner [’16], I think, are the two best players in the conference. We have a lot of really inexperienced players who have improved from one tournament to the next.”
The Bowdoin women practice in bigger pools than their opponents, which may have helped them over the weekend.
“The fact that we have so many swimmers on our team just gives us a big advantage,” said Faller. “It might have been a fluke, maybe [Yale was] tired, but we also played really well.”
The end of the season included “some of the best games that we’ve ever played,” Faller said.
Despite the success it has achieved so far, the team is ambivalent about its prospects at nationals, where it will compete against other conference champions.
“A lot of the other teams practice year round,” said Faller. “We can’t because of the swim season and other sports.”
Vespole said that going to nationals will be a learning experience.
“We’ve won two conference championships in the last three years, but we haven’t really won much else past that,” he explained.
Vespole also noted that the women still have areas for improvement. He cited ball handling as the squad’s primary weakness.
“We’ve won a lot of games based on athleticism and defense,” Vespole said. “A few players really carried us….Next year [the team] needs to work on depth.”
However, given this year’s success, and with the entire lineup returning next year, the Polar Bears are poised for another conference championship.
“Next year, we will be pretty heavy favorites,” said Vespole.
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Sailing sets to to qualify for nationals for the first time ever
The sailing team is hoping for a record-breaking season after taking first place among six teams at the Staake Trophy on March 22. Bowdoin hosted the regatta and emerged from four round robins and a final four race with a record of 20-3.
“It was cold,” admitted Head Coach Frank Pizzo. “But we had good breeze and were able to run a good event. We sail in those conditions a lot and we were ready for them.”
“[The Staake was a] pretty big win for our team,” said Courtney Koos ’16. “Particularly in preparation for New England’s, [it was] an affirmation of the gains we’ve made in terms of having a bigger team that’s really capable of performing at a high level.”
Each weekend, the Polar Bears send a team to a women’s event, a co-ed event and a co-ed “B”-level event and one squad competes against schools from all over the Northeast.
Last weekend, the team sent sailors to a women’s event at Brown and co-ed events at MIT and Boston University. The team finished 12th out of 18 teams, 13th out of 16 teams, and fourth out of sixteen teams at these events, respectively.
This weekend, the team will travel to Connecticut College for the New England Team Race Championship. The top four teams will qualify for the Team Racing National Championship, a challenging regatta that includes 15 of the top 20 sailing teams in the nation. The Co-Ed and Women’s Singles Championships, both qualifiers for nationals, will take place in the coming weeks.
In the fall, despite a number of strong crews to complement the skippers, the team narrowly missed qualifying for nationals.
“We had a sense of where we would be at the end of the fall…We knew we were going to be talented; it was just a matter of putting races together,” said Pizzo.
Now, however, with several sailors having returned from abroad, the Polar Bears said they think they can elevate their performance to a new level.
“We’ve never qualified before…in either co-ed or women’s,” said Koos. “Everyone on our team is extremely excited about this, and we’ve been working really hard at the gym, on the water, in the classroom—just talking about sailing strategy. This is the first year that it’s really come together…This is the generation that’s going to qualify first, which is huge.”
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Coby Horowitz '14 is the D-III national champion in the mile run
Over the past few weeks, the Bowdoin men’s and women’s track teams met with an extraordinary series of successes, including senior Coby Horowitz winning the D-III national championship in the mile run.
Several student-athletes qualified for the Division III Track and Field Championship held the weekend of March 15-16 by Nebraska Wesleyan University in Omaha, Neb.
On the men’s team, Horowitz qualified for the mile and the 3,000-meter event, while Jacob Ellis ’16 qualified for the 800 meters. For the women, Addison Carvajal ’16, Katherine Harmon ’14 and Erin Silva ’15 qualified for the pentathlon, weight throw and pole vault, respectively.
The most impressive performance of the weekend came from Horowitz. His final mile time was 4:08.40, nearly a full two seconds faster than the second place finish of 4.10.18.
“Just setting the record this year made me want to win,” said Horowitz, whose four-minute mile set a D-III record on February 28. “I wanted to show that I could do more than set a record but also win the race,” he said.
To meet his goal, Horowitz said that he took it easy during prelims.
“[During prelims] everyone generally tries to go slow,” he explained.
He admitted “this year was unusually fast.”
During the final event, Horowitz didn’t hold back. He quickly gained the lead, completing his first lap in 60 seconds. His second lap was approximately 62 seconds, his third lap 64. By the middle of the race, he had established a five second lead over the rest of the pack.
“Generally the way championships go is that someone will get stuck out front, everyone else will follow them, and then the race is like the last 400,” explained Horowitz. “But this time I was so far out front that they were basically all racing for second.”
