“Both days, the weather was a big factor,” said Jon Cohen ’14. “It was very cold when we started, and the wind would pick up during the day, which made easy course play pretty difficult.”

Top finishers for the Pioneers at the Buena Vista Invite were Peter Marsho ’12, who shot a 76 on Friday and a 77 on Saturday to tie for 20th with a total score of 153, Ian Luby ‘13, who tied for 64th with an 83-80-163, and Jimmy Borrasso ‘12, who tied for 74th with an 86-79-165 on Saturday.

Cohen led Ginnell’s second team by placing 52nd overall, shooting a solid 76 on Friday followed by an 85 for a combined score of 161. Overall, the second team placed 19th at the invite.

“I don’t think we, as a team, were happy with how we competed last weekend,” Head Golf Coach Brian Jaworski said. “Something has to change in our mindset if we are going to play to our ability.”

“The meet was extremely competitive,” Peter Marsho said. “We didn’t play too well as a team, but the field was pretty stacked. There were a lot of nationally ranked teams and teams that are going to nationals there, so it is always fun watching them play.”

The team is now competing in the Midwest Conference Tournament, which is being held at the Aldeen Country Club in Rockford, Illinois, May 3rd through May 5th. The team sent, Luby, Borrasso, Jared Dye ’12, Cohen, and Peter and Chris Marsho ’14 to compete in the tournament.

“I think we’re right where we need to be,” Cohen said. “We’re going to have to play really well to be in contention. We want to finish in the top three, but more than anything we just want to have a chance going into day three. Just to be relevant for the whole tournament is what I think we all want.”

“I think given we all play well and do what is expected of us … we have that shot of possibly doing some big things,” Peter Marsho said.

“The MWC Men’s Golf Championship is a real test and if you don’t have the mentality that ‘nothing is going to stop me today,’ then you are going to be eaten alive,” Coach Jaworski said.  “Now, we have time to get into that “not to be denied” attitude, but that takes work. I think we are going to be as determined and mentally strong as we have been all year. “ 

The Pioneers are facing some tough competition, most notably from St. Norbert College, Carroll College, and Monmouth College. However, after one day of golf, the Pioneers tied for first with Carroll, shooting a team score of 311. Individually, Peter Marsho shot a 76, which puts him in a five-way tie for first place, Cohen and Chris Marsho both shot a 78 to tie for 6th and Dye tied for 13th place with a 79.

Derrick Rose’s ACL tear has given the Miami Heat what seems to be a free pass to the Finals for the second straight year.

In fact, the Heat has been dominating the New York Knicks in the first couple games of this year’s playoffs. Now up 2-0, the Heat and Knicks make their way to New York for the third and fourth games of the series.

With defensive specialist, Iman Shumpert out for the season (ACL), Amare Stoudemire out at least two games with anger management issues that led to him destroying his hand on a fire extinguisher casing, and Jeremy Lin out for at least a couple more games of the series, things are not looking good for the Knicks.

Carmelo Anthony and defensive player of the year, Tyson Chandler have a big hole to dig themselves out of if they even want a remote chance of success in the rest of this series. The Knicks will need to win the next two games in Madison Square Garden, and take at least one more game in Miami to have a shot.

Judging by the fact that the Knicks have not won a playoff game in the last ten years, don’t expect it to happen any time soon. Since 2002, the Knicks have made the playoffs three times, including this year. In the 2003-2004 season, the Nets swept them, and last season it was the Celtics who took the series in four games. Being 0 for 10 in Playoff games in the last decade makes me think, ‘Sorry Knicks fans.’

Fast-forward to the second round of the Playoffs and the Heat will face the winner of the Indiana Pacers, Orlando Magic series. With Indiana up 2-1 in its first round series, and Dwight Howard out with some back problems, I see the Pacers wrapping up the series in six games, max. Then, Danny Granger will lead the young, but resilient Pacers against the Heat. Depth will be Indiana’s best bet in the Playoffs, but I see the Pacers falling short to the Heat, as the team lacks the fire power to win in a seven game series. I doubt this series goes more than six games, ultimately with the Heat moving ahead to the Eastern Conference Finals.

While the Chicago Bulls still have hope that they can win a trip to the finals, the lack of reigning MVP Derrick Rose has put a huge hole in the Bulls chances to make it that far. And with the recent performance against the Philadelphia 76ers, it might be a little harder than anyone expected. In spite of all of this, I still think the Bulls make it to the second round where they will face the winner of the Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics series. Even without Derrick Rose, the Bulls are flat out better than Philadelphia.

With Boston tying up the series in game two without point guard Rajon Rondo, I think the Celtics easily put the Hawks away with him back in the lineup after serving a one game suspension for bumping into a referee.

Bulls, Celtics in the second round is a toss up. I think the Celtics have the upper hand based on the whole “no Rose” predicament. However, the Bulls defense and youth might be too much for the aging Boston players. I am going to go with the Bulls here, and let my bias show. It would make quite the story if the Bulls made it that far sans Derrick Rose, and I think it is possible, but not quite probable.

A rematch in the Eastern Conference Finals would have been great with both teams at full strength. However, the big three and Miami will be way too much for the Bulls. With LeBron James having by far one the best statistical seasons of his career (debatably of all time) and the Heat’s defensive force, the Bulls will lack the scoring that they need to compete. Chicago will be pesky and emotional and put up a fight in every game, but I cannot see the series taking more than five games.

LeBron will lead the Heat to their second straight finals appearance, where the only team that has a great shot at beating them, is themselves. In last year’s Finals, LeBron disappeared (especially in the fourth quarters, surprise, surprise) and let his team down again. He will need to step up and prove that he is a winner for the first time in his NBA career in order to bring not only his talents, but also a title to South Beach. While all NBA fans are dreading this moment, it seems to be imminent.

The San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Los Angeles Lakers present decent matchups for the Heat, but I have a hard time seeing any of these teams beating the Heat when playing up to their potential. Most fans would love to see Kevin Durant get a ring before LeBron, and while it is certainly a possibility, I think they lack the defense to beat the Heat, and going point-for-point with LeBron and Dwyane Wade, especially in transition, is not a recipe for success. The Spurs are playing fantastically, as Tony Parker is having an MVP-caliber season. But I think San Antonio has passed its prime and will not have enough in the tank to stun the Heat. The Lakers do present a matchup problem for the Heat. Andrew Bynum is on fire and the Heat have no one to stop him or fellow frontcourt player, Pau Gasol. Kobe is a big shot maker, and the L.A has a chance, but I still think the Heat come out on top.

As much as it pains me to say it, LeBron James may win his first NBA title this year, and truly enter the pantheon of NBA greats. Things would have been different with a healthy Derrick Rose, or if Chris Paul ended up on the Lakers as opposed to “Lob City.” But all hypotheticals aside, the Heat are the unfortunate favorites to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy this season.

Led by Elliott Czarnecki ’15, the Midwest Conference Performer of the week, Grinnell maintained its dominance in the Midwest Conference.

Ben Charney ’15 serves during practice on Wednesday. Photograph by Joey Brown

“It’s a great tradition. Obviously there’s a little bit of pressure, freshman year, to continue the tradition, but I had confidence in my team and the upperclassmen on the team to help us get through it, and they did. It’s exciting to be a part of a strong program and get the chance later this year to play in Nationals,” Czarnecki said.

For as long as he has been here, Captain Michael Cole ’12, along with the other returning players, have had the goal of winning Conference each year. The challenge this year was to help guide the freshmen into the winning legacy that is Grinnell Men’s Tennis.

“I think getting everybody to realize what they’re coming into and what it’s like to play college tennis [is challenging],” said Cole, who teamed up with Czarnecki to win a doubles crown at the Conference tournament.

Other champions for Grinnell included the doubles team of Colin Johnson ’13 and Aaron Lapkin ’15 and singles competitors Ishan Bhadkamkar ’13 and Conor Cunningham ’15.

Coach Andy Hamilton ’85 liked the way the first-years played this weekend, along with the veterans of the team. Their ability to play calmly throughout the season had a big impact on the team’s success.

“One accomplishment that this group has made is we don’t play nervous. We play with confidence and poise. We have had a number of close matches. We know how to win close matches,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton also believes that depending on the seeding, the team has a shot to play well in the upcoming tournament. Two weeks from now, the team will travel to the National tournament to play at Gustavus Adolphus College.

The team will continue to practice hard to get everyone peaking at the right time in preparation for Nationals.

“All you can do then is go out and battle as hard as you can. If you play a beatable opponent, and if we play the best we can, hopefully we get a win. And if not at least we had a great time,” Cole said.

Like they have been doing all season, the team will need everyone to step up and play their best in order to make some noise at the National level.
For Czarnecki, mental preparation is key.

“Obviously, Nationals is a whole other level so you have to adjust your game to that and take more risks in order to be successful. A lot of it is just sitting down and mentally figuring out what risks I have to take and how I have to kind of change my game to perform at that level,” Czarnecki said.

Without star players Juan Carlos Perez ’11 and Dmitriy Glumov ’11 that led the team last season, the Pioneers will have to come together and find points in any way possible. After winning in the first round of last year’s tournament, the team is full of confidence moving forward and all of the players are excited to have the opportunity to play at such a high level. The biggest thing in order to have success will be to play their best when they get on the court and have a solid all around performance.

“It’s a little hard to predict. The whole year it’s been a big team effort. In the past we had those superstars at the top of the lineup that we were pretty confident would get a win every time, and this year it’s just finding points anywhere, really. I think it’s always the case that the bottom of our lineup this year is really strong so we need those guys to stay solid,” Cole said. “If we can get a good performance from the guys at the top of the lineup, steal a win or two, I think we’ll be in really good shape.”

“Both teams did really well, which isn’t surprising. We usually rise to the occasion when we’re at home and we only have one home meet. We had a lot of students officiating, so they were there to support the team as well,” Head Coach Evelyn Freeman said.

Gus Fulgoni ’15 high jumps during practice on Wednesday. Photograph by Joey Brown

Sarah Burnell ’14 performed especially well at the Dick Young Classic. She won several events, and her accomplishments earned her the title of Midwest Conference Women’s Track Performer of the Week.

“One highlight was Sarah Burnell in the 1500. She came within a second of the school record, so she won by a lot. She was also on the women’s 4×400 winning team and she placed 3rd in the 800, so she was the Midwest conference running athlete of the week last week,” Freeman said.

The women’s relay teams were also very successful at the meet.

“Our women’s 4×100 team did really well and placed second. We won the 4×400, which is the last event of the meet, which is always a nice way to finish off. And we broke the school record in the women’s 4×400,” Freeman said.

The men’s team accomplished a great deal at the Dick Young Classic, as well.

“The men won the Dick, and the women got second, so those were our highest places of the year. It was a small meet, but I think everyone ran their best times that weekend. Both the 4×400 relays won, which is probably the first time that’s happened in a long time,” Captain Eric Ragan ’12 said.

Jake Lindstrom ’14 also had a personal best in the pole vault that day and won it with a height of 14 feet. Gavin Warnock ’14 had a personal record in the long jump with a distance of 6.76 meters.

Both the women and men’s teams competed and had success at the Loras Invitational this past weekend on April 28th.

On the women’s side, Jordan Young ’14 broke the school record for the hammer throw with a distance of 132-10, earning her 4th place in the event. Freeman has been impressed by both Young and Heather Kubicek ’12 throughout the season.

“Had Jordan not been on the team, Heather would be holding the school record. Every week they throw, they increase their distance,” Freeman said.

Other women had successful events, including Burnell and Diana Seer ’15. Burnell ran her best time of the season in the 800 with a 2:15.91. Seer ran her first 3000-meter steeple-chase and placed second in the meet, now ranking third on Grinnell’s all time list.

On the men’s side, Zack Angel ’15 and Ian McCallum-Cook ’12 ran their best times of the season in the 800, finishing at 2:00.73 and 2:00.97, respectively and earning them 6th and 7th place in the event. Sam Krauth ’14 also ran 4:07.58 in the 1500, his best time of the season. Gavin Warnock ’14 had a personal record in the long jump (22-03) to win the event.

Both Captain Isabelle Miller ’13 and Coach Evelyn Freeman were satisfied with the results of the meet considering the weather conditions.

“We were really happy at Loras to have so many personal bests and wins despite the conditions. We just wanted to do our best and make the trip worthwhile, even though it was raining half the time,” Freeman said.

Upcoming meets include the Monmouth Invitational and the Midwest Conference Championships. The Monmouth Meet will be the Pioneers’ first chance to compete against other teams in the Midwest Conference before championships.

“It’s a good preview for conference because you get an idea of the competition. Also, Monmouth is always really good, so it’s good competition,” Miller said.

The Pioneers are looking to fine tune their events and improve seed placements at Monmouth before conference championships.

“It’s supposed to be really nice [weather], so I think everyone’s going to run really fast times to get seeded higher for conference,” Ragan said.

Both captains are hopeful that the men and women’s relays will run well at conference. The men’s team hopes to medal both relays, and the women hope to win the 4×400.

“In indoor, we got second in the 4×400, and we’ve been running a lot better, so we definitely want to try and win it, and go under four minutes which would be really exciting,” Miller said of the women’s relay.

“We’re really focusing on relays this weekend, and getting our top people running together. It’s sort of our dress rehearsal for conference,” said Coach Evelyn Freeman.

The Pioneers will compete in the Monmouth Invitational this weekend on May 5. They are also preparing for the Midwest Conference Championships, taking place on May 11 in De Pere, WI.

