Winter Previews
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Alpine and Nordic Skiing  The alpine and Nordic ski teams each made their impression on the national scene last year with fine individual and team results. Many of the skiers return for the 2009 season, and expectations are high.In alpine skiing Vincent Lebrun-Fortin ’11 made his presence known as a first-year by earning two All-America honors, the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association Rookie of the Year honor, and All-East First-Team honors. Lebrun-Fortin and Josh Kernan ’10 went to the NCAA Skiing Championships for the men, and Dana Breakstone ’10 represented the women's team. All three skiers return for head coach Danny Noyes ’02. Lebrun-Fortin placed fifth in the slalom to earn a first-team All-America honor and made the second team by placing seventh in the giant slalom. Meanwhile, Kernan, at the NCAA meet for the second straight year, placed 14th in both events. Despite having just two skiers (three are needed for a full team), Lebrun-Fortin and Kernan helped Colby take fifth in the slalom and eighth in the giant slalom. Lebrun-Fortin won the slalom at the Williams Ski Carnival during the EISA regular season and took seconds in the event at the Eastern Championships and at the Vermont Ski Carnival. Breakstone led the women's team, along with Emily Colin '10, during the EISA regular season. Breakstone took 29th in the slalom at the NCAA meet. The men’s Nordic team made its mark regionally and nationally during the 2007 season, but the 2008 team was even stronger for head coach Tracey Cote, posting a historic season. The squad won four Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association carnival races -- including the first in the history of the program -- and the Mules sent a full team to the NCAA Skiing Championships.  Despite the loss of Nick Kline ’08 to graduation, Colby should continue to be strong with captain Matt Briggs ’09, Silas Gill ’09, and Wyatt Fereday ’11 all returning. Gill and Fereday went to the NCAA meet with Kline. Cote was named EISA Coach of the Year for the second straight season.Colby showed its depth placing five skiers in the top 11 at many races. The Mules had eight skiers in scoring position in carnival races, and all ranked on the NCAA qualifying list. Briggs and Sam Mathes '10 were first and second alternates for the NCAA meet. Fereday, Mathes, and Peter Rummel '11 all qualified for the New England Junior Olympic Team. With a young squad, the Nordic women's team posted impressive results for 2008. Team highlights included a seventh-place finish in the 10-kilometer classic race at the Vermont Carnival. The women combined with the men to win the Chummy Broomhall Maine Collegiate Championship, beating defending champion Bates. Kathleen Maynard '09, who spent the fall studying in France, had an impressive season. Maynard ended with a career-best eighth-place finish at the Eastern Championships. Women’s Ice Hockey  The Mules will return 17 players, including their top goaltender and scorers, from a team that tied its record for wins in a season (15) and made the NESCAC title game.Colby put it all together in a 3-2 overtime win vs. Middlebury in a NESCAC semifinal game. The Mules lost to Amherst the following day in the championship game. Becky Julian ’09, an All-NESCAC selection, returns after leading the team in scoring with 18 goals and 15 assists for 33 points. Laura Anning ’09, a past All-NESCAC pick, was second in scoring with 18 goals and 12 assists for 30 points. Anning has 51 goals and 43 assists for 94 career points, while Julian is at 46 goals and 36 assists for 82 points. Lacey Brown ’09 was a force in goal during Colby’s run at a NESCAC title and finished the year with an 11-5-2 record, a .934 save percentage, and 2.08 goals-against average. Brown had a 1.70 goals-against average in conference games. Stephanie Scarpato ’11 added nine goals and 11 assists in her rookie season. Amanda Comeau ’09 (8 goals, 11 assists) and Elissa Kurtz ’11 (9 goals, 8 assists) were other leading scorers. Men’s Ice Hockey  The men’s hockey team returns 20 players from a year ago, when the Mules finished in first place in the NESCAC during the regular season. Head coach Jim Tortorella