Last weekend, the Amherst men’s swimming and diving team finished a long three days of competition at the NESCAC Championships, hosted by Bowdoin.
Individually and collectively, the Mammoths had an impressive weekend, with 11 members of the team garnering all-NESCAC honors and the team finishing third overall.
The first day of the meet saw Elijah Spiro ’18 successfully defend his title in the 50-yard breaststroke. Spiro set a pool record in the process, finishing with a time of 25.07. Amherst dominated the event overall, placing four swimmers in the top six of the event.
Entering the NESCAC Championships, the Amherst men’s squash team knew it faced an uphill battle to contend for the conference title. However, despite this reality, Amherst had managed to secure the fifth-overall seed with wins in three of its four matches leading up to the tournament and was looking to make it to the semifinals for the first time since 2009.
Coming off a season that saw the Amherst women’s squash team end the year ranked 18th nationally with a record of 13-7 overall and yet another College Squash Association Women’s National Team Walker Cup championship, the Mammoths are poised for another excellent campaign. This was the Mammoths’ third championship in four years, having also claimed the title in 2014 and 2015. Bates beat Amherst in the 2016 final.
This represents yet another achievement for a squad that, not too long ago, was competitive but had yet to take the next step.
This past weekend, the Amherst volleyball team closed its season with a loss in the semifinals of the NESCAC tournament against top-seeded Tufts. Although, the Mammoths had put forward an inspired performance in their quarterfinal matchup against Hamilton the previous weekend, Amherst eventually fell to the Jumbos in three sets, erasing any hopes of making it to the NCAA tournament.
Coming off a season that saw the 2016-2017 Amherst women’s basketball team finish with an incredible 33-0, the Mammoths will look to recapture some of the success that saw the tean captured both a NESCAC title and Division III National Championship. This was the program’s second ever national championship and first ever undefeated season.
In a successful weekend for the Amherst women’s golf team, the Mammoths registered a come-from-behind victory that saw them take home the crown in the George Phinney Classic at Ralph Myhre Golf Course at Middlebury College. Competing in a field of 12 schools, Amherst finished the tournament three strokes ahead of Middlebury after being down one stroke after the first day to the host team.
One week after a strong opening to its season at the St. Lawrence Invitational, in which it finished third out of 12 teams, the Amherst women’s golf team played at the historic Nehoiden Golf Club to compete in the Ann S. Batchelder Invitational tournament at Wellesley College.
In a tournament dominated by Williams College for the past decade — the Ephs have won seven of the last ten tournaments — Amherst rose to the occasion, taking the top spot in a competitive and tight field.