Michael Jordan has a lot to answer for as the team’s GM. Even if he had never taken Kwame Brown as the first overall pick with the Wizards, Jordan’s record with the Bobcats would be enough to garner serious criticism, trading away entertaining local favorites Stephen Jackson and Gerald Wallace. Now the only hope in Charlotte is what some call the Unibrow Sweepstakes, the chance to get the first overall draft pick and presumably take college hoops’ best player, Kentucky’s Anthony Davis. With the lanky, shot-blocking, offensive work-in-progress Biyombo on the roster already, Davis seems like he might be a redundant addition. Yet no other player who could make a significant impact for Charlotte like a Bradley Beal or Harrison Barnes seems worthy of the first overall pick. I don’t see His Airness (or Errorness) managing to save his job next season.

Kobe Bryant’s quest for a third scoring title in perhaps the last NBA game to be played in Sacramento provides another reasonably interesting story line. If Bryant amassed 38 points last night, it would halt Kevin Durant’s quest for a third straight scoring title. The playoff picture, however, is largely set. Denver and Dallas are still competing for the right to lose in the first round to the Oklahoma City Thunder, but otherwise we know who is competing for the next Larry O’Brien Trophy. Though I don’t have a strong rooting interest for any hometown NBA team, this year I am going all-in for the Thunder, the NBA’s most likable, talented and young team. Here I will offer two playoff scenarios, the first my ideal as a fan of good competition, beautiful basketball and the Thunder, and the second nightmare scenario driven by my now realistic expectation that my favorite sports teams function mostly to crush my dreams through bitter disappointment.

In the ideal scenario, the Thunder face the Dallas Mavericks in the first round in a rematch of last year’s Western Conference Finals. The Thunder won three of four regular season contests between the two, but none of the games was decided by more than 13 points and two were decided by four or less, so I anticipate a fairly close series. Next the Thunder will get a very dangerous opponent in the winner of the Lakers/Nuggets series. Though the Lakers fizzled in the playoffs last year, they still have Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, and Kobe Bryant. Depending on how the Lakers’ first round series goes, they may not have Metta World Peace back, which means the Lakers will struggle even more to contain Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden. Next the Thunder will likely meet the San Antonio Spurs, owner of the league’s best record (unless Memphis manages to pull another huge upset). The Spurs are a scary match-up for the Thunder. The Spurs won two of the three regular season contests with the Thunder, but Oklahoma City’s youth and depth will be a big advantage against the Spurs coming out of a physical series against the Grizzlies. I’m counting on Tim Duncan being too banged up to continue his late-career renaissance, and now that the Thunder have been to a conference finals and came up short I think they’ll have the killer instinct to be able to take this series even if it comes down to a game seven in San Antonio.

The final barrier in the way of the Thunder fulfilling their destiny as a small-market team with likable young superstars will be the Eastern Conference’s best, almost certainly either the Chicago Bulls or Miami Heat. I think the Heat are the more likely foe due to Chicago’s injury issues and the tendency of Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah to disappear on offense. Plus, LeBron and D-Wade will be out for blood this year after their epic fourth quarter collapses against the Mavs in last year’s finals. The Bulls are the more physically imposing match-up for the Thunder with their interior play, so I would actually prefer to get the Heat here. I think Westbrook provides a huge advantage at the point guard spot, Miami’s only real weakness, and I think Durant can defend LeBron better than vice-versa. This series will be incredibly close, but this is my ideal scenario, so the Thunder win it all on Miami’s home court in front of their bougey bandwagon fans.

The nightmare scenario for me is any in which the Lakers or Heat win it all, which could happen if the Thunder fall to the Lakers in the second round and the Heat dominate everyone they play. I hate Kobe for being so selfish and arrogant and yet so good, and I hate the Heat for being an underachieving artificial aggregate of three of the league’s best. I simply don’t have the stomach to watch Kobe or LeBron lift the O’Brien Trophy to an adoring home crowd as a champion this year. So, based on past experience, my realistic NBA Finals Prediction: Heat over Thunder in seven.

The Pioneers defeated non-conference opponent Central College 3-1 on Apr. 17 and Illinois College three of the four games last weekend in two double-headers.

“Our offense was not as prepared to see the pitching we saw early and often,” said Head Coach Tim Hollibaugh. “As we gained more experience, made some offensive adjustments through video work and practices, our players have relaxed in the batter’s box. This has helped us score more runs and we continue to get better and better each game.”

Photograph by Joey Brown

Led by pitcher Will Pahos ’14, who allowed just one earned run in seven strong innings, the team earned a hard-fought victory against Central. John Spacapan ’15 hit his first home run of the season to lead the offensive output.

“It was a quality victory against a great team that beat us earlier in the year,” Hollibaugh said. “Any time we can beat an Iowa Conference opponent, it is a bonus.”

The team then played two grueling doubleheaders against Illinois College. The squad swept the first series with quality pitching. Ben Pope ’12 pitched a complete game to clinch the first win 8-4 and Andrew Kelley ’14 was solid in long relief in the second game for a 4-2 victory.

“When we’re playing four games in a weekend, it’s very helpful because it saves the relief pitchers,” said catcher Mike Nodzenski ’12 of Pope’s performance. “It’s very nice to have that one guy who can go 7, 8, 9 innings.”

The college’s record holder in home runs, RBIs, and total bases, Nodzenski added to his totals with a two-run homer in the first game.

“Mike is the same as always,” Pope said. “Pitchers are scared to pitch to him and runners are scared to steal second, which to be honest, is pretty nice as a pitcher.”

Kelley tossed a two-hit, seven-strikeout game in 5 2/3 innings to finish the sweep of the first doubleheader.

“I feel honored that he has the faith in me to put me out in any situation and knowing that I can get the job done,” Kelley said. “I thank Coach for that opportunity.”

Matt Skelley ’12 and Ronnie Gray ’12 led the team with two hits, respectively, in the second game.

On the very next day, the crew faced Illinois College once again in the second doubleheader. Drew Davis ’13 hit a walk-off home run in the eleventh inning to triumph in the first game 8-7. Nodzenski added to the offense, driving in five runs in three hits, one of them a home run. Michael Goldfein ’12 also had a three-hit game, while Kelley picked up his fourth victory of the season in a relief outing.

This game marked one of many close games that the team has played so far this season.

“It puts pressure on us to get the job done [in close games],” Kelley said. “But I feel like we’ve been handling the pressure pretty well and coming out with some wins.”

The Pioneers played another close game a few hours later, but with a different ending— losing 4-3 in the final game.

Though Grinnell scored first thanks to Goldfein’s two-run home run in the first inning and then in the fifth inning by Davis, the Blueboys scored four runs to steal the victory. Ian Sales ’15 picked up his first loss of the season.

“You have to tip your cap to Illinois College as they made the plays in the last game and out-executed us to earn a victory,” Hollibaugh said. “Sometimes that happens in baseball. We had our chances, we just didn’t get the job done and will be better for it moving forward.”

Although the team already matched their last season’s conference loss with one this early in the season, Hollibaugh is not worried at all about the future of the season.

“It is hard to beat any team three out of four times at any level,” he said. “[This experience] is what you want as a coach and [it] will be valuable later in the year. As long as we continue to get better each game, that loss will be more positive than anything else at this stage of our conference play.

The Pioneers will play their next conferences game in a doubleheader Saturday, Apr. 28 at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. at home against Monmouth. They will then play two games the next day against Coe College and Washington University in St. Louis.

As a senior, Nodzenski is excited to play against rival Monmouth.

“They’ve always been a rival for us,” Nodzenski said. “As a senior, there’s something about playing against the same team for four years. They’re usually a pretty tough team, so it’ll be fun to play them.”

Ten teams competed in the tournament, but only two qualified for nationals.

Grinnell was defeated by Carleton College B in the championships and played St. Olaf College for the remaining bid to nationals.

“[Against St. Olaf] we came out really strong and ran out an early lead,” Co-captain Cory Keeler ’12 said.

Grinnell went on to beat St. Olaf 13-4 to punch its ticket to nationals, making the weekend an overall success.

“We did awesome. We had such a good weekend; it was really incredible,” Keeler said.

“We definitely feel really good about how we did at regionals. I think we played the best we have all season, and one thing that we are particularly proud of is how much depth our team showed,” Co-Captain Paige Hill ’12 said. “19 people either threw an assist or caught a score.”

By placing in the top two at regionals, Grinnell has now made the national tournament each of the last three years—when the tournament began.

“We’re three for three,” Keeler said.

Hill saw this streak of national tournament appearances as a statement.

“It proves to the region, and to the nation, and to the ultimate community as a whole that we’re not just a team that is good one year. We’re a veteran powerhouse who can consistently qualify for nationals, consistently puts together a strong team even as people graduate and the team demographic changes,” Hill said.

Several characteristics distinguish this team from teams of the past.

“This team is a lot younger than in past years,” Keeler said.

“Almost half of our roster is first-years and people who haven’t played ultimate before. That made this year incredibly rewarding,” Hill said.

This Grinnell team also has advantages other teams didn’t possess, beyond its depth.

“I think our team is also more athletic than in years past and I am really proud of the way we’ve capitalized on that,” Hill said. “[Also] we are mentally a much tougher team than we have been, which I think will serve us well on a nationally competitive stage.”

Between now and nationals, the team will continue to sharpen its skills and maintain its consistency.

“We’re just going to focus on throws and catches. We have a really tactically strong team, but we want to continue to emphasize fundamentals,” Hill said.

The women’s team isn’t the only Grinnell ultimate frisbee team with an important tournament coming up. The men’s ultimate team has its regional tournament on April 28 and 29.

The top three out of four teams in the West Plains Conference advanced to the North Central regional tournament, and by winning the conference, Grinnell sealed its regional spot.

Last year, Grinnell finished third in the national tournament, but this year Grinnell isn’t favored to claim one of the three regional bids to the national tournament.

“One of the most fun things, this season, about regionals is that no one expects us to qualify. Last year … regionals was less of a big deal. This year, no one is really looking at us in the nation right now. The other three teams in our region are just so strong,” Co-captian Christopher Kaiser-Nyman ’12.5 said.

St. Johns, Carleton-GOP, and St. Olaf are each ranked in the national top 10, which won’t make it easy for Grinnell to attain one of the three national bids.

However, the team will be tapering until regionals, which Kaiser-Nyman hopes will allow Grinnell to play its best disc of the year.

“Our season is geared towards our post-season,” Kaiser-Nyman said. “We didn’t stop lifting, we didn’t stop running sprints last week. We trained straight through it and only now are we starting to let off the gas.”

Hopefully, this will allow the team to improve.

“We looked really good at conference and I think we’re only going to look better at regionals,” Kaiser-Nyman said.

Harpreet Singh ’12 practices hurdling technique during practice on Wednesday, April 18. Photograph by Joey Brown

“[The Jim Duncan] was a selective meet where they limited the entries to so many per event,” Women’s Head Coach Evelyn Freeman said. “So, we had maybe 20-25 people compete there, and the bulk of the team we sent to Cornell College to compete there.”

At the Jim Duncan, on the women’s side, Jordan Young ’14, who placed sixth with a 130 foot toss in the Hammer Throw, and Eloise Miller ’15, who placed second by jumping 36’-2” in the triple jump, both shattered previous school records. Other strong performers for the Pioneers included Sarah Burnell ’14, who came in fourth with a time of 2:16.12 in the 800 meter dash, and Christine Ajinjeru ’14, who placed sixth in the 400 meter with a time of 58.74 seconds, second-best in school history.

“Overall I think the women did very well,” Young said. “We had some strong performances. There were people from Division I and II schools such as North Dakota State, Drake, and Truman University.”

On the men’s side, Gavin Warnock ’14 placed eighth in the long jump with a distance of of 20’-3½”. Jake Lindstrom ’14 pole-vaulted 13-7 ¼, placing ninth, and Team Captain Eric Ragan ’12 took tenth in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 58.12 seconds.

“We had some really good competition at Drake,” Ragan said. “There were some Division I schools, so it was really tough. But, everyone who went did well and placed high comparatively to the other Division III schools.”

The men and women’s teams also performed well at the Cornell College Invitational.

Gus Fulgoni ’15 won the high jump with a height of 6’-3/4”, jumping up to sixth on the all-time Grinnell record board, while Zack Angel ’15 placed third in the 800m with a time of 2:02.32, and the men’s 4×400 relay team placed forth.

The women were led by their 4×800 relay, which placed fourth with a time of 11:11.40. Catherine Bisignano ’12 placed ninth in the 1500-meter run with a time of 5:20.33, and Jacqui Vautin ’13 also placed ninth in the 5000, with a time of 20:25.96.

“It was our first outdoor meet aside from in Florida,” Coach Freeman said. “So, it was, ‘Okay, here we go. Let’s get one in.’ So we got two in.”

The Pioneers are feeling confident about their performance at this point in the season.

“I think especially on the women’s side, we’re leading up to conference really well,” Young said. “We’re really outperforming our expectations. There is a lot of potential for us to perform very well at conference and place better than we did last year.”

“I think our training is going really well,” said Ragan. “We didn’t take any time off between the indoor and outdoor seasons, so it’s just a continuation from that. Our workouts are the hardest of the season right now. So, our times aren’t really fast now, but we’ll be faster at the end when we taper off.”

The Pioneers will have a chance to show off at home this weekend when they host the Dick Young Classic on Saturday, April 21. The meet, which is named in honor of former Grinnell track coach Dick “Killer” Young, starts at 9:30 a.m. with the 10k. Colorado College, Cornell College, Iowa Wesleyan, Mount Mercy College and St. Benedict College will all be present.

“The Dick Young will be a good time. There are a lot of alums coming back to watch; it is a big part of Grinnell track tradition,” Ragan said. “We should be really competitive in this meet just based off of the teams that are coming, so we should be up there in the team standings.”

“We lost to them earlier in the tournament in pool play,” Coach Amanda Reckamp said. “But we came through with some hitting when we needed to. We were down five-nothing, and it was good to get a comeback win when we had to fight back and overcome some bad hitting earlier in the tournament.”

Reckamp credits good pitching for the team’s change in fortune against Westminster.