has eight first-year players on the roster this year.The team lost its four top scorers to graduation. Two-time All-American Arthur Fritch ’08 will be tough to replace on the blue line after posting career numbers of 32 goals and 84 assists for 116 points. All-American T.J. Kelley ’08, Josh Reber ’08, and Joe Rothwell ’08 also graduated. Those players were the top four scorers for the Mules and accounted for 43 goals and 69 assists last season. Colby finished the season at 15-9-1 and hosted the NESCAC tourney for the first time in program history. Michael Belliveau ’10 is the top returning scorer, with five goals and 11 assists for 16 points. Billy Crinnion ’11 (6 goals, 7 assists), Wil Hartigan ‘11 (4 goals, 7 assists), Bobby Sullivan ’11 (4 goals, 5 assists), Eric Simmons ’10 (4 goals, 4 assists), and Mike White ’10 (6 assists) are other leading scorers back for the Mules. Belliveau, Matt Strickland ’10, and Jeoff Jarnot ’10 will be tri-captains for Tortorella, who surpassed 200 career coaching wins last year. Strickland and Jarnot both saw quality minutes on defense last year. Cody McKinney ’11 quickly earned the starting goaltending job last year and had a fine season. He finished with a 15-7-1 record while playing 92 percent of the minutes. He had a .923 save percentage and 2.21 goals-against average. McKinney was even better in conference play with a .931 save percentage and 2.04 goals-against average. Men’s Basketball  With three starters back and a number of other key players returning, the men’s basketball team should be among the top teams in the NESCAC in the 2008-09 season.Tri-captains Adam Choice ’10, Artie Cutrone ’09, and Mac Simpson ’09 will give the Mules leadership under head coach Dick Whitmore, who has 590 career wins heading into the season. Choice led the Mules in scoring (18.0), rebounding (7.8), and blocked shots (1.36) and was named to the NESCAC second team. He also averaged 1.44 steals per game and shot nearly 79 percent (146-for-185) from the foul line. Choice finished in a tie for second among Maine state players in scoring, was second in blocks, and was ninth in free throw percentage to earn Maine State Player of the Year honors. Choice has had 685 points, 347 rebounds, 75 steals, and 49 blocked shots in his two years at Colby (13-12). Cutrone averaged 13.5 points and led the Mules in assists with 82, while Simpson averaged 9.3 points per contest. Michael Russell ’11 played the sixth man role during his first year at Colby and contributed 9.8 points and 6.8 rebounds a game. Russell led the Mules in field-goal percentage at nearly 53 percent. Justin Sherman ’10 also saw significant playing time and averaged 4.2 points. The Mules finished last year at 13-12 and made the NESCAC playoffs. The team clinched a playoff bid with an impressive sweep of Bates and Tufts at home in the final games of the regular season. Colby averaged 76.6 points per game a year ago and also had a 4.3-plus margin in rebounds over the opponent. Women’s Basketball  The women’s basketball team will have one of the youngest teams in the NESCAC, with no seniors, just two juniors back from last year, and mostly sophomores and first-year players on the roster.Head coach Lori Gear McBride has brought in fine recruiting classes for two straight years, and a number of this year’s first-year players are expected to make an immediate impact. Junior co-captains Alison Cappelloni and Bethany Bartley will be the oldest players on the team, along with junior transfer Sam Allen. Cappelloni overcame injuries at the start of the last season to finish second on the team in scoring (13.6) and rebounding (6.6). She also made 47 of Colby’s 98 successful three-point shots last year to set a single-season school record. Julianne Kowalski ’11, Meredith Aronson ’11, Karlyn Adler ’11, Abby Harris ’11, and Mary Cummings ’11 all started at some point during their first year. Kowalski averaged 8.0 points and 6.2 rebounds, Aronson shot nearly 90 percent from the foul line (52-for-58) and averaged 7.5 points, Adler shot 85 percent (33-for-39) from the foul line and led the team in assists, Harris started 11 games and averaged 3.2 points and 2.9 rebounds, and Cummings started 19 games and averaged 2.1 points. Heather Quadir ’11 also