Weekly sports roundup: women's crew starts strong

The women's crew may not have competed since last October, but the Bulldogs managed to claim the team title at the Longhorn Invitational in Austin, Texas, this weekend. Head coach Will Porter said he was pleased with the results, noting that the team raced after only nine days of practice in the water when it normally practices for at least three weeks before the spring season begins. 

In other sports news this week (information from Yale Sports Publicity):

Although an Ivy championship wasn't in the cards for the men's basketball team this year, the Bulldogs (17–13, 9–5 Ivy) are playing at their best in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament. They defeated Quinnipiac 69–68 at Payne Whitney Gymnasium in the first round and then beat Holy Cross 71–66 in the second round. In the latter game, James Jones became the winningest men's basketball coach in Yale history, leading the basketball team to 207 wins in 15 years. The Bulldogs play Columbia in the tournament quarterfinals in New York on Wednesday.

The five Elis on the women's and men's fencing team who made it to this year's NCAAs put forth some tough competition. On the women's side, Joanna Lew ’17 finished in 12th place in saber competition, earning 11 victories out of 23 total bouts. Captain Lauren Miller ’15 finished in 17th place in foil and Katherine Miller ’16 came in 17th in epee. Competing for the men's team, Hugh O'Cinneide ’15 came in 14th place in saber, and Reed Srere ’17 came in five spots behind in the same competition.

In its spring season opener, the men's heavyweight crew team competed against Brown, and the results were promising. The Bulldogs took first place in the varsity and second varsity events, slipping slightly in the standings in the third varsity event. 

The No. 1 coed sailing team and the No. 1 women's sailing team each recorded impressive results on the water last week. The women's team won the Charleston Women's Inter-Conference Regatta, extending its winning streak to three regattas. The coed team placed second at the Szambecki Team Race, eighth at the Friis Team Race, and 13th at Southern Series #1.   

At this year's Battle of the Beach at Wilmington, North Carolina, the men's tennis team staged it's biggest upset of the season. The Bulldogs (9–3) defeated No. 51 Central Florida 4–3, and Zachary Krumholz ’15 clinched Yale's victory with a three-set match at No. 6 singles. As part of the tournament, the Bulldogs also fell to No. 55 UNC Wilmington with a score of 5–2 but defeated Binghamton 5–2 the day after.

The No. 53 women's tennis team also had an impressive week: the Bulldogs (7–6, 0–0 Ivy) defeated Bryant 6–1 on Friday and swept St. John's on Sunday. Games against William and Mary and No. 23 Rice remain before the Bulldogs, three-time Ivy champions, open Ivy League play next Friday with a game against Princeton. 

The No. 16 men's lacrosse team (4–2, 1–1 Ivy) earned its first Ivy victory this weekend, when it upset No. 13 Princeton with a score of 16–15. Eight different Elis scored goals during the game, which was the team's highest scoring match of the season, and Brandon Mangan ’14 had a career-high five goals and seven points. 

The women's lacrosse team (5–2, 1–2 Ivy) fell to the Crimson 11–8 during Yale's Alumnae Day. Next up: the team can look forward to three non-conference games before it resumes Ivy competition in two weeks. 

The first meet of the season ended well for the women's golf team, which took first place at the Middleburg Bank Intercollegiate at Williamsburg, Virginia this weekend. Two of the three days of competition were canceled due to inclement weather, but the Bulldogs still bested 11 other teams and finished with 617 overall, nine strokes ahead of second-place Longwood.

During the three-day Shamrock Invitational in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the men's track and field team came in 19th place with 20.5 points. Competing against 34 other teams, several Elis made solid performances. James Randon ’17 finished third in the 800-meter race with a personal-best time of 1:54.22 on the final day of competition. Ryan Laemel ’14 finished second in the 3,000-meter event with his time of 8:32.53, six seconds ahead of the third-place finisher.

Meanwhile, the women's track and field team also made a number of top-ten finishes at the Shamrock Invitational. On the first day, Anna Demaree ’15 came in fifth in the 10,000-meter run with her time of 38:15.35. On the second day, Meredith Rizzo ’17 claimed fifth place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with her time of 11:09.04, and Emily Urciuoli ’14 took fifth in the pole vault with a mark of 3.50m. The Bulldogs' best performance came on the final day, when Karleh Wilson ’16 took second place in the discus with her mark of 46.49m, the second best in Yale history.

Yale's two NCAA competitors from the women's swimming and diving team were unable to make it past the preliminaries last weekend. Eva Fabian ’16 swam a 4:49.27 in the 500-yard freestyle, finishing in 58th place, and a 16:27.07 in the 1,650-yard freestyle, finishing in 35th place. Lilybet MacRae ’17 scored a 237.40 in the one-meter dive, finishing in 34th place, and a 271.90 in the three-meter dive, finishing in 35th place. 

After five months off the field, the men's golf team is back in action. Competing at the Linger Longer Invitational in Greensboro, Georgia, the Bulldogs shot 886 and came in 10th place. The team was just one stroke clear of 11th-place North Florida, ranked 47th in the nation.

The gymnastics team completed its regular season with a meet against Bridgeport on Thursday: Bridgeport won with 193.525 points, while Yale only scored 189.950. A few days later, the team finished in fifth place at the ECAC Championships in Philadelphia with a score of 189.850. Morgan Traina ’15 made a 9.775 on the bars, the day's highest score.

Six games — and only two wins — for the baseball team last week: the Bulldogs (7–9, 0–0 Ivy) beat UMass.-Lowell 1–0 on Wednesday, lost to Hartford 8–6 on Thursday, and then lost three of four games against Holy Cross during the weekend. Yale beat UMass–Lowell without any hits, scoring the game's only run on a squeeze bunt from Brent Lawson ’16. 

The softball team got almost a week's rest from competition when two games against Providence were canceled early last week — but the week still ended in disappointment. The Bulldogs (3–13, 0–0 Ivy) lost all four games in the Yale Invitational on Saturday and Sunday: they fell to Bryant 15–6 and 6–4 and Sacred Heart 3–2 and 13–2. This week, after a couple of games against Fairfield, the Bulldogs open Ivy League play.

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