“The biggest thing [for pitchers] is confidence,” Reckamp said.

First-year Jennifer Fulton was the Pioneer’s player on the mound, earning her first collegiate win.

“Jen throws three or four different pitches, so that helps her in terms of movement,” Reckamp said. “Jen pitched in our opener against Westminster at the very beginning of the season.  They hit her really hard. I gave her that start in the consolation game, because I thought that she had something to prove, and they got a couple good hits on her, and they scored some runs, but she stayed with it. In that last inning, Westminster went down one-two-three, so that was good.”

“I think [my pitches] change it up,” Fulton said. “A lot of pitchers focus on their speed. I just try to focus on getting my pitches to the right spot and making them move. I think that we all worked really hard to pull it all together.”

In addition to pitching, the team relied on crisp play and small, but sure advances, although there was one big moment.  Amanda Stromquist ’12 hit a homer to become Grinnell softball’s all-time leader in home runs.

“We also committed far less errors than we had in the previous three games against Westminster,” Reckamp added.

“We just came in and kept them to small hits, so that the defense could make plays. I pitched the right pitches, and then they quickly got to the ball,” Fulton said.

All of the team’s runs came in one inning. It was a standout showing in a game that could have ended in a struggle.

“There was a different attitude that day,” Team Captain Jayme Wiebold ’12 said. “We scored all of our runs in one inning with two outs, and I think that shows resilience. The thing that was unique was that it was a total team effort.”

This weekend, the team will be travelling to the Midwest Conference Crossover Tournament in Waukegan, Illinois. The Pioneers will be working to make up for earlier conference losses in order to earn a bid to the Conference Tournament at the end of the season.

“It will be good to carry this win into this weekend,” Reckamp said. “When we pitch well and keep the ball on the ground, we do substantially better against teams. We kept up with Coe College, which was ranked third in the nation at the time, 2-0 into the sixth inning. That tells you how good our pitching can be.”

“We spent [time] getting individual work done, so that will be helpful when we put it all together for the Crossover Tournament,” Wiebold said.

The pitching won’t be the only strong part of the team’s effort. Both Wiebold and Summer Wilke ’15 made the All-Tournament team last weekend. Coach Reckamp is looking for them to repeat their performances.

“[Wiebold] plays some very good defense,” Reckamp said. “Her bat is starting to come alive. In our two wins, she’s definitely been a dominating force in both the wins. Summer Wilke, who has a lot of potential during her career here, has hit well in both of the games that we have won. We moved her to the leadoff spot during the tournament [last weekend], where she produced some walks, so we get runners on the base early.”

Coming up, the team hopes to perform well against teams that they faced last year and just came up short of defeating.

“Knox and Monmouth will be tough opponents,” Reckamp said . “Now we have pitching depth to overcome some of the runs that they had against us.”

In her last year, Wiebold is excited to conclude her career as captain of a team that is clearly taking positive steps toward long-term success.

“The program is definitely on the upswing,” Wiebold said. “This year’s team has worked hard. The program has been through a lot in recent years. We have some disadvantages—there aren’t many of us—but the kids that are here work really hard, and coach is taking us in the right direction.”

The Pioneers were 18-0 after the Florida trip, dating back to the fall season. Considering the athletes were not allowed to come in contact with their coach until two days prior to their first match in Florida, Head Coach Andy Hamilton ’85 finds the feat even more impressive.

Catherine Fitch ’13 winds up for a serve during practice. Last weekend the women fell 5-4 at home to the Coe College Kohawks, bringing them to 18-2 overall and a 13th ranking in the Central Region of NCAA Division III tennis. Taking a week off, the squad will take on Luther College at home on Sunday, April 22. Photograph by Joey Brown

“Because Midwest Conference rules disallow having contact with the coach, the women had to prepare for the spring season on their own,” Hamilton said. “We took the attitude that we would just see how things would go in Florida since it was the first competition for the spring,”

They won the first two games with ease, beating Oglethorpe College and Calvin College, 6-3 and 9-0, respectively.

The next two games against SUNY New Paltz and Carthage College, however, were not so easy.

“The SUNY New Paltz match was memorable because we were down after singles and then we came back and won it by sweeping doubles,” Sadhana Athreya ’14 said. “The Carthage match was also fantastic. We won 5-4 with a win from our captain Toby.”

Against SUNY New Paltz, the squad was down 2-4, and needed to win the three doubles match to clinch a victory. Teams of Toby Cain ’12 and Emma Macdonald ’14 and Shirlene Luk ‘15 and Clothilde Thirouin ’14, prevailed in their respective doubles matches. The duo of Athreya and Laura Krull ’14 won a thrilling competition, rallying back from 3-6 to win the match 8-6, putting the finish touch in their 5-4 victory.

The group beat Carthage 5-4 the next day, with the final victory coming from Cain-Macdonald duo in the doubles match. Grinnell then capped off its Florida trip with a win over Pacific College, improving to 18-0 record.

Cain credits the deep and talented depth of the team for the team’s accomplishment.

“Our success in the fall was a result of our strong doubles play and our depth in singles,” Cain said. “One of the biggest strengths of this team is that since we have such a large group of accomplished players, we are improving every time we step on the court to practice. Our talent level and overall level of respect for one another have been our greatest strengths throughout this successful year.”

While playing five matches in six games took a toll on the players under the hot Florida sun, they enjoyed their time in the sunshine state. The squad travelled to Miami to watch the Sony Ericsson Open, where they tennis stars such as Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic among others.

The Pioneers faced a tough opponent in their first game back from the Florida trip, falling 9-0 to Carlton College, the 29th team in the nation.

“Carleton was a lot tougher,” Luk said. “I felt that we could have done better though if we were given more time to practice since we have been in season for about two weeks now. I felt that we lost because we were unprepared. We just started the season and we are still trying to get the hang of playing matches again.”

Unlike Grinnell, Carleton is a spring program, meaning they consider the spring season as their main one. Although the team was unable to win a game against the Knights, the coach liked what he saw in the team’s competition.

“Despite losing 9-0, I was pleased with some parts of our Carleton match,” Hamilton said. “We were much more competitive with them this year compared to last year.”

Cain believes Carleton will be a great preparation for the rest of the season.

“The difference between the talent of Carleton and the other teams we’ve faced this spring is very significant,” she said. “I think the Carleton match was a great way for us to prepare for our upcoming matches against Coe and Luther in April.”

The Florida trip was a great opportunity for the Pioneers to both prepare for the rest of the spring season and to become an even more close-knitted team.

“I’ve never been on a more supportive tennis team,” Cain said. “We’ve had other championship teams, but nothing can compare to the positive atmosphere we’ve created for one another this year. I’m very proud and grateful to be a part of such a remarkable team.”

In years past, the golf team often did consist of a key group of five guys.

“We pretty much had a starting five, and that wasn’t going to change,” Head Coach Brian Jaworski said.

This year is very different.

“We are deeper and more talented than what we have been [in years past] from the number three spot to the number eleven spot,” Jaworski said.

Traditionally, teams have a semi-rigid top five, without much shuffling of lineups, but Grinnell has a variety of players who could earn a varsity spot this year.  Seniors Jared Dye, Jimmy Borrasso, Ethan Kenvarg, and Logan Granera; and second-years Chris Marsho, Jon Cohen, and Travis Palmer will be among those competing for the five varsity spots at regular season tournaments and for the six varsity spots at the conference tournament.

The lack of a consistent varsity team could be seen as a weakness, but it also has great advantages, which Dye recognizes.

“When you have that many guys vying for spots on varsity for the next week, it pushes everyone to work harder,” he said.

“What’s happening now is that there’s a lot more competition,” Jaworski said. “And with competition comes opportunity.”

Practices, which are held every afternoon at the Grinnell Golf and Country Club, often consist of competitions between the players. Competing against one another in practice rounds and for varsity spots is something that Jaworski sees as an edge.

“They’re playing with pressure more often and I hope that the competitive spirit of our practices then translate into execution under pressure,” he said.

“It’s making us all better,” Dye said.

The Pioneers do have a consistent top two. Co-captains Peter Marsho ‘12 and Ian Luby ‘13 play the number one and two spots, respectively.

Jaworski praised Luby’s recent improvement.

“[Luby]’s worked awfully hard in the last year and a half to get his game to where it is right now,” Jaworski said. “His best golf lies ahead.”

However, the team’s number one is Marsho, who finished 4^th out of a 69-player field this past weekend at the Prairie Fire Classic at Weaver Ridge in Peoria, Illinois.

“He’s our best golfer by far,” Jon Cohen ’14 said.

“We have one phenomenal player in Peter Marsho,” Jaworski said. “He’s a true number one golfer at the Division III level. He can play with anyone in the country.”

Dye stressed the value in having a player like Marsho on the team, not only for his leadership, but also for the challenge competing against him provides.

“People, every day, want a shot a Pete Marsho [in practice],” he said.

Jaworski hopes that this competition will help prepare the team for the Midwest Conference tournament, though the Pioneers practice on a much worse home course than their opponents.

“We’re at a severe disadvantage with our home course,” he said.

“The facilities here are awful,” Cohen said.

Because the Pioneers don’t feel that their home course prepares them very well for the conference tournament, which is played on a difficult course, Jaworski schedules tournaments at challenging courses.

“We play the toughest golf courses around,” he said.

Despite the lack of elite facilities and the fact that the Pioneers haven’t won the Midwest Conference since 1973, the team is still eyeing the possibility of a MWC title.

“The goal is always to win conference,” Cohen said. “But we’re not the favorite, by any stretch.”

Coach Jaworski’s main goal for the conference tournament is to come out strong, unlike in years past.

“We’ve been a slow starter in the conference tournament the last three years and it’s tough to play from that far behind,” he said.

Dye noted another motivation for this season: playing well for Marsho.

“When you have a player like [Marsho], who’s been the top player for this team for so long … we want to give him the best senior season he can have,” Dye said.

The squad has challenged itself by playing against tough competition, especially in its games over spring break in Winter Haven, Florida. The men went 3-7 over eight days in Florida and while that hurt the Pioneers’ overall record, its dividends will hopefully pay off later in the year.

A Pionner batter waits for a pitch during practice. Photograph by Joey Brown

“We tried to improve the competition we play early and in the middle of the season so we’re better prepared in conference,” Head Coach Tim Hollibaugh said.

First baseman Ronnie Gray ’12 saw the benefit of hitting against tough pitching.

“It was good. It was really helpful,” he said. “It got us ready for conference and I think that really showed in our first game against Knox when we put up twenty-one runs.”

In that 21-8 victory at Knox College, Gray went 3-for-3 and scored four runs, raising his batting average to .322 on the year while Grinnell’s conference record improved to 1-0.

“Ronnie’s stepped up in terms of offensive production,” Hollibaugh said. “That has been a pleasant surprise.”

At the start of the year, three positions stood in question: first base, second base, and left field. Gray has locked up the first base spot, starting all 18 games there, but the other two positions are not quite as definite.

The second base spot is a battle between Matt Blumenreich ’13 and J.R. Dowrick ’15. In left field, Jackson Markey ’14 has started that last five games and is batting .350.

“Markey has stepped up and done a good job offensively,” Hollibaugh said.

And though the team has played 18 games, the lineup is not set in stone.

“I don’t know if everything’s completely settled at this point,” Hollibaugh said.

As a team, Grinnell is batting .252 on the year, well below last season’s average of .308. Hollibaugh sees this simply as a slow start.

“It’s taken awhile for our guys to adjust to game-pitching,” he said. “We have guys like [Rightfielder Matt] Skelly [’12] coming in from basketball who hasn’t had the reps. [Catcher Mike] Nodzenski [’12] didn’t start out hot, like we’d hoped and then we adjusted Drew Davis’ [’13] hitting mechanics. It’s kind of been a work in progress on offense.”

However, after the Pioneers hit .485 as a team against Knox in the first conference game, Gray sees the offense improving.

“I definitely think we’re going to start getting a lot hotter,” he said. “Lately we’ve been focusing on hitting, which has helped us a lot.”

Hollibaugh stressed the need for scoring runs game in and game out.

“Scoring twenty-one runs is great,” he said “We just have to work on a consistent approach that allows us to score runs consistently.”

The pitching staff also benefitted from competing against good hitters over spring break.

“For the most part, the hitters down there were definitely better than the hitters in Conference,” Left-handed pitcher Andrew Kelley ’14 said. “The better competition prepares us for facing the North half in the conference tournament.”

Thus far, the number one and two starting pitchers for Grinnell, Ben Pope ’12 and Will Pahos ’14 haven’t pitched as well as they did last year, but Hollibaugh doesn’t see any need for concern.

“I’d be surprised if they didn’t … start to shut down opponents more because they have the ability and both are experienced pitchers,” Hollibaugh said.

Their record might not reflect it, but this team is very much eyeing the MWC crown this year.

“This is one of the first years where we actually feel we should win it. As long as we put in the time during practice and play within ourselves, there’s really no reason why we shouldn’t,” Gray said.

“We have all the tools necessary,” Kelley said.

Hollibaugh looks forward to seeing how this team will play and improve throughout the rest of the year.

“We still have some things to figure out, which is exciting because we’ve yet to really play our best baseball. In each game we seem to get more comfortable and seem to gain a little more confidence in all phases of the game. But we’re definitely not there yet, which is good,” Hollibaugh said.

Grinnell will attempt to improve their conference record on Saturday, April 14 when the Pioneers play a doubleheader at Illinois College.

“We’re having a good season,” said Head Tennis Coach Andy Hamilton ’85. “With a very young team, I think we have nine or ten first-years; and five of them playing in the rotations, I didn’t know exactly what to expect.”