After a nervous first minute, Horowitz quickly found his stride.
“The first lap I was thinking, I need to be on pace. But after I fell off the pace I just kind of enjoyed it,” he said. “I’ve never really enjoyed it at nationals. Once I knew I can’t really screw this up it was a lot of fun…a big finale to my senior year.”
Ellis placed fifth in the 800 meters with a time of 1:52.53. Running out of steam, Ellis encountered difficulty during the last fifty meters. After expending much of his energy, Ellis found himself in the third lane and was unable to keep his position.
“[Ellis] ran as well as he could have,” said Horowitz. “He should be able to win [in the future], he’s gone twice and he’s already a sophomore. If you just keep racing eventually you’re going to win.”
For the women, Carvajal managed to beat her initial prelim position by one point, finishing 11th in the pentathlon. Harmon took 17th place in the weight throw, and Silva managed 11th in the pole vault.
After setting a meet record on March 7 at the ECAC Indoor Championship, Carvajal had a large boost of confidence going into the final championship.
Carvajal described the seven hour pentathlon as a “mentally and physically exhausting event. If you do poorly in one event, you have to shake it off and get ready for the next one,” she said in an email to the Orient. “You can never give up.”
Silva also felt ready for the final event of the season. By the time of the championships, she said, “I had hit my peak.”
Performing at her best, Silva was able to jump 12 feet, meeting her goal.
“As a minimum, I would have liked to get to the next height but that also would have been a [personal record],” she said.
“Winning ECACs was the first time I realized I wasn’t just going to nationals because I squeezed into the last spot,” said Carvajal. Instead, “I was going to nationals because I could compete for the top eight.”
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Records fall as track teams compete at regional meets
The men’s and women’s track teams competed separately at the New England D-III Indoor Championships last Saturday. The women placed fifth at their meet, held at Springfield College in Springfield, Mass. while the men took sixth at their meet at MIT. Athletes on both squads ended the day with new personal-records.
Assistant Coach Casey Ellis, who accompanied the women to Springfield College, described the competition there as “excellent” and “top of the line for New England D-III.”
“It was one of our biggest meets,” said captain Emily Clark ’15. “Even without the boys it felt busy.”
Williams took first place with 150 points. The Ephs were followed by MIT, Tufts and Amherst, respectively.
However, Ellis said that the women met their goals, which were to place top five in New England and score 50 points.
“Our athletes were really poised to do well,” said Ellis, who noted that the women were slightly frustrated after losing to Bates in the final round of the Aloha Relays two weeks ago.
“We edged [Bates] at this meet though,” said Ellis. “So we won the state meet at the D-III championships, which was nice.”
A highlight for the women was pole vaulter Erin Silva ’15, who took second place with a vault of 3.75 meters, a new school record. Silva has owned the mark since she was a first year.
Other top finishers included Katherine Krupp ’16, who placed third in the triple jump at 11.05 meters, Addison Carvajal ’16, who took third in the pentathlon, and first year Meghan Bellerose, who placed sixth in the 600-meter race.
“It’s not often in your freshman year that you’re put in an individual event,” said Clark. “It’s really great that she got put in and stood her ground.”
For the men’s team, MIT was a new venue.
“It was a very different layout above their ice rink,” said captain Coby Horowitz ’14.
Despite the unfamiliar facilities and relatively small number of athletes brought to the meet, the men turned in good results.
“Going in, we expected to score only about 40 points, but we ended up scoring about 48,” said Horowitz.
Horowitz won the 3K with a time of 8:19.04—fast enough to qualify for nationals.
Meanwhile, Cam Woodford ’15 scored in both the weight throw and the shot put—the first time a Polar Bear has done so in seven years.
Jacob Ellis ’16 placed second in the 800-meter race.
One possible challenge for the sprinters was MITs track, which some runners pegged as being considerably slower than Bowdoin’s indoor track.
Horowitz, though, said the track made little difference.
“One kid from USM said he felt slower on the turns,” said Horowitz. “I think people use that as an excuse. None of our guys even commented on it.”
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Squash teams host D-III Individual Champs
Last weekend, the Bowdoin men’s and women’s squash teams hosted the first-ever D-III Individual Squash Tournament. Although all college squash teams technically compete at the D-I level, the invitational tournament offered an opportunity for NESCAC and other typically D-III schools in the area to send their top four players.
As an individuals-only event, the tournament was a unique opportunity for all involved, explained women’s team captain Rachel Barnes ’15.
“There’s an individual tournament after nationals, but that’s really tough because you can play, for instance, the Harvard number one in the first round,” she said.