returns at guard. The Mules finished 9-16 last season and made the NESCAC playoffs after posting hard-fought home wins over Connecticut College and Trinity. After a slow start to the season with the young team and Cappelloni’s injury problems, Colby went 6-4 in its final 10 regular-season games. The lone loss from the starting lineup is Katie McCabe ’08, who led the Mules in scoring and rebounding. Women’s Swimming The women’s swimming and diving team will experience life without Kelly Norsworthy ’08 for the first time in four years. She graduated as the most decorated swimmer in the history of the program. The Mules come off a 5-4 dual-meet season and a 16th-place finish at the NCAA Division III meet. Colby has had five straight top-20 finishes at the national meet. Co-captains Kelsey Potdevin ’09 and Maria Ramrath ’09 will lead the team in 2008-09. Potdevin won the 50 backstroke at the NESCAC meet last year and holds school records for the backstroke in all three distances. Potdevin and Courtney Chilcote ’09 earned All-NESCAC honors in relay events as well. At the NCAA meet Potdevin placed 27th in the 100 backstroke. Chelsea Heneghan ’11 and Potdevin were part of the eighth-place 400-medley relay team that earned All-America honors. Heneghan also won numerous races during the dual meet season. The Colby women will look for a sixth straight Colby-Bates-Bowdoin (CBB) title this year in meets with their Maine rivals. Men’s Swimming Men’s swimming and diving goes after a fifth straight CBB title in the 2008-09 season after going 5-4 in dual meets last year under head coach Tom Burton. Kevin Smith ’10 set three school records in the freestyle events last year at the NESCAC meet. He placed fourth in the 1,000 and 1,650 freestyle events and set a school mark in the 500 as well. Sam Wampler ’09, Peter Williams ’11, and Craig Zevin ’11 all placed in the top eight at the NESCAC meet last year. David Metcalf ’09 is captain of the men’s team. Women’s Indoor Track and Field  Head coach Deb Aitken will have a nice mix of veterans and newcomers on a sizable roster for the 2008-09 women’s indoor track and field season.Erin Beasley ’09, Devan FitzPatrick ’09, Brianna Kondrat ’09, and Jen MacDowell ’09 will all be captains. Beasley runs sprints, FitzPatrick runs mid-distance and distance races along with MacDowell, and Kondrat is a thrower. Colby’s distance medley relay team earned All-America honors for placing seventh at the NCAA Division III Championships last year, but three of the four runners graduated. Emma Linhard ’11, who also went to the NCAA outdoor meet, returns in the mid-distance races. Cassi Knight ’10, Mandy Ivey ’10, and Katrina Gravel ’10 all run distance races and members of the women’s cross country team that went to nationals in the fall. Men’s Indoor Track and Field  Chris DeRoo ’09 returns for the men’s indoor track and field team in the mid-distances after winning the 600-meter run at the New England Division III Championships a year ago.DeRoo had a time of 1:21.75 to win the title and set a school record in the event. He also was part of the 3,200 relay team, along with Ben Ossoff ’10, that placed third. Chris Copeland ’09 was Colby’s top sprinter a year ago. Women’s Squash  Colby earned the fourth seed in the NESCAC championship meet in 2007-08, finished the year ranked 14th nationally, and had a 13-10 record for head coach Sakhi Khan.Samantha Smith ’10 returns after playing the first position last year. Jess Vogel ’09, Maddie Dufour ’10, and captain Catherine Monrad ’09 all played in the top six last year. Stephanie Saporito ’11 was the team’s Rookie of the Year, and Caroline Reaves ’10 earned Most Improved Player honors. Men’s Squash Men’s squash returns eight of the nine position players from last year’s team, which finished 25th in the country and won the Conroy Division at the national team championships. Jake Leiby ’09 returns at the first position, while Justin Russell ’09 played the second spot a year ago. Alex Fulton ’11 was solid in his first year with the Mules at the third spot, and captain Harry Goldstein ’09 was in the fourth spot at the end of the season. Alex Place ’11, Steve Holt ’09, Dan Lesser ’11, and Ken Cramer ’10 also return.
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