Daniel Nellis ’13 prepares for a forehand during a sunny prac- tice. Grinnell hits the road this weekend for MWC matches at Ripon, Knox, St. Norbert and Lawrence. Photograph by Carl Sessions

The Pioneers pulled out a win against in-state rival Coe College due to a strong singles performance on Saturday, April 7 at home.  The team started off by being swept in the doubles matches.

“We were down 0-3 right in the beginning, so that showed a lot of toughness [that we won],” said number one singles and doubles player Elliot Czarnecki ’15. “I think that has a lot to do with the leadership we have in the upperclassmen. In singles all the upperclassmen won their matches against Coe. That definitely helped us.”

“It was a very odd win. In that tennis teams typically don’t come away with the victory if they can’t win any of the doubles,” said Coach Hamilton. “Coe is traditionally a very strong team in the state and in the region. They have a very, very, good program, so it was a very good win for us.”

In addition to their non-conference victories, the team is currently undefeated in the Midwest Conference (MWC) Southern Division. They swept Illinois College on Mar. 31, 9-0 and defeated Lake Forest College 7-2 the same day.

“There are only a couple teams in the conference that can give us competition,” said number two doubles player Eric Ritter ‘12. “One of them is Lake Forest and our doubles team beat them very handily.”

This weekend the team is traveling to Wisconsin to play conference games against Ripon College (1-8) and Knox College (4-10) on Friday, April 13 and St. Norbert College (4-10) and Lawrence University (7-10) on Saturday, April 14.

The following weekend, the Pioneers will face Monmouth College (11-9) at home on April 21, and Luther College (14-4) on April 22, also at home.

“Monmouth looks very strong. They look like the 2nd best team in the conference,” Hamilton said. “Our goal always is to challenge for a MWC championship. Monmouth has four very strong players returning and achieving that goal will be very difficult.”

The match against non-conference rival Luther will present a tough final regular season contest.

“Luther is one of the best teams in the state and perennially regionally ranked in men and women,” Hamilton said. “So, it will be a nice cap to the men’s regular season to play a very good team.”

“We have been playing very, very well in the singles line–up,” Ritter said. “We have beaten two teams in the top 12 in the region. I think we’re feeling like in terms of our level if we come out fighting we can beat teams that are on paper better than us.”

Heading into the post season, the Pioneers can guarantee themselves a place in the MWC Tournament this year with a win over Knox on Friday. The MWC Tournament is being held in Madison, WI on April 27. The Pioneers’ goal will be to defend their title as eight time MWC champions.

“We want to win the MWC. Which means winning the MWC tournament and beating Lake Forest and Monmouth,” Ritter said. “If we step out on the court and play our game, we’re not going to lose. We are a better team.”

“A lot of how we do this year will depend on how our doubles goes in the MWC,” Czarnecki said. “So, in practice we focus a lot on doubles and trying to get the three doubles points right away.”

“We’ve been talking about playing strong till the end and having a big build up to the end,” Hamilton said. “If we’re able to accomplish that I think we have a very good chance of winning the title.”

Contrary to the song from the ubiquitous Buick ad, which I imagine all proper college hoops fans have seen enough to replay from memory, the tournament did not start with a whisper, but rather two bangs. The seventh and eighth times a #2 seed has fallen came on the same day at the hands of mid-minors not to be denied by ostensibly more talented and better coached teams, or even the way they played all season—Lehigh and Norfolk both outplayed their season-long statistics by an incredible degree. (That Buick song’s called “Everybody Talks” by Neon Trees, by the way.)

While it would be a disservice to the basketball clinic the Wildcats put on to say that the tournament ended with a whisper, this tournament left something to be desired in the way of excitement or story lines after the first weekend. Sure, Ohio’s run was nice, but nobody gets too excited about a Cinderella whose carriage turns back into a pumpkin at 9 p.m. instead of midnight.  The championship game left some fans feeling hollow about March Madness, but can we really blame Kentucky for being so good that the game’s outcome was never really in doubt?

Some sports pundits appear to think we can. Numerous articles on ESPN.com and SI.com have taken issue with the fact that Kentucky’s rotation of seven players included just one senior, with the rest of the Wildcats’ key contributions coming from so-called “one and done” players like star center Anthony Davis, who took home MVP honors. Some misguided writers and fans see this admittedly somewhat dull tournament as a referendum on “one and done.” They say Kentucky was too dominant with its preponderance of NBA talent. Indeed this year’s Kentucky team will likely have to replace its entire starting five, with three freshmen and two sophomore holdovers from last year looking likely to leave early for NBA riches.

I can’t agree with any of these arguments. If this season and this Kentucky team are to serve as the defenders in the battle over “one and done,” they have already won. A team whose best players are a year or two removed from first buying their own tickets to R-rated movies dominated older, more experienced lineups and proved that tournament experience is nice but having five future professionals is nicer. It seems completely antithetical to say that the tournament was boring and the college game is suffering from having the best players. Can you fault Calipari for successfully recruiting Davis and fellow diaper dandies Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Marquis Teague? Can you fault these players for wanting to play at the highest level of competition and receive proper compensation for their work?

It’s no surprise that people are trying to turn a drama-free tournament into a referendum on “one and done.” I took to the pages of this illustrious newspaper two years ago to defend the NBA’s decision to impose an age limit for drafting players and received quite a bit of negative feedback, much of it from my own family (they’re clearly the only ones who read this anyway). The rule effectively created a system in which the best young players, the LeBrons, the Kobes, the KGs, who would have jumped straight from high school to the NBA now have to spend at least a season in the NCAA ranks. Some people see this system as corrupting the purity of the college game, making players into mercenaries and coaches into roster building NBA GMs rather than the leaders and teachers of young men. These charges operate from an antiquated perspective on college sports that still prizes amateurism in an age when college sports bring in millions in revenue for networks and universities.

The tournament lacked its usual drama because thrilling upsets and buzzer beaters simply failed to materialize like they often do. But you can’t blame a higher level of talent in the college game for that. This season was better because we got to watch Anthony Davis swat away opposing shots like King Kong swatting down planes, because we got to see MKG fearlessly drive the lane and dunk, because we got to witness Teague swish impossible threes with a hand in his face. Increasing parity by lowering the level of play through the elimination of surefire NBA players is a toxic idea for the college game. Remember last season’s indefensibly boring championship game between Butler and Connecticut? Me neither. But will we remember this year’s Wildcats? You betcha—all we’ll have to do is turn on an NBA game.

Michael Brus ‘14 swimming his way to victory and an NCAA A-Cut in the 200 yard backstroke at the Midwest Confer- ence Meet this February. Brus will be heading to the US Olympic Trials at the end of June in Omaha, Nebraska. Contributed.

“I’m really happy with how I did,” Brus said. “It wasn’t ideal training situations leading up to it, but I’m really happy with how I did.”

Despite the training obstacle presented by the shutdown of the Russell K. Osgood pool for repairs, Brus managed to post personal bests in all three of his events at Nationals. Brus placed third and received All-American honors in the 200 yard backstroke with a time of 1:46.23. Brus also received All-American status in the 100 yard backstroke with an eighth place finish and All-American honorable mention in the 200m freestyle with a 10th place finish.

“We knew he was going to swim fast,” said Head Swim Coach Erin Hurley. “That was the intention, but it was kind of an adverse situation [with the pool being closed]. Then it was fantastic at nationals the day after when he qualified for the Olympic trails. That was a big surprise.”

Brus qualified for the U.S. Olympic trials in the 200m backstroke with a time of 2:04.70. The official cutoff time was 2:04.99. The Olympic trials will be held in Omaha, Nebraska from June 25 to July 2. Brus is scheduled to swim on Friday, June 29.

“[Brus qualifying] is great publicity for the team, because Michael is such a team person,” said Coach Hurley. “Even though he is the only person to qualify for the able body Olympic trials in Omaha, he is really invested in our team, so it is representative of our team, as opposed to him being this outlier who does stuff on his own.”

“The team as a whole is very proud of him.  We have a wide range of abilities on our team and are equally happy for each individual’s success, including Michael. It is also exciting to show our GC pride on a national level and have the whole country see how talented, kind, and sportsmanlike Michael is,” said diver Kelly Bruce ’12, who along with several other team members traveled to Indianapolis to support Brus.

Although excited to be participating in the trials, Brus is not expecting to advance to the Olympic games.

“I’m just being realistic and I know I’m not going to qualify for the Olympics,” Brus said. “I just want to treat it as another meet and enjoy the time there and swim fast.”

“[The Olympic trials] are the fastest swimming meet in the world because U.S. swimmers are very deep compared to other countries,” Coach Hurley said. “We’re not thinking he is going to qualify, just going to participate and have that once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Until that time, Michael will continue his training in the newly repaired pool.

“I took a week break, but now I am back in the pool and just getting back in shape and starting all over,” Brus said.

“[His] work ethic is incredible, obviously, as he excelled at a national level and will continue to train until the Olympic trials,” Bruce said. “I have faith that he’ll be able to persevere and maintain his focus through June.”

Michael will be joined in training by Claire Forrest ’13 and Claire Williams ’13 who both qualified for the Paralympic Trials. Forrest qualified in the 100m backstroke and 400m freestyle, and Williams qualified in the 100m butterfly and 400m freestyle. The Paralympic Trials will be held in Bismarck, ND from June 14-16

The impact of these signings is massive; both teams instantly become championship contenders and completely change the landscape of their respective divisions. The Tigers now look to be the hands-on favorite to win the AL Central, a division that seemed to be very much “up-for-grabs” before the Fielder signing. The Angels, on the other hand, reside in the wild, wild AL West, home to the two-time defending American League Champion Texas Rangers. The Rangers look primed to continue hitting balls over fences and while they lost star-pitcher C.J. Wilson to the Angels, they paid through their nose to obtain Yu Darvish, widely thought to be one of the best pitchers on the free-agent market. Still, though, the Angels have one of the stronger teams in the majors, and several of the projections I looked at give them the slight edge over Texas. The question I want to address is:  “Which superstar slugger makes their new team better?”

In order to answer this question, we must first look at each team’s projected lineup for the 2012 season. The Tigers’ lineup packed a lot of pop before the Prince Fielder signing, but now it looks downright explosive. Even Tigers’ pitcher and 2011 AL Cy Young Winner Justin Verlander was quoted as saying that he would not want to face the lineup the Tigers will bring to the plate in 2012. Their leadoff hitter is Austin Jackson, not a particularly intimidating out and probably the most precarious part of Detroit’s lineup. Jackson simply does not get on base enough and strikes out way too much to be a solid leadoff guy. After him, though, it’s a veritable murderers row; Brendan Boesch, Miguel Cabrera, Fielder, Alex Avila, Delmon Young, Jhonny Peralta, Ryan Raburn, and Ramon Santiago. What stands out, obviously, is Cabrera and Fielder in the three- and four-spots respectively. In 2011, those two combined for 68 homers, 225 RBI, and an on-base percentage plus slugging percentage of over two (if you don’t know what that is, just trust me: that’s nuts). However, the Tigers have great power distributed throughout their lineup. It is not out of the realm of possibility that seven hitters will hit 15+ home runs and drive-in 60+ runs, and Boesch, Cabrera, Fielder, and Avila all have a good shot of slugging over .450. In the field, Prince is not as apt as his surname would suggest. Fielder does not play a particularly demanding fielding position, first base, but he still recorded the lowest fielding percentage of all first basemen in 2011 (.990).

The Angels’ lineup possesses some power of its own, particularly in the three-, four-, and five-spots. Erick Aybar will lead things off for L.A., a decent bat (though he could stand to get on base more) and an even better glove at shortstop. After Aybar comes 37-year old Bobby Abreu, who is well past his prime, but could still very possible drive in 50+ runs. Abreu could have a breakout year batting in front of Pujols, and the same can be said about the guy batting behind Albert, Torii Hunter. Pujols should get on base roughly 40% of the time, which should create a lot of RBI opportunities for the ageless Hunter. Torii could very realistically hit 20+ home runs and drive-in 80+ runs this season. After Hunter bats, Howie Kendrick, a rising star at second base, and a guy who hit 18 home runs, drove in 63 runs, and registered an OPS above .800 – numbers he is likely to at least replicate, if not surpass, hitting behind Pujols and Hunter. After Kendrick, though, there is somewhat of a significant drop-off in the Angels’ lineup. Alberto Callaspo, Vernon Wells, Chris Iannetta, and Peter Bourjos bat in the sixth-, seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-spot, respectively. Vernon Wells was once thought to be one of the most promising young sluggers in the game, and while he can still hit for power, he hit a measly .217 last year and registered an OPS of .660, absolutely pathetic for a guy who is supposed to be one of the better hitters on the team. I can’t foresee Vernon having as poor of a season as he did in 2011, but I also can’t see Vernon tearing it up and driving in 90 runs. Wells will probably hit about 20 dingers, drive-in 60 runs, and maybe register an OPS close to .730 or so. Unlike Prince Fielder, Albert Pujols is one of the slickest fielding first basemen in the biz. His two gold gloves, the most recent coming in 2010, should be a real boon to the Angels’ infield.

So which first baseman will make more of an impact on his new team? All signs point to Pujols, and rightfully so. He is perhaps the best player in the league. The Tigers were going to score a lot of runs even before Prince joined the team, and while the presence of one of the five best left-handed hitters in baseball (Prince) in the lineup to protect one of the five best right-handed hitters (Miggy Cabrera) in baseball should prove to be devastating for opposing pitchers, the Tigers still have the pitching and ability to hit for power, even without Prince, to win the AL Central. While it would be a stretch to say that the Angels would be offensively challenged without Pujols, they certainly don’t share the Tigers’ luxury of another elite slugger in the lineup. The extra runs that Pujols will manufacture mean even more because of how good the Angels’ starting pitchers are – those runs will stand up! Pujols also brings a dependable glove to first base, unlike Prince, but most importantly of all, Albert brings the leadership and ability to perform under pressure that has allowed him to win two World Series rings with the St. Louis Cardinals.