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Millers, Crimp lead nordic skiing in first ’14 carnivals
The nordic skiing team is looking to improve its ranking among the schools represented in the New England Nordic Ski Association this winter.
Both this season and historically, the Polar Bears have routinely finished in or around 10th place out of the 13 to 14 competitors represented at each meet, known as “carnivals” among Nordic skiers.
Head Coach Nathan Alsobrook expressed his desire to see the Polar Bears at seventh or eighth place in the carnivals this winter.
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Squash experiences big wins, tough losses
The men’s and women’s squash teams each faced off against five opponents over winter break to mixed results.
The men tackled Colby, Williams, Connecticut College, Wesleyan and, last Saturday, Brown. The Polar Bears defeated Colby 6-3 before losing 9-0 to both Williams and Connecticut College. A narrow 5-4 loss to Wesleyan followed by a 6-3 win against Brown rounded out the week.
Many of these matches featured excellent performances by individual players.
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Horowitz, Skinner earn All-American at XC D-IIIs
At the NCAA Cross Country D-III Championship in Hanover, Ind. two weeks ago, Lucy Skinner ’16 and Coby Horowitz ’14 both placed in the top 35 nationally, earning them All-American honors. In the women’s race, Skinner finished 30th overall with a time of 21:11.7, while Horowitz ran a 25:02.4 to take home a 12th-place finish for the men’s race.
Both Polar Bears ran races that Head Coach Peter Slovenski described as “courageous,” starting off conservatively and accelerating near the finish line to move into the top 35 runners. Skinner, who finished ninth at the New England regionals, began the 6K race around 100th place for the first 1000 meters.
“I didn’t want to start out too fast,” Skinner said. “There was one race where I went out really far and didn’t feel very good.”
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Men's hockey struggles in their opening weekend
The men’s hockey team, defending NESCAC Champion, is still looking for a win this season after an opening weekend of mixed results. The Polar Bears tied Middlebury 2-2 last Friday, before losing to Williams 5-2 the following Sunday.
The team started out with an early lead in Friday’s game against Middlebury, with Kendall Culbertson ’17 scoring a transition goal—his first as a Polar Bear—at the 12-minute mark. Middlebury responded with a goal of its own less than two minutes into the second period, and within 15 minutes, the Panthers took the lead with another quick goal.
Roughly halfway into the third period, John McGinnis ’15 managed to tie the game, sending it into overtime. Neither team was able to score in the extra frame.
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Men's rugby finishes season ranked No. 2 in New England
In a hotly contested match last weekend, the men’s rugby team lost narrowly to Union College 17-15, ending their season as the No. 2 club squad in New England.
Charlie Allen ’14 scored off the opening kickoff, with captain David Dietz ’14 also scoring a try within the first 10 minutes of the game. But Bowdoin was unable to score again, and Union slowly closed the gap, scoring a penalty in the last eight minutes to steal the lead.
The Bowdoin men were faced with a number of challenges, according to Head Coach Richard Scala.
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Victory over Babson propels men's rugby to Northeast Championships
Last weekend, the men’s rugby team advanced past the New England playoffs for the first time in recent memory. After a difficult 12-6 victory against Babson College on Saturday, the men lost 55-5 against New England College (NEC) the next day. Despite the wide margin of defeat, the loss was described by captain David Dietz ’14 as the team’s “best game of the season.”
The team went undefeated in a league of Maine club rugby teams, which includes schools such as Bates, Colby, UMaine-Orono and UMaine-Farmington. Because of its season performance, the team entered the New England regional finals as the third seed in a four-team playoff.Saturday’s game against Babson was one of the hardest games the Polar Bears have had all season.
“This was the best team we’d played so far, up until New England,” said David Clark ’16. “There was good teamwork, and [Babson] didn’t score a single try.”
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Men’s rugby treks north to beat Black Bears
The men’s rugby team defeated University of Maine-Orono (UMO) on their home field, with a final score of 42-15. This represents a major turnaround for the Polar Bears, who lost a match decisively last spring when Bowdoin played many inexperienced first years
“There are a lot of hold-overs [from last year],” said Head Coach Rick Scala of the No. 10 Polar Bears. “They’re a formidable team.”
He also noted UMO’s reputation as a physical team.
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Strong start for volleyball earns Corey 150th victory
The women’s volleyball team racked up a string of victories this weekend at the Endicott College Invitational, including Coach Karen Corey’s 150th win. The Polar Bears split the first day of competition with a 3-0 opener against Sage College and a 3-0 loss to Eastern. On the second day, the women swept their opponents with a 3-2 win against UMass-Boston and a 3-0 win against tournament host Endicott. In the final day of competition, the team beat the University of New England 3-0—Corey’s 150th victory.
