Men
The Amherst men’s swimming and diving team was in action three times over interterm, emerging with an overall 5-1 record.
Middlebury limped into Amherst on Dec. 7 with a 0-2 record. The Jeffs beat the Panthers handily, 183-100. First-year Greg Han’s time of 2:06.85 in the 200-yard breaststroke broke a pool record set by Williams College’s Tyler Bonewell ’09.
Despite his accomplishment, Han was focused more on the next meet against archrival Williams at home on Jan.11. “I’m excited for Amherst vs. Williams, where I can race their swimmers, not just their records.”
To the casual observer the hazardous haze that covered Singapore this summer was merely an environmental disaster. A pause and closer inspection, however, show that its fog hid much more than Singapore’s angular skyscrapers. The haze resulted from illegal slash-and-burn land clearing for agricultural purposes in nearby Indonesia (much of which is covered in rainforest). As a native of a tropical country myself, I was surprised when I heard this.
The last month had its ups and downs for the 17th-ranked Amherst women’s squash team. After a tough loss to Yale in December following their season opening victory, the Jeffs had a month off from competition before traveling to Middlebury in mid-January to kick off a long week of matches. The Jeffs fell to Middlebury in an 8-1 loss; their only victory coming from captain Lena Rice ’14 in the No. 9 spot.
The Amherst men’s squash team was dealt a difficult interterm schedule, facing ten top 25 ranked teams.
For the first match of interterm, the Jeffs traveled to Middlebury to face the 18th-ranked Panthers. Their only win of that match came from the No. 1 player, sophomore Noah Browne, who defeated his opponent, Parker Hurst, in three games, 11-7, 11-9, 11-6.
Amherst returned home to host the Pioneer Valley Invitational that weekend, where they would play six matches over the course of three days.
Following their victories against Williams and Trinity this past week, Amherst men’s basketball stands at 15-1 (5-0 NESCAC) and appears primed for another deep run in postseason play. No. 3-ranked Amherst currently sports an eight-game winning streak.
Most recently, Amherst defeated the Trinity Bantams (who entered play with an 11-5 record and a 3-1 NESCAC record) 67-61 in Hartford on Saturday. Senior guard David Kalema led the way with 18 points, and tied the game high in scoring with Trinity guard Jaquann Starks.
Since returning from abroad, I’ve found myself picking up on all sorts of new and different phenomena at Amherst that didn’t exist last May. We have a musically maniacal Provost and a Dean of Faculty without Einstein hair; Frost Cafe’s serving iced coffee in a Polar Vortex and Val’s ditched the Jamaican Jerk for, of all things, Turkey Burgers. Even Keefe has spiffy (well, spiffy-ish) new lights and circular couches. I got an email about a package last week as I checked online the status of the laundry machines in the basement of my dorm. I could go on.
This spring semester the College will be implementing as a trial run several changes to its party policy. Last week, Dean Larimore emailed the students regarding these policy changes, and despite its verbiage, the letter summed up an earnest effort by the administration to improve social life at the College. The events of last semester, especially those of Crossett Christmas, demonstrated the necessity of changes to the party policy; this semester will hopefully prove their efficacy.