This level of transparency is unprecedented for the controversy-averse governing body of college sports; it is incredibly refreshing. Organizing a postseason in college sports, where the vast majority of teams worthy of the postseason don’t face each other in the regular season, is incredibly difficult. To reveal the process behind the selections gives the entire process greater legitimacy. Teams that make the Big Dance with dubious credentials will now find advocates from the committee; those whose bubbles are burst on Selection Sunday will receive a clear rationale for their exclusion.

As great as it is that the NCAA will now actually tell fans why their teams are or aren’t going dancing, I’d like to see another reform happen before next March: getting rid of the RPI, which stands for Ratings Percentage Index, a metric created by the NCAA to bring objectivity to tournament selections by using a formula rather than the dreaded “eye test” or the extremely biased media and coaches polls. The RPI comprises a team’s winning percentage, its opponents’ winning percentage, and the winning percentage of its opponents’ opponents. This heavy emphasis on strength of schedule often hinders mid-major teams, who have a limited number of spots for games against top-tier competition before their cupcake conference foes.

The RPI is certainly not the only factor going into a team’s selection and the committee does not have to pretend otherwise. It is simply an outmoded metric that has far too much influence given its obvious shortcomings compared to the many more advanced metrics which have emerged since its creation.

Rather than RPI, the tournament ought to look at a combination of different, better metrics which take exponentially more factors into account. Even better, these metrics look at how teams play rather than whom they play. Ken Pomeroy, Jeff Sagarin, Kenneth Massey, and even ESPN’s ballyhooed new BPI all take efficiency on offense and defense and tempo (number of possessions) into account to create a much better predictor of how good these teams actually are.

Selection Sunday has always been a clearer and more legitimate process than BCS selections. But every year the committee risks excluding teams capable of making the type of miraculous Final Four run that the Virginia Commonwealth Rams made last year after sneaking into the field’s inaugural First Four. Imagine if the 2005 George Mason team hadn’t been given an at-large bid due to their weak RPI. For instance, could last year’s NIT Champion Wichita State Shockers have made a similar run if they had made the NCAA field? We’ll never know.

The over-reliance on RPI (and its over-reliance on strength of schedule) leads to the problems in selection that the committee will have to defend on Sunday. Do they allow in more power conference teams with bad losses because of their overall strength of schedule? Or do they reward the mid-majors who won a lot of games but never faced the same level of consistently tough competition, but have proven themselves worthy opponents, tournament after tournament? With poor metrics, power conference teams will always have advantage over mid-majors because the committee won’t be able to shake preconceived notions of name brand teams being inherently better. Mid-major teams like Murray State, Iona, Long Beach State, Drexel, Colorado State, Nevada, South Dakota State, Oral Roberts, Dayton, St. Joe’s, Davidson, and Harvard all have strong profiles but will (or, in the case of those that have already punched their ticket via a conference title, would) struggle to get a fair shake at an at-large bid. Power conference teams like Texas, UConn, West Virginia, Seton Hall, Miami (Fl.), Northwestern, Oregon or NC State with equally suspect profiles as the worst of those mid-majors will probably get the benefit of a doubt thanks to the perceived quality of their competition.

It will be interesting to see how things shake out this year with an epically soft bubble and teams drifting in and out of the bracket every day. March Madness is tied with the Bowl Season as my favorite sporting event of the year (NBA playoffs are a close third). It’s unique to the world of sports: a large field of teams admitted from a multitude of leagues playing single-elimination games, all with a chance at the title. The shocking upsets, the heroic buzzer-beaters, the Cinderella stories and the imploding traditional power, all will be on display in one of sport’s finest spectacles. I just want to make sure everyone sees the most competitive games possible.

Kray-$/Krayfish/Kraying Mantis’s (Mizzou: Team of Destiny) Pre-Bracket Final Four (champion in italics):

Initial Inclination: Kentucky, Syracuse, Mizzou, Michigan State

On Second Thought: Kentucky, Kansas, Mizzou, Wichita State

Kainoa Inafuku ’14 hits during practice in the Fieldhouse. Photograph by Joey Brown

“The team goal is to get into the NCAA playoffs,” Hollibaugh said. “We want to win conference.”

Having never won conference, past Grinnell teams had much more modest goals than this year’s squad. But this year is different. For a senior class that has finished fourth, second, and third over the last three years in the conference tournament, respectively, winning the conference would allow them to end on a high note.

“I think [winning] would mean a lot. Going into my freshman season, the goals were just different. We wanted to just make the conference tournament. … There’s a different attitude now. I think our seniors, compared to the seniors four years ago, are much more motivated to win the tournament. It would be a much bigger deal for us. We’re assuming we’re going to make the tournament now. We think we’re that good of a team,” Pope said.

Hollibaugh recognizes the importance of the Class of 2012 and thinks they should be rewarded with a conference championship.

“It would mean a lot to them. The senior class has really helped elevate our baseball program in many areas, so to them it would be something that they deserve, but we have to earn it,” he said.

The players are prepared to earn it. Infielder Michael Goldfein ’12 stressed working on the fundamentals.

“The talent is there. It’s just a matter of becoming more polished as a team. … It just comes down to discipline,” he said. “One of the big differences between being good, but not great, is being able to stay focused on those smaller things.”

Each facet of the team has its own goals to focus on this year. The offense wants to strikeout less and hit better with runners on base, while the defense aspires to lead the nation in fielding percentage.

“For pitching, we’re trying to throw more first pitch strikes and not give as many free bases as we did last year,” Pope said.

“The main emphasis is playing every game like it matters and ultimately putting ourselves in position to be the host of the conference championship,” Hollibaugh said.

The Pioneers have already played four games, finishing 1-3 on two doubleheaders March 3 and 4, splitting two games with Millikin University and dropping two to Webster University. However, Hollibaugh is not too worried about the losses.

He lauded the pitching over the weekend, but saw a need for improvement in the offense.

“We didn’t execute our offense,” Hollibaugh said. “That’s gonna be an emphasis this week: getting more swings so guys are better prepared.”

One advantage that Webster had, besides being at home, was that they had already played two games outside, whereas Grinnell had not.

“Our offense was just not prepared to be outside this early,” Pope said.

Practicing indoors is much different than playing outdoors, which threw off the team, though simply being outside was valuable.

“When you get outside, it’s just different.  You see the ball different.  Your timing is off,” Goldfein said.

“Overall, there’s a lot of positive things that we can take from playing. And the most important thing is we played, instead of kept practicing,” Hollibaugh said.

Goldfein noted one advantage the Pioneers have is their talent, including a pre-season First-Team All-American, as chosen by D3baseball.com, catcher Mike Nodzenski ’12.

“I think we have a very talented team. It’s really pretty rare that we play teams that I feel are more talented than us,” he said.

With this talent and a can-do attitude, the 2012 squad hopes to bring home the first conference title for the seniors, for Coach Hollibaugh, and for Grinnell by staying determined all year.

“Every game matters. We’re not just going out there and playing just to play, we’re trying to win every game,” Hollibaugh said.

The Pioneers are in action on Saturday, March 10 in Fulton, MO, where they will play a doubleheader against host Westminster College.

“It’s a very different dynamic from last year when I was an underclassman and we had five seniors,” Bhadkamkar said.

Daniel Nellis ’13 and Emilio Gomez ’15 warm up during practice on Wednesday, Feb. 29. Photograph by Joey Brown

Last year’s class featured Juan Carlos Perez ’11, who won four singles and four doubles MWC championships, as well as All-American honors, and Dmitriy Glumov ’11, who registered 70 doubles wins in three seasons at Grinnell.

“Between the two of them, they used to give us almost three guaranteed points a match,” Bhadkamkar said.

But unlike last year’s squad, this group is not based on dominant players.

“We don’t have any superstars,” Eric Ritter ’12 said.

Their strength lies in their numbers, spearheaded by a large and talented freshman class.

“This is, perhaps, the best recruiting class that Grinnell has ever had in tennis. It’s definitely the deepest, and the talent is pretty strong,” Hamilton said.

The Pioneers hope to use this depth as a tool to score points and win matches.

“This team differs from the teams that Juan [Perez] and Dimi [Glumov] were on, in that points in the scorebook will probably come from the middle and bottom of our lineup,” Hamilton said.

“Our strength is our depth,” Bhadkamkar said.

However, do not discount the top of the lineup.

No. 2 singles player Ritter said, “Elliott [Czarnecki ’15, No. 1 singles] and me and Ben [Charney ’15], or whoever’s playing No. 3, are going to have to step up and have some big wins, too.”

This shift in the means of winning has left the players unfazed.

“There’s always a different approach to how we win matches every year,” Bhadkamkar said.

The first-years will be asked to play a large role right at the start of their collegiate careers. Cultivating them has been and will continue to be important for this team.

“As a coach, we’ve got to be very intentional about telling them style and technique that we want them to play, and we’re trying to do that,” Hamilton said. “The players have responded well to our coaching.”

“There’s obviously going to be some growing pains and a few bumps in the road, but I think they’re all great guys and great tennis players,” Bhadkamkar said.

The aforementioned trio of third-years studied abroad first semester, leaving one returning player, Cole and all of the first-years on campus to compete during the fall pre-season. Although an unusual fall season, Hamilton applauded the veteran’s guidance of the first-years, during both the first and second semesters.

“They’re doing a nice job working with the young players. They’re all extremely high-achieving students and to top it off, they’ve all won at least one individual Midwest Conference Championship. If success is going to come to us, it’s going to be because of the intersection of our veteran players and our younger players,” he said.

So far, the team is 5-1, getting solid wins against Olivet Nazarene University and conference foe Carroll University, 5-4 and 7-2, respectively. Their one loss has come against Carleton College in a 9-0 defeat on February 26.

Of the loss, Ritter said, “We didn’t have the fire that we would’ve needed to beat a team that’s probably a little bit better than us.”

The Carleton loss was hard for the team, but Hamilton has clear-cut goals for the team this season.

“Our goal every year is to play for the Midwest Conference championship, for the guys to have fun playing the sport, and to be playing the best tennis at the end of the season,” he said.

The Pioneers have won eight straight conference titles and don’t plan on ending that streak this year. Hamilton saw one area where the team had room for improvement.

“It’s clear that we have to get better in doubles,” he said.

Bhadkamkar also considered what the Pioneers needed to do to maintain the streak.

“We just have to keep pushing each other and never getting complacent with the fact that we’ve won the last eight years,” he said. “It’s really more about how we come together as team than how individuals improve.”

The role of the first-years will also prove vital.

“I wouldn’t say that all of our new, young players are playing to the best of their ability yet—and that’s what we’re working towards,” Hamilton said.

The team is confident in their chances.

“If we play the kind of tennis that we can play, we’re the best team in conference,” Ritter said.

The Pioneers will travel to St. Peter, Minnesota this Saturday, March 3, to compete against Elmhurst College and the seventh ranked team in the Central region, Gustavus Adolphus College.

“We had a number of men who had their best times of the season and got on the top ten lists,” said Coach Evelyn Freeman.

Dylan Boucher ’12’s 7.12 second time in the 60-meter dash earned him fourth place in the event and tied his own Grinnell school record set just the day before.

“I was really impressed with Dylan’s 60,” Kyle Moorehead ’15 said, who himself finished fourth in the 800-meter on Saturday with a time of 1:59.05. “That was incredible to watch.”

Other top performances included Jake Lindstrom ’14’s fourth-place finish Friday in the pole vault competition, with a jump of 13’-6 ½” that placed him at number 8 on Grinnell’s all-time top-ten records list, and Andy Hirakawa ’12’s 9.04 second effort in the 60 meter hurdles, beating his own school record—set the day before—by 0.04 seconds.

In the Women’s field, Grinnell’s 72 points were good enough to earn them a fifth-place finish, behind champion Monmouth College’s 224.

The story of the weekend was that of the 4×400-meter relay team, made up of Isabelle Miller ’13, Eloise Miller ’15, Christine Ajinjeru ’14 and Sarah Burnell ’14.

In the last event of the day on Saturday, with their teammates cheering them on, the quartet rode a time of 4:04.33 to a second-place finish, just 0.06 seconds behind Carroll University. This clocking shattered the previous school record of 4:06.53, set by the same four earlier this season.

Burnell relishes the challenge that this race has presented all season.

“It feels great, every time we compete to cut another two seconds off of the time,” Burnell said. “It’s exciting because the more time that we drop, the closer we are to possibly qualifying for Nationals. It gets exciting every time because it’s the last race of the day, so everyone just gives it everything.”

The foursome hopes to shave their score down to 3:58.00 at next week’s “last chance” meet at Iowa State University, with the intention of qualifying for the NCAA Nationals event on March 9-10 at the brand new fieldhouse facility here in Grinnell.

Burnell also contributed a third place, 2:16.75 performance in the 800-meter on Saturday, while Ajinjeru and Eloise Miller produced fourth-place efforts in the 400-meter and triple jump, respectively, with scores of 1:00.90 and 35-11 ½. Placing fifth were Sachi Graber ’12, with 9-5 ¾ distance in the pole vault event Saturday and Hannah Colter ’12, with a time of 18:50.48 in the 5000-meter on Friday.

Both Men’s and Women’s teams hope to build on these successes in transitioning into the outdoor track season. The general feeling is optimistic.

“The team is really only going up from here,” Moorehead said. “All throughout indoor, everyone was dropping times, and even at the Conference meet we were still dropping times. So, we should come into outdoor in a really good position to start doing some things.”

In Freeman’s opinion, key to their success this spring is their ability to build upon the physical gains of their indoor season.

“We won’t have a competition for another month,” Freeman said. “So we can really focus on getting more fit—stronger, faster, everything.”