“[The Endicott Invitational] brings in these outer-region teams, and it’s a pretty strong tournament for the first opener for us. We were in there, but we just didn’t have enough time to be fully prepared for a match like that,” said Corey.
Without time to practice, the volleyball team was forced to rely on the women’s already-developed skills. “There’s a ton of potential,” Corey said of the team. “We only had the freshmen in the gym for five days going into that tournament… It’s been a whirlwind for them.”
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Men’s golf tees off at Brunswick Invite
The men’s golf team finished in seventh place at the Bowdoin Invitational this weekend at the Brunswick Golf Club. Despite Middlebury College taking top honors, Bowdoin coach Thomas Fortson is optimistic about the team.
“It’s the first event of the year, and it actually happened within three days of the start of classes and the start of our practices, so normally we would be trying out at that time and have a week of practice before we competed,” he said. “It’s not a bad start for the group.”
Lack of practice time wasn’t the only challenge the Polar Bears faced over the weekend. Challenging pin placement—or the positioning of holes on the course’s putting greens—made for a difficult first day of play. On day two, 30 mile-per-hour gusts adversely affected tee shots.
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Additional student fellowships announced
A number of Bowdoin students have recently been awarded prestigious fellowships, according to Cindy Stocks, director of student fellowships and research.
Six Fulbright scholarships have been awarded to seniors, with another four still waiting to hear back. Kacey Berry, Jacob Blum and Emma Cutler will be conducting research in Germany, India and Sri Lanka respectively. Dan Ertis, RaiNesha Miller and Erin St. Peter received Students receiving English Teaching Assistantships to Greece, Indonesia and Senegal.
David Bruce ’13 has been awarded a Watson Fellowship, a one-year grant for travel and studying abroad. The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, a highly prestigious scholarship for students in scientific fields, was awarded to Ellis Ratner ’14, with Adam Child ’14 and Soichi Hirokowa ’14 receiving official Honorable Mentions.
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Congresswoman Pingree co-sponsors marijuana legalization bill
Last Thursday, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree pledged her support for H.R. 499, “Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2013.” Pingree, who represents Maine’s 1st District including the town of Brunswick, is currently one of the bill’s thirteen co-sponsors.
The bill, which would regulate marijuana in the same way as tobacco and liquor, follows past efforts from Pingree. In a previous session of Congress, Pingree cosponsored a bill along with Congressmen Ron Paul (Republican of Texas) and Barney Frank (Democrat of Massachusetts) that would have decriminalized marijuana. Willy Ritch ’87, spokesman for Pingree’s Portland office, explained that Pingree sees the bill as a “reasonable approach to marijuana regulation.”
News of Pingree’s endorsement came on the same day that a press conference by the Portland Green Party, the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) and the ACLU announced a petition to legalize small amounts of marijuana in Portland. The petition, if passed, would enact a city ordinance permitting the possession of up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana. Although 1,500 signatures are required, the petition committee hopes to receive over 3,000. Expectations for success are high, said David Boyer, a political director for the MPP, as Portlanders “overwhelmingly voted for medical marijuana in 2009” and are expected to vote similarly this year.
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Maine legislature proposes marijuana legalization
Maine legislators are set to introduce a bill that would permit the tax and regulation cannabis products in the same manner as alcohol. During last year's election, Washington and Colorado legalized marijuana via voter referendum.
In a press release last Thursday, State Rep. Diane Russell (D-Portland) formally introduced LR-21, “An Act to Regulate and Tax Marijuana.” Russell was joined by the ACLU of Maine and the Marijuana Policy Project. She stressed the failure of the war on drugs in preventing marijuana from falling into the hands of minors.
“Eight-five percent of high school seniors are telling us they have easy access to marijuana. Prohibition did not work with alcohol, and it has not worked for marijuana, either,” said Russell.Russell also spoke to the success of Maine’s medicinal marijuana program.
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Student environmental efforts promise to reduce food waste
This week marked the start of “Veguary,” an effort that originated at Middlebury College with the aim of encouraging less meat consumption.
Samantha Garvey ’16 says that vegetarianism isn’t the only stated goal for students: there are “also options for being a vegan, which is no meat or dairy, or pescatarian which means no meat but fish.” Die-hard meat eaters can choose to be “flexitarians,” which is merely reduced red meat consumption. The average American, said Garvey, eats “about 100 pounds of meat a year,” which is “too much” to be environmentally sustainable.
Bowdoin students are also being encouraged to participate in “Recylemania,” a North American college-level tournament to reduce campus waste. This year is the first year Bowdoin has participated in the challenge, a decision made by the College’s Eco Reps.