This weekend, Amherst College students, student-athletes and coaches rallied around the 17th annual “Big Brothers Big Sisters Bowl for Kids’ Sake Bowl-a-Thon,” the organization’s biggest annual fundraiser. Two athletic teams — women’s soccer and men’s track — were represented at the bowl-a-thon, which raised over $65,000 this year (exceeding its fundraising goal).
BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS
Women
The women’s indoor track team won two events en route to their second-place finish at the ECAC Championships. MIT (56.33) claimed the top spot among the 57 teams that scored points. The Jeffs ended the day with 46 points.
Junior Lauren Almeida earned one of the Jeffs’ two victories, finishing first in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 2:59.19, 0.5 seconds ahead of the runner-up. Amy Dao ’14 scored points in fifth place with a personal best time of 3:03.43.
Leading by just two points at halftime, the women’s basketball team used a second half burst Saturday night to defeat Babson College, 61-48, in the second round of the NCAA tournament. On Friday night, the Jeffs dominated on the court with 11 different players scoring in the 84-30 victory over St. Joseph’s in the first round.
This weekend, Amherst fell to Middlebury in a heartbreaking 1-0 overtime loss in the NESCAC Championship game. The Jeffs’ post-season continues, however, as they secured an at-large NCAA bid on Monday morning.
Starting on Friday night, Amherst faced Bowdoin in the NESCAC semi-final game and shut them out 1-0, earning their sixth-straight NESCAC championship appearance.
Bolstered by clutch goaltending and tenacious forechecking, the men’s hockey team battled its way to a NESCAC championship this weekend, grinding out victories over Williams (2-1) and Middlebury (4-3) to capture the program’s first conference title in three years.
Despite stubborn, ill-advised negotiating tactics, a collective bargaining agreement that still needs adjustments and the pressure of losing games, the NBA players and owners managed to reach a deal a few months ago to end the league’s first lockout in over a decade in time. In the process, they managed to save most of the regular season.
Men
Amherst placed 20th out of 34 teams at the Open New England Championships on Friday and Saturday, where they competed against the top New England runners across all divisions. Senior Ben Scheetz set the Div. III record in the 800-meter run. His time of 1:47.43 earned him second place, behind a Div. II runner who kicked it into gear for the final stretch.