About half of the team will spend a week of spring break training in Daytona Beach, Florida. Then, starting the second weekend of April, both squads will begin traveling to meets all around the Midwest, in the hope that, come the Outdoor Conference Championships in May—and even Nationals—this hard work will pay off.

To Ajinjeru, fresh off her exhilarating performance Saturday, it’s simply a matter of maintaining momentum.

“Keep the spirits up,” she said. “Keep everyone pumped, keep everyone psyched, and hope that the outdoor season is as exciting as the indoor [season was].”

Believe it or not, though, there are 29 other teams and hundreds of other players in the NBA that have been playing basketball games during the last two weeks. Yes, the Knicks’ recent run has helped them rise up out of the Eastern Conference basement, which is never a desirable place to be, but there are a lot of teams on a roll right now, and they deserve media attention! If ESPN and other sports media outlets are not going to satisfy my desire to read about the state of the league in general, then I suppose I will just have to write one myself. Here are three salient points about the NBA as the season approaches the All-Star Break (Feb. 24-26th).

The hottest team in the NBA right now is, somehow, the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs have won nine in a row to date, not too shabby for a team whose best players are all 30 years of age or older. OK, that’s a lie, Tony Parker is technically 29 for three more months – maybe it is that youthful energy that is propelling the Frenchman to an under-the-radar MVP-type of season (19 points and 7.8 assists per game). Seriously, though, can we stop acting surprised when the Spurs kill it in the regular-season year after year? Why does there always seem to be a sense of impending doom surrounding a team that boasts Duncan, Parker, Ginobili, Jefferson, and the oil that keeps it all functioning smoothly, Greg Popovich. Duncan and Ginobili have both been 30 since the summer of 2007 and the Spurs have won over 50 games every season since. Of course they drafted well again this offseason, adding Kawhi Leonard, a guy who was surrounded by questions coming out of San Diego State; Leonard is putting up 7 points, 5 boards and a steal a game coming off the bench. Time to face the facts:  when it comes to getting it done in the regular season, nobody is better than San Antonio. Obviously, the Spurs have a proud history of getting it done in the postseason as well, but I can’t say that I like this squad’s chances of hoisting the O’Brien Trophy in June. The Spurs lack fluidity on offense that is masked by Tony Parker’s brilliant play this season. However, Parker cannot be the only guy bringing some creativity to the table if the Spurs hope to avoid of last year’s first-round fiasco against Memphis. Although he had a less than stellar beginning to the season, Ginobili seems to have his legs underneath him again, and his play has really improved during the win streak. His play off the bench will determine how far the Spurs go this season.

After a dreadful 0-5 start to the season, the defending champion Dallas Mavericks reeled off 19 wins in their last 25 games. The Mavericks have basically turned into the new Spurs. They are a wily group of veterans that really hangs its hat on its ability to shut down opposing offenses. Denver Nuggets’ Head Coach George Karl stated the obvious after the Mavs shellacked the Nuggets 102-84 on Wednesday night. “Dallas has turned into an incredibly good defensive team,” Karl said, “I think we’re a pretty good offensive team and we couldn’t find many things.” Dallas is holding opponents to a mere 41.7% shooting from the field, tied with the Lakers for the league’s best mark and they allow only 91.3 points per game, tied with the Magic for fifth-best in the NBA. Everybody, including Bill Simmons, was ready to jump all over the Mavericks after they let Tyson Chandler walk in free agency and yet their team defense has actually improved this season. What is really scary about the Mavericks is that their offensive efficiency has really improved lately and they are starting to look like the team that dispatched the Lakers, Thunder, and the Heat last summer. Not only is Dirk finally rounding into shape after a pretty dreadful start to the seasons (although he is still shooting a weak 23.6% from beyond the arc), but also Shawn Marion and Vince Carter have played out of their minds so far this season. Marion, in particular, is having one of his best seasons averaging 12.2 points per game on 46% shooting while pulling down 6.4 boards. Combine stellar play from the starters with a luxury of scoring depth off the bench (Jason Terry and Lamar Odom) and a surprise amount of depth at the point guard position (Roddy Beaubois is doing Jose Barea better than Jose Barea) and you can see why I’m pretty high on the Mavericks’ chances of winning the West.

My last salient point about the NBA this season shall be an amalgamation of a few observations.

Remember how people thought that the Western Conference’s dominance over the Eastern Conference would kind of drop off after the Heat added the East’s second Big Three? Yeah, that never happened. Sure, Chicago and Miami are probably the best two teams in the league right now, but look past that. The three, four, and five seeds in the West right now are the Clippers, the Mavs, and the Lakers. Three, four, and five in the East? The Sixers, Hawks, and Magic; you tell me, which three teams are better? As if that disparity was not already enough, it gets worse as the teams get crappier. The six, seven, and eight seeds in the West are the Rockets, Nuggets, and the Blazers. Six, seven, and eight in the East? The Pacers, Celtics, and the Knicks? Hell, the Western Conference only has three really bad teams – the Suns, the Kings, and the Hornets. Seeds nine through fifteen in the East are all pretty much unwatchable.

Home cooking: A statistic that has really jumped out at me is that there are currently five teams in the NBA that have lost two or fewer games at home this season (Bulls, Heat, Thunder, Spurs, and Lakers).  The Clippers and the Rockets have only lost three home games. It makes sense that good teams are tough to beat on their home floor, but this kind of success is either indicative of great fan support or some bad road teams. Obviously the Bulls and the Heat get to play a lot of cupcakes, but the same cannot be said of the Thunder, Spurs, and Lakers. Hats off to those three teams and the fantastic environment they create at their respective arenas.

There are a lot of rumors going around about how the two best big men in the league right now, Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum, will not be in the same uniforms after the trade deadline. In fact, there is especially a lot of speculation that Howard will end up with the Lakers and Bynum will end up with the Magic! I’m going to call bologna. While it does make sense for the Magic to try and get something of value for Howard before he walks away in free-agency at the end of the season, the Magic are actually playing pretty damn good basketball lately and are the third best team in the East.  It is not out of the realm of possibility that they could find themselves in the Eastern Conference Finals this postseason. The same situation applies to the Lakers. Bynum is not a free agent this season, but will be next season and he has been injury-plagued throughout his career. Why wait for Bynum to get injured again when you can possibly turn him into Dwight Howard now, when Andrew’s value is highest? Just like the Magic, though, the Lakers have been playing pretty well of late, no thanks to the KobeSystem Black-Hole Offense. The Lakers are winning because they are playing great defense and Bynum has been the best defender of all. Not only that, but he is scoring and grabbing boards at a better clip than at any point previously in his career. The Lakers know they will have to give up a king’s ransom (possibly Bynum and Pau Gasol) to get Dwight, and it just doesn’t seem to make sense when they are already getting pretty good production out of the guy they have. Who knows, though? Los Angeles is all about star power, and Gasol has not had the greatest year. Perhaps Dwight presents a chance for the Lakers to unload some fat contracts (Gasol is set to make about $19 million/yr for the next three years) and upstage their suddenly sexy Staples Center co-tenants.

“I was extremely proud of how the women played,” said Head Coach Kate Gluckman. “I couldn’t have asked for more on that day.”

Isabelle Miller ’13 shoots during practice last week, while Meg Heuy ’12, one of three seniors, rebounds. Photograph by Avery Rowlison

The victory was especially sweet for the team’s fourth-years, Meg Huey and Ashley Jeannin. Saturday was their final game as Pioneer basketball players.

“This season has been three years in the process, because it’s really been spearheaded by our seniors, who have been with me the entire time,” Gluckman said. “They deserve the success we have had because of the work that they have done.”

The seniors saw quite the change over their four years.

“We barely won four games during our first year,” Huey said. “Our second year was the same, and last year we were actually in the games, but we weren’t used to winning. This is the first time we have gone in with a winning mentality.”

The week preceding the Lake Forest game was filled with tension. Despite a six-point loss to MacMurray on Feb. 13, Grinnell was on the playoff bubble. The Pioneers needed one more win, along with a loss for Carroll University, to secure a spot in the Midwest Conference Tournament.

“Monday was just a non-conference game,” Kelly Clarke ’13 said. “We played okay, but it was more a practice game for Lake Forest.”

That practice clearly paid off. The women performed spectacularly, changing their season-long strategy by breaking to the basket more often. However, the win wasn’t enough; Carroll University came out on top, ending the Pioneers’ playoff hopes.

“We controlled what we could control,” Gluckman said. “We couldn’t control Illinois College [beating] Carol, so I was sad, but not because we didn’t make the tournament; I was sad because my time and opportunity to work with the team was over.”

However, there was still some reason for celebration after the win.

“Lake Forest has become one of our rivals,” Tolu Alabi ’13 said. “The last time [we played them], we lost by three points, and some people on their team are pretty mean. We don’t like them. They talk on the courts too much.”

At the end of the night, Coach Gluckman was not as concerned about Grinnell’s opponent. She was far more focused on Huey and Jeannin.

“The most emotional moment of the season was in the locker room after the senior game,” Gluckman said, with both Huey and Jeannin agreeing. “Our seniors are very special student-athletes, and special people to me, personally. They have been so persistent in their dedication and their determination. They are one of the major reasons that we had the success that we did. They touched every element of our program in a positive way.”

Huey and Jeannin had standout seasons. Huey averaged ten points and eight rebounds per game, and Jeannin was responsible for several last second, game-winning shots. Michelle Briggs ’13 was also outstanding. In conference, she averaged a double-double, posting 10.4 rebounds and 11.0 points per game.

“This was our time to come into our own and be really confident in ourselves—in our personal game and in our leadership,” Jeannin said. “I’m really proud of what we did this year.”

Gluckman hopes to see similar success next season, as the large cohort of third-years replaces the departing starters.

“We have a lot of incoming seniors next year, which is great,” Jeannin said. “It’s not something we’ve had in the past. Almost every year, we’ve had only between one and three, but next year we will have six fourth-years, so I think it will be interesting to see who steps up.”

“On the court, there are some definite heir apparents,” Gluckman said. “Tolu Alabi and Michelle Briggs were in our starting lineup this year. Michelle can help fill Meg’s scoring underneath and rebounding and Tolu can help fill in for Ashley’s leadership at the perimeter.”

Even if the Pioneers can replace their talent, the women will still miss Huey and Jeannin, both on and off the court.

“I look up to my captains, Ashley and Meg,” Cristal Coleman ’15 said. “It’s going to be sad losing them next year, but every year someone new stands up, and that’s what I’m looking forward to seeing.”

“I really saw a development of leadership and unity that we haven’t had before at Grinnell,” Gluckman said. “Cristal Coleman is a first-year who really became the social heart of the team. She embraced the program.”

Gluckman believes that the team will be prepared to make another shot at the playoffs next year and she is confident that this season is just a taste of what the Pioneers can achieve.

“We’re hungry,” she said.

After the meet, Michael Brus ’14 took a seat next to Morgan Bober ’12 on the bus back to Grinnell. Instead of giving details about his record-breaking performances, he praised how great all the women from top to bottom swam at the conference meet.

“If you’re swimming so incredibly well and destroying records and getting automatic qualifying times, people may think he’s cocky,” Bober said. “But all he wanted to do was compliment other people and talk about how great they were and how exciting the meet was. He is such a humble and modest person.”

Brus broke six records and earned automatic NCAA qualifications in two events in the 200-yard freestyle and backstroke

“The way everybody supports each other is incredible,” Brus said. “There’s not a person who doesn’t have someone cheering for them. The way everybody cheers and supports for each other really help us swim faster.”

Brus’s time of 4:31.31 in the 500-yard freestyle is an NCAA provisional qualifying mark, making the B cut. The time destroyed the previous school and conference record of 4:42.31 set by Dave Anderson in 1986. He made two A cuts in the 200-yard backstroke and freestyle, earning an automatic trip to the nationals. His backstroke time was 1:47.17, besting the school mark of 1:47.87 and conference mark of 1:49.46. He swam the freestyle race in 1:39.01, bettering the previous school mark of 1:42.70 and the conference record of 1:42.40.

Brus was also part of three relay teams that broke records last weekend. He teamed with Ethan Drutchas ’12, Joe Lytle ’14, and Thomas Lankiewicz ’12 to break the school and conference record in the 800-yard freestyle with a time of 6:55.97. The group of Brus, Beck Ringdahl-Mayland ’13, Austin Cote ’15, and Max Fulgoni ’12 beat the school and conference record for 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:34.25. Also, with a time of 3:07.03, the lineup of Brus, Fulgoni, Lytle and Lankiewicz broke the school and conference record of 400-yard freestyle relay.

Brus, Ringdahl-Mayland, Chris Kaiser-Nyman ‘13 and Fulgoni placed first in the 400-yard medley relay.

Fulgoni posted two first-place races in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle with times of 21.91 and 47.78, respectively. He, along with Gus Fugoni ’15, Jerry Brown ’14, and Drutchas, won the 200-yard freestyle relay.

“It doesn’t matter how slow or fast you are,” Fulgoni said. “If you’re willing to give 100 percent, you’re part of the team. And [head coach] Erin Hurley makes you want to swim faster because you don’t want to let her down.”

Hurley was named the MWC men’s Coach of the Year for the fourth time in her career.

Will Elsas ’14 pleasantly surprised many of his teammates and won the 400-yard individual medley for the men with a time of 4:25.03.

“I was most pleased with that Will won the 400-IM because it wasn’t as expected,” M. Fulgoni said. “He was so surprised and happy and it was great to see someone who’s not always at the top get that moment of glory.”

Though the women were unable to bring back the conference trophy back home for the 14^th consecutive year, all swimmers swam as fast as they could and gave it all they had. And in the end, that was all it mattered.

“It was absolutely incredible,” Bober said.  “There was nothing more anyone could have done. The spirit and the enthusiasm were out of control and that absolutely blows my mind.”

