Men’s Cross Country
The men’s cross country team started championship season with a second-place finish to rival Williams at the Little III Championships. At the NESCAC Championships, the Mammoths placed second to the Ephs on the challenging course at Colby. Mohamed Hussein ’18 led the team with his fifth-place finish to earn First Team All-NESCAC honors. Sophomore Cosmo Brossy placed eighth in a breakout race, earning Second Team All-NESCAC honors.
Seeking their third consecutive trip to Nationals, the Mammoths competed at the New England Regionals, where they finished third and earned an at-large bid to Nationals. Hussein led the team with his fifth-place finish to earn All-Region honors, while Craig Nelson ’18 and senior Raymond Meijer garnered similar plaudits. At Nationals, the team sought a top-10 finish for the third year in a row, but left Louisville with a twelfth-place finish.
In December, after an article from student-run publication The Indicator about emails with derogatory and explicit comments toward women at Amherst prompted a school investigation, the school suspended several members of the team and removed others from the team.
Women’s Cross Country
Returning six of their top women from 2015, the women’s cross country team returned to the trails with plenty of experience for their 2016 campaign. The harriers placed second to rival Williams at the Little III Championships. At the NESCAC Championships, the team finished a disappointing fifth on a difficult course at Colby. Treanor led the way with her third-place finish, which earned her NESCAC Rookie of the Year and First Team All-NESCAC Honors.
Treanor led the team once again with her third-place finish at the NCAA New England Regional Championships, covering the six-kilometer race in a time of 21:22 to earn All-Region honors. Nicky Roberts ’18 placed 28th to earn All-Region honors for the second time in her Amherst career. The Mammoths placed 7th in the competitive field. With the top-five teams in each region earning bids to Nationals, the Mammoths just missed qualifying for the second year in a row. However, Treanor earned an individual birth to Nationals, where she placed 27th and earned All-American honors.
Field Hockey
The fall season presented a mixed bag for the Amherst field hockey team. Several individual performers stood out but the team underwhelmed as a whole. After starting 2-2, the Mammoths rode a six-game win streak to climb up the NESCAC standings, besting four conference foes over the course of the streak, including the hated Ephs. Amherst then fell in a heart-breaking 4-3 overtime contest to Hamilton before managing three consecutive wins to push the team’s record to an impressive 11-5.
The Mammoths crashed out of the first round of the NESCAC tournament, failing to score in a 1-0 loss to underdog Hamilton. Individually, senior Sara Culhane was named a First Team All-American, while she and Caroline Fiore ’18 also garnered First Team All-NESCAC honors.
Football
After three consecutive NESCAC titles, the Amherst football team took a step back this year, finishing 4-4 overall but finishing on a high note with a homecoming win over archrival Williams. The Mammoths lost star quarterback Reece Foy ’18 to an ACL tear in August just weeks before the season started and struggled to replace his production. The team managed to start the season 2-0, with a pair of dominating wins over Hamilton and Bowdoin keyed by the strong play of running back Jack Hickey ’19 and quarterback Alex Berluti ’17. Amherst then hit a rough patch, losing four of their next five games, with the sole victory coming in a 41-0 blowout of Colby. Even with the less-than-stellar season, several Amherst performers garnered awards. Wide receiver Devin Boehm ’17 and defensive lineman Niyi Odewade ’17 both made first team all-NESCAC, while wide receiver Nick Widen ’17, defensive lineman Paul Johnson ’17, and linebackers Parker Chapman ’17 and Andrew Yamin ’19 all received second team all-conference nods.
Men’s Golf
Riding a tidal wave of youth, the Amherst men’s golf team showcased a series of impressive performances, on both the team and individual levels. The Mammoths consistently improved their results over the course of the season, culminating in a third-place finish at the NESCAC Qualifying tournament in early October. First-year Cameron Clark, in particular, impressed in his first collegiate season. At NESCAC qualifiers, Clark shot a 69-70-139 to place first overall, earning him both NESCAC Rookie and Player of the Year honors, a rare feat only accomplished five times in league history. Additionally, both Liam Fine ’17 and Jack Burlison ’19 finished in the top 10 individually, garnering Second Team All-NESCAC bids in the process.
Women’s Golf
In its first year under the leadership of new coach Elizabeth Davis, the Amherst women’s golf team posted one of its most successful fall campaigns in recent memory, finishing in the top three at every event in which the Mammoths competed. Amherst started its run with a first-place finish at the Wellesley Invitational, beating out traditional NESCAC powers Williams and Middlebury. Additionally, the tournament presented an opportunity for Morgan Yurosek ’20 to showcase her enormous potential, shooting a course-low 149, while teammate Jamie Gracie ’17 finished second with a 152. Amherst closed the season with a third-place finish at the NESCAC Championship and another second-place finish at the NYU Fall Invitational. Both Yurosek and Gracie were recognized with end-of-season awards, with Gracie nabbing a spot on the First Team All-NESCAC, and Yurosek claiming conference Rookie of the Year and Second Team All-NESCAC honors.
Women’s Soccer
For the first time since 2011, the Amherst women’s soccer team brought home the NESCAC tournament crown. The Mammoths then advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. After starting the season with a 4-2-1 record in the month of September, the Mammoths caught fire. With a 13-game win streak that extended through the NCAA tournament, Amherst posted a perfect month of October, winning all nine contests before sweeping aside Conn. College and Middlebury in the first two rounds of the NESCAC tournament. Facing Trinity in the tournament final, Amherst scored two second-half goals to clinch the conference’s automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA tournament.
The Mammoths were then chosen to host the first two rounds of NCAA action, in which they scored four goals in consecutive games to comfortably advance to the Sweet 16, where the team fell to an undefeated William-Smith squad. For their efforts, several Amherst players picked up individual awards, including star forward Hannah Guzzi ’18, who was named an All-American by both D3Soccer.com and the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. Additionally, Guzzi, Delancey King ’18, Emily Hester ’17 and Caleigh Plaut ’19 were all chosen for All-NESCAC teams.
Volleyball
A year after reaching the NCAA tournament for the seventh time in program history, the Amherst volleyball team finished another impressive season with a record of 17-9 before falling in the NESCAC tournament semifinals. The Mammoths rode a pair of four-game win streaks to a third-place finish in the conference, highlighted by a pair of thrilling five-set wins over Little III rivals Williams and Wesleyan. After reaching the tournament, Amherst was matched up with Wesleyan again, where the Firedogs prevailed in three sets. However, the semifinal contest against Middlebury ended Amherst’s season when the Panthers swept them aside 3-0.
The loss also ended of the careers of seniors Kate Bres, Maggie Danner, Nicole Gould and Kelci Keeno, a class that leaves Amherst with a 81-29 record in addition to four NESCAC semifinal appearances. Individually, Danner closed her collegiate career with a First Team All-NESCAC nod, the program’s sole postseason award.