Bober did break a conference record in the 100-yard butterfly, which she swam in 59.19. Nikki Pyle ’14 added two more record-breaking performances last weekend. She set a school record in the 100-yard backstroke preliminary round, which she swam in 1:01.15. She also set a new school record in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:12.37. She placed second in the latter event.

“My goal was literally just to leave it all in the pool and make sure I couldn’t stand when I finished the race, and that’s what happened,” Pyle said. “I didn’t know I was on the record time until Coach Erin told me after the race.”

Bober also won her 200-yard butterfly race. Danielle Phillips ’15 earned first place in the 100-yard breaststroke. Kelly Bruce ’12, who was named the MWC Diver of the year for the past three seasons, was victorious in a three-meter dive.

Bruce, along with Emma Falley ’15, taped their performances and sent it to the diving judges to review their dives and see whether they qualify for nationals.

“I was really impressed with Morgan’s 200 fly,” Pyle said. “It looked like she was going to get 2nd but you could tell she was just biding her time. At the 150 turn, Morgan just took off and cleanly took first.”

Summarizing the electric atmosphere and the meet might be difficult when the Pioneers produced so much positive energy, while swimming to have fun and not necessarily to win.

“My mentality was to swim as fast as possible and see what happened and I think the team’s mentality was similar,” Brus said. “Do our best and have good sportsmanship and be a classy team and cheer for both the men and women.”

To fourth-year swimmers like Fulgoni and Bober, it marks an end to one of their college experiences.

“We got second place for the first time in fourteen years,” Bober said. “There was a lot of concern about how to respond and react to that. The way in which we conducted ourselves in the face of that is incredible. It shocked a lot of people who may have for 13 years thought that we were cocky.”

Addition to how proud Bober was of the team for acting with class, she is glad that her last swim meet in college ended on a positive note.

“It’s about doing your best and the attitude of having fun and being part of something bigger than yourself,” Bober said. “Having that attitude and the full support was all that you could ask for. Five, ten years down the road, it’s not the loss that I’m going to remember. It’s going to be the friends that I made, and the atmosphere I’m going to remember.”

“We had been playing really poorly coming into that game for like the last 3 or 4 games and then all of a sudden we played our best game of the year, which was nice to see,” said Head Coach David Arseneault ’09. “Griffin [Lentsch ’13] was able to stop a couple of mini-runs for them, especially in the first half, and even though we didn’t shoot the ball particularly well from behind the three point line, just our energy and our defense were pretty fun to watch.”

Tague Zachary ‘15 and Xander Strek ‘12 go for a jump ball during Tuesday’s practice. Photograph by Joey Brown

Leading performers in the men’s victory against Lake Forest include Lentsch with 28 points (10/10 from the free-throw line), Matt Chalupa ’12 with 17 points and five rebounds, Pat Maher ’14 with 12 points and Dominique Bellamy ’13 with 10 points, five rebounds and four steals.

“Everyone came out jacked, and the crowd was really loud, and we played well,” said Captain Matt Chalupa. “It was nice to go out that way.”

Seeded second, the Pioneers are focused on playing three seed St. Norbert in their first game of the MWC tournament on Friday, Feb. 24 at 5 p.m. They split games against St. Norbert during the regular season, winning at home and losing away, but playing at Lake Forest will be an advantage for the Pioneers.

“The semi-final game is on Friday night, and it’s nice to play in Chicago just because we have so many people on the team, so many alumni in the area–a lot of parents–so it is kind of like home away from home for us. It’ll be nice to be in a friendly environment,” Arseneault said.

The Pioneers played every team in conference twice during regular season and are making minimal changes to their game strategy going into the tournament this weekend.

“We made a slight tweak to our press, so we’re not giving up deep balls for lay-ups. Besides that, we play the same way,” Chalupa said.

The Pioneers are feeling good about their chances in the tournament, but are reluctant to look too far past Friday’s game.

“We’re all feeling pretty good. I think we’ve just got to come out as fast as we did against Lake Forest, and we should be all right,” said Captain Xander Strek ’12. “We’ve just got to look at it one game at a time. We’re looking forward to St. Norbert. We’re just focused on that right now.”

“The top four teams that made it are all very good, and if we go up there and we play well I could see us winning two games. If we go up there and we don’t play that well, we could be done after the first night. There’s not a lot of margin for error. So, the hope is that we can get some stuff taken care of this week at practice and get ready to put our best foot forward,” said Coach Arseneault.

If the Pioneers are successful on Friday night, they will move on to play the winner of the other semi-final game on Saturday for the conference title. This will be either one seed Lake Forest or four seed Carroll University. The Pioneers were 2-0 against Lake Forest during the regular season and split games with Carroll.

The final winner of the MWC tournament receives an automatic bid into the NCAA Division III tournament. The Pioneers have not made it to the National Tournament since the 2000-2001 season.

“Just about every year we’re in our conference tournament, but we haven’t been able to string it together for two games in the conference tournament to get [to the Division III tournament], but it would be nice,” said Arseneault. “I know it’s been a goal for the guys since the beginning of the season. That’s what they’ve been talking about: winning conference and then making the national tournament.”

Regardless of the outcome of this weekend, the Pioneers are proud of their season as they say goodbye to three seniors—Chalupa, Strek, and Captain Matt Skelly ’12.

“We’ve had a really great year, a lot of good memories, some great guys, and it’s been fun,” Strek said.

Caroline Froh ’15, Katie Fenster ’14, Stephanie Spahr ’14, and Katherine Sittig ’14 race the 3000m at the Darren Young Classic on Saturday. Photograph by Kyle Espinosa

“We had ten teams here. Wartburg, Nebraska Wesleyan, McMurry, and Central are all nationally ranked teams, so the level of competition was pretty intense,” said Women’s Head Coach Eveyln Freeman.

Competing against a tough field, the Pioneer Women finished 7th and the Men finished 10th.

“We didn’t enter our athletes in events to necessarily score the most points. We used the meet, like all meets heading into conference, to put our people in some of the running events we need to see them run, or they need to experience it and they need to get a seed time for conference,” Freeman said.

Sarah Burnell ’14 won the mile out of a 20-person heat with a time of 5:13.28, setting a new field house record. One week after setting a new school record, Eloise Miller ’15 topped it in the triple jump with a distance of 36’10-1/2”.

Other women who placed on Grinnell’s top ten all-time leader board this past weekend were Hannah Colter ’12 in the 5000-meter run (18:53.38), Christine Ajinjeru ’14 in the 400m (61.92), Jordan Young ’14 in the shot put (37’-1/4”), and the 4x200m relay team of Emily Clennon ’14, Elsa Goldman ’15, Miller, and Ajinjeru (1:53.00). First year pole-vaulters, Athena Carlson, Goldman, and Alyse Hunt also made the top-ten leader board.

The Pioneer Women feel very strong at this point in the season.

“I’m much further ahead this year than I was last year. I am already running PRs for my first races. It feels good; I trained a lot this last year, “ Burnell said.

Standouts for the men at the Darren Young Classic include Gavin Warnock ’14, who placed fifth in the long jump with a distance of 20’8”, Ben Tyler ’14 and Evan Griffith ’15 in the 3000-meter run, and Jake Lindstrom ’14 and Lars Olsen ’15 in the pole vault. Also, Dylan Boucher ’12 broke the school record in the 60m with a time of 7.321.

“The Darren Young is very elite caliber. We had people from all over the nation, some of the most elite Division III teams actually, and I think our team did very well to step up to the task. We had some great performances from individuals and our relays worked out really well. I think overall our team did a great job,” Boucher said.

Both the men’s and women’s teams continue to progress and look forward to Indoor Track Midwest Conference Championships on Feb. 24th in Jacksonville, IL.

“We can compete really well this year [at conference]. Everyone is looking like they are in really good shape and trained over winter break, and it just feels like the whole team is one step ahead of where we were last year at this time, “ Burnell said.

In addition to serving as experience for the Pioneers going into the offseason, the Darren Young Classic also served as a practice for the athletic department as they prepare to host the national championships.

“The Darren Young Classic Indoor Track meet was a great success. It provided u with use useful feedback in preparation for hosting the NCAA Division III National Indoor Track meet in March,” wrote Athletics and Recreation Director Greg Wallace in an email to the S&B.

Some individuals are also looking to advance to the NCAA National Indoor meet being held in the Grinnell Fieldhouse on March 9th and 10th.

“We have a number of women that we are trying to get to qualify for nationals,” Freeman said. “Eloise Miller in the triple jump, Sarah Burnell in the mile and possibly the half mile, Stephanie Rouse [’13] in the 5000 m, and possibly our 4x400m relay team. If we are hosting it would be really nice if one of our own would be able to compete, so we are going to try our best to make that happen.”

The Mad Ducks and Dawgs prepared for the meet, in part, by tapering, a training technique used in track and swimming.

“Over a period of two to three weeks, the total yardage will come down and intensity comes down, so it’s allowing their bodies to re-energized and recharge, building up their glycogen stores. So hopefully by the time they get to conference they’re completely rested and ready to go,” said Head Coach Erin Hurley.

From left to right, Sam Sherwood ’12, Kelly Bruce ’12, Joe Sinwell ’12 and Max Fulgoni ’12 enjoy their final King of Hearts dinner in the Dinning Hall. Contributed

The technique yields a visible effect on the swimmers.

“You may notice that we get a little bit crazier, a little more energy, a little bubblier, [during taper] because our bodies are starting to recover after 6 months of wear and tear,” said Team Captain Morgan Bober ’12.

The Women’s team is building momentum as the season nears its end. Claire Williams ’13 just set an American record for the 1000 freestyle in her division of the Paralympics with a time of 11:57.25 and Team Captain Kelly Bruce ’12 just broke the school record in the one-meter diving by 1.9 points with a score of 277.50.

“Many people have been swimming really well and feeling really great, and that’s absolutely the kind of attitude you have to have going into this. It sets a certain tone, just really amps people up, and really gets them going,” Bober said.

The Mad Ducks have high hopes for Bruce going into the MWC conference tournament.

“What I hope for [Kelly] is that her best meet is yet to come. That’s a great way to go out as a senior. She put in all the hard work. Hopefully her scores and her video tape will get her to Nationals and beyond conference,” said Coach Hurley.

“As a senior, I really just want to do everything to the best of my abilities, go out with a bang, and see what I can do,” said Bruce.

The women’s team is going into the tournament with a focus on performing their best on an individual level.

“We’ve tried to put our focus less on winning conference and more on swimming really well individually, so we’ve sort of set ourselves a goal of trying to get 100 percent personal best times,” Bober said. “That being said, we obviously really want to win and are going to do everything we can to do so, but it’s a sport, you know, it doesn’t always go the way you want it to.”

The men’s team also has a positive attitude going into the conference tournament. Last year, Michael Brus ’14 finished fourth at the NCAA Division III National Championships in the 200 backstroke and Coach Hurley and the Team Captains have high expectations for him again this year.

“We’re shooting for those automatic cuts for him to get him back to Nationals and do big things there,” said Coach Hurley.

“He’s so great; his attitude’s the best. He never talks about himself, he always talks about the team first which is great for one of your best swimmers to do, put the team first. But even then, he’ll succeed in the water this weekend, and probably go to nationals again,” said Team Captain Joe Sinnwell ’12.

The Mad Dawgs are aiming to send a men’s relay to nationals this year.

“They only pick 16 relays in the country to go. So I think our best probability would be the 800 freestyle relay and the people looking to be on that are Michael Brus [’14], Tom Lankiewicz [’12], Joe Lytle [’14], and Ethan Drutchas [’12]. I think if they go 6 minutes 50 seconds, which is about 7 seconds faster than they did last year, they could do it, but it’s going to be tough,” Hurley said.

“We’re pretty comfortable that we can get a B-cut, and hopefully send that relay [to Nationals],” Sinnwell said.

The men’s team is on a conference tournament-winning streak of 10 years, Sinnwell thinks the men have what it takes to win conference again this year.

“We’re one of the only teams that can fill out the whole roster of 18 swimmers who score and the seven who swim for exhibition. The exhibition team is going to try to out-score an entire team somewhere else in the conference, so hopefully we can raise the level of competition in the conference by dominating this year,” Sinnwell said.

Both the men and women’s teams will swim this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 17-19 in the Midwest Conference Tournament at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Jake Lindstrom ’14 clears the rope while practicing pole vaulting on Wednesday. Photograph by Andrew Kelley

“We have four or five nationally ranked teams coming to this meet and many times you perform up to the level of the competition, so we’re looking to have that help our people succeed,” said Coach Evelyn Freeman.

The women’s team is benefitting from an increased turnout compared to last year.

“We have a much larger team this year, so there is a lot more positivity and enjoyment in the team and just the track. Since we’re larger, there is a lot of energy on the team,” Meg Rudy ’14 said.

This weekend, athletes will compete for a place in the Midwest Conference (MWC) meet, which will be held the weekend of Feb. 24-25 at Illinois College in Jacksonville, IL.

“The fact that this decides who competes in Conference makes this a crucial meet,” Rudy said.

They will need to capitalize on the heavy regimen they have been under recently, while making sure not to exert themselves to the point where they could risk injury.

“Not getting hurt this early in the season is huge, pushing enough but not trying to do so well that we risk getting injured,” Jake Lindstrom ’14 said.

The team will look to build off strong performances at last weekend’s Cornell Hilltop Meet. Ben Tyler ’14 claimed runner-up honors in the mile run, while Sam Krauth ’14 placed third and Evan Griffith ’15 was seventh. The team also had a trio of fourth-place finishers–Lindstrom in pole vault, Dylan Boucher ’12 in high jump, and Gavin Warnock ’14 in long jump.

“We are looking for some young athletes to not just step into leadership roles, but scoring positions,” Coach Will Freeman said.

Will and Evelyn Freeman expressed resounding confidence in the balance of the team. For both teams, the distance runners are where they show a lot of strength stemming from the typically strong Cross-Country teams.

“For the women’s team, we’re coming off a Conference Championship Cross Country season, and pretty much all of those runners are back,” E. Freeman said.

The men’s team is looking at a mix of new and old to carry them this weekend and for the upcoming matches. Of the new additions, Coach Freeman pointed out Sam Offenberg ’14 in long-toss and Zev Braun ’15 in the javelin. Meanwhile, once the basketball season ends, Griffin Lentsch ’13 will return with a chance at the school record for high jump.

The women, undoubtedly strong in distance events, may impress elsewhere. This includes in the jumps, as Eloise Miller ’15 was able to beat the Grinnell record with 35-5 in the triple jump and will attempt the long jump this weekend. Additionally, Sarah Burnell ’14 and company will look to build on their 4×400 time of 4:13.92.

“We have a bunch of sprinters who have trained all last fall and were mainly not in other sports, so they are much more ahead then they were last year,” Coach E. Freeman.

The Men and Women’s teams will look to use the meet as a way to come together as a group.

“It will be a great chance for us to prepare for the upcoming national meet. As a team, I would love to see us really come together and go into the conference meet as a cohesive group ready to compete to win,” Jordan Young ’14 said.

Both Freemans, along with Darren Young, are jubilant that Grinnell College can once again host, given the new facility. Young ’93 was a top-tier athlete during his time at Grinnell.  He was a multiple national qualifier and led the men’s team to the first Midwestern Conference Triple Crown for running, winning in Cross Country, Indoor and Outdoor.

“We collaborated with Darren, and he had the same goals for the meet,” Coach E. Freeman said. “We are all on the same page that it is going to be the best indoor meet in the country, and we are delighted to do that.”

“Playing on the road certainly affects us,” said Head Coach David Arseneault ’09. “We just came out flat, didn’t shoot well and dug ourselves a bit of a hole that set the tone for the whole weekend.”

Grinnell shot at a season low 36 percent from the floor and only 28 percent from behind the three-point line in their 96-105 loss against Ripon on Friday, Feb. 3. St. Norbert rallied late in the second half to hand the Pioneers a 96-97 loss the following day.

“It just didn’t have the same feel, energy-wise. We did play better on Saturday against St. Norbert and built ourselves a 15 point lead, and we managed to squander that,” said Coach Arseneault.

“We were disappointed with ourselves,” Captain Matt Skelly ’12 said. “There is a new sense of urgency as far as our approach to practice and these next three games.”

The Pioneers applied their new focus in their 87-75 home win against Monmouth this past Wednesday.

“We certainly didn’t play our best basketball, but it was nice to see the guys grind out a victory. I was particularly happy with the way senior Xander Strek ’12 played. He gave us a boost by knocking down outside shots and sparked us with his unselfish play,” Coach Arseneault wrote in an email to the S&B.

With a record of 17-3, the chances of holding the conference tournament in Darby Gym are slim. Instead, the tournament will most likely be held at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, IL.

“[The losses] will be a good experience for us, because it looks like the conference tournament is going to be on the road too, and hopefully we’ll have learned from the experience,” Skelly said.

“We’ve already beaten the team that likely will be hosting conference in their gym, so that is a nice confidence booster,” Arseneault said. “It’s really nice [playing at Lake Forest].  We get so much support from alums, parents of former players and current students. It’s almost like a home game away from home for us.”

The Pioneers have already secured a place in the Midwest Conference tournament, but they are not taking the final games of the regular season lightly. They finish the season with games against at Illinois College on Feb. 10, and at home against MWC leaders Lake Forest College on Feb. 18.

“Illinois College is a very dangerous team that has caught some unlucky breaks this season. Last time we played them, we had to rally from a 22-point first half deficit,” Arsenault said. “It would be nice to have things heading in the right direction before the conference tournament, and it would be nice to win our last games before the tournament. It is something we are capable of.”

The road to a conference championship will be difficult, but the Pioneers are feeling confident. The team leads the MWC in scoring, averaging 111 points per game. Individual standouts include Griffin Lentsch ’13, averaging 26 points a game, and Patrick Maher ’14, Dominique Bellamy ’13, and Joe Rodgers ’13, averaging almost two steals a game each.

“We’ve beaten Lake Forest at Lake Forest; we’ve beaten Ripon and St. Norbert, which will probably be the other teams in the tournament, so we like our chances,” Lentsch said.

Despite their opponent, the Pioneer’s attitude is the same.

“Regardless of who it is [in the tournament]—who we have to go through—it’s going to be tough. All of those teams will be good, but I still think we feel like it’s our tournament if we want it,” Skelly said.

Conference play will conclude with a game against Lake Forest on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 3 p.m. in Darby Gymnasium.

“We generally have the best student support and the best community support of any team in the conference, which generally goes a long way in helping us,” Arseneault said.

Williams broke the American record for the S9 category in 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 11:57.25. The S9 category is characterized as swimmers with severe weakness in one leg or with very slight coordination problems.

Photograph by Joanna Silverman

“Breaking the record reminds me that I’m part of the [Grinnell swim team], but I’m also part of another community and another group of swimmers that I’m competitive with,” Williams said.

Williams was born with a congenital birth defect called Proximal Femoral Focal Deficiency (PFFD). Her left leg was shorter than her right leg when she was born. At 14 months old, her left leg was amputated.

Despite her disability, Williams has no problems in her daily activities, ranging from climbing stairs, to swimming, to riding horses, her favorite hobby.

“It may seem like a big deal for someone who doesn’t know me, but it’s not,” she said. “It’s part of me.  It’s part of my life. It’s not really a big deal.”

Teammate Morgan Bober ’12 agrees.

“We all know [she has a disability],” Bober said. “But it’s not a big deal at all. One reason we don’t see it as an issue is because she made it that way.”

Williams grew up in Urbana, IL. Her parents, who swam in high school, encouraged her to swim to overcome her fear of bathtubs. Her interest in swimming grew in high school and continued into college.

Her passion for swimming is evident in her work ethic and positive attitude.

“She is a leader by how hard she works, doing the right thing in and out of the pool, motivating her teammates during practice with lots of encouragement,” Head Swim Coach Erin Hurley said. “She [has a] great work ethic and is a team player.”

Williams swam regularly while studying abroad in France last semester. During winter break, although she was not invited to participate in annual winter-break training in Florida, she completed all the workouts on her own.

Williams also maintains positive relationships with her friends.

“She was really nice to me when we first met,” Clare Gunshenan ’14 said. “She was very welcoming and friendly and cheers for everyone.”

Williams embraces that legacy.

“I would like to be remembered as the loud cheerer,” Williams said. “It helps to have people at the end of the lane yell at my face. I would like to be remembered as returning the favor.”

Williams acknowledges team unity as one of her favorite aspects about swimming and being in Grinnell.

“The team is incredibly supportive,” she said. “There are lots of supporters and the camaraderie is great. Anywhere I walk on campus, there are going to be people I know, which is great.”

Williams remembers participating in disability swim meets when she began swimming at the age of 11. She recalls these meets positively because they showed that she was part of the community.

Though she may have briefly overlooked that she belongs to the disabled swimmers’ community, last week’s meet has certainly reminded her that she belonged to that community and has rekindled her interest in Paralympic swimming.

The magnum opus of these prolific correspondents, in my estimation, was the video of a cat massaging a dog from, “courageously” ours, Ian Gold ’13/Clint Williamson ’13. That video blew my mind. The cat and the dog, as we all learned from the lewdly titled children’s film Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, are meant to be mortal enemies locked in eternal combat. Yet here were these two seemingly implacable foes sharing a tender moment. Watching that video gave me hope for other great rivals of history, like Blue Devils and Tar Heels or Jayhawks and Tigers.

Indeed, college basketball’s rivalry week is upon us. While I still haven’t seen any rival athletes adorably massaging each other on the court, stranger things have happened this season. Earlier this season Louisiana-Lafayette beat Western Kentucky in overtime with six players on the court for the final possession of the game. Western Kentucky fired its coach the next day due to the loss that probably shouldn’t have happened. The rivalry between Xavier and Cincinnati was taken to new heights with an in-game brawl started by Bearcats forward Yancy Gates and followed up by Musketeers guard Tu Holloway telling the press that his teammates are “gangsters,” but in a good way. Especially in a city with a major gun crime problem, it might be time for Xavier and Cincy to rename the “Crosstown Shootout” before somebody takes the rivalry’s name as a suggestion.

Now that the NCAA basketball season is well past its halfway point, it’s time to start giving college hoops the kind of close attention most college sports fans reserve for the gridiron. This season has been packed with drama that only the color and pageantry of college sports can provide: heated rivalries, emotional comebacks and buzzer beaters, all months before March. To catch up pigskin obsessives who are going through post-Super Bowl withdrawal, here’s a quick rundown of the season’s top stories so far.

Title Contenders Rise and Fall:

Pre-season polls are a lot of fun for year-round fans like me who like to speculate endlessly on how our teams will do, but they’re pretty useless for actually predicting who’s going be successful all year and make the NCAA Tournament. The pre-season poll has even less to do with who comes out on top in the NCAA Tournament. Even teams who are #1 in the AP Poll entering the tournament have only won it twice in the last 17 years (Duke in 2001 and North Carolina in 2009).

As usual, the voters got a lot wrong in the preseason AP Top 25. The UConn Huskies were ranked fourth overall thanks to the returning star power of SF Jeremy Lamb, G Shabazz Napier, C Alex Oriakhi and highly touted freshman big man Andre Drummond. Yet the Huskies are now at 9th place in the Big East at 15-8, having dropped games to Central Florida, Seton Hall, Rutgers, Cincinnati and Tennessee. Now UConn sits squarely on the bubble. They will likely need to win all of their remaining games except one of their two match-ups with Syracuse to merit at-large consideration. I think Jim Calhoun will turn this team around, but don’t expect to see these Huskies making a tournament run like last year’s team. The Huskies could be the first defending champions to miss the Tournament since the 2009 North Carolina team.

The Pittsburgh Panthers were initially estimated to be the 10th best team in the nation on the strength of returning star guard Ashton Gibbs and key contributors Nasir Robinson and Tray Woodall. But the Panthers couldn’t deliver on the hype, dropping home games to Long Beach State, Wagner and Rutgers en route to a dismal 15-10 record and 11th place in the Big East.

On the other hand, my hometown Missouri Tigers barely sneaked into the preseason poll at number 25, but they’re now ranked at number four after impressive wins over California, Notre Dame, Illinois, Baylor, and Kansas. The Tigers’ recipe for this remarkable season under first year coach Frank Haith: speed and shooting. The Tigers’ scrappy, experienced four guard line-up has given opposing teams fits en route to a 22-2 record and first place in the Big 12. If the Tigers win out, including a tough contest against Kansas in Lawrence, they will be a number one seed. They could even drop the game in Lawrence and still win the Big 12 if the Jayhawks lose one of their remaining contests, including a trip to the Little Apple to face Kansas State. It would be nice to end Mizzou’s tenure in the Big 12 with a conference championship before joining the premier conference in college sports, the SEC.

The Michigan State Spartans were unranked in the preseason, relegated to the ignominious category of “Others receiving votes.” This season just goes to prove that you should never bet against a Tom Izzo team. The Spartans lost their first two games to Duke and UNC but followed with 15 wins in a row, including a drubbing of Florida State, a close win in The Kennel against Gonzaga, and wins over conference foes Indiana and Wisconsin. If the Spartans can win one of their two remaining contests against Ohio State, they will put themselves in good position for a deep run in March.

The Murray State Racers of Murray, Kentucky didn’t receive a single vote in the preseason poll, but the Racers have been the surprise of the season, currently sitting at seventh in the AP poll with a 23-0 record. Murray State isn’t getting much respect in the national press yet, but that could change after their marquee Bracket Busters match-up against St. Mary’s (CA) at home. If the Racers finish undefeated and win the Ohio Valley Conference tournament, it will be difficult to argue they don’t deserve a #3 seed in March, if not a #2.

The preseason poll managed to capture what I believe to be the true top three teams within its top five, however. Kentucky, Ohio State, and Syracuse are the best teams in the country (not necessarily in that order). My favorite to take home the national title this year is John Calapari’s Wildcats squad. Boasting wins over Kansas, North Carolina, Louisville, and Florida, the Wildcats are sitting pretty with a record of 24-1. Thanks to the play of fabulous freshmen C Anthony Davis, F Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and G Marquis Teague, along with sophomore holdovers F Terrence Jones and G Duron Lamb, Kentucky has the all-new Fab Five 2012. There is simply too much talent and size on this roster for anyone else to match up with if the Wildcats are dialed in. All five starters will likely be playing in The League next year, but not before cutting down the nets in New Orleans on April 2.

Final Four Dark Horses:

Before I sign off for the week, I want to give a few short picks for teams that have the potential to reach the Final Four, even if they’re still somewhat unheralded. St. Mary’s (CA) is keyed by the play of Australian Matthew Dellavedova and local product Rob Jones. They have a lot of experience and are in the national top 50 in points per game, rebounds per game, assists per game, and field goal percentage. The St. Louis Billikens, led by senior F Brian Conklin, can be dangerous with their disciplined, slower style of play and tournament-tested coach, Rick Majerus. The Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV already boast a tournament-worthy upset with a win over North Carolina, but don’t overlook their wins over Illinois and California, too. Dominant sophomore big man Mike Moser makes the Rebs a difficult team to match up with. Wichita State is also experienced and big enough to compete with major conference foes. Creighton might have the best chance of any mid-major to make a deep run in March. The Blue Jays rank 10th nationally in points per game, second in assists per game, and first in field goal percentage. Star sophomore forward Doug McDermott of Ames, IA is a prime-time player, baby!