Swimming and Diving
After over a month away from competition, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams returned to action over winter break with a double-dual meet against Harvard and Penn in Cambridge Jan. 16. While Bruno struggled in that meet — both teams fell to the Quakers and Crimson — the squads showed marked improvements in subsequent competitions against Columbia Jan. 23 and Cornell Saturday. The women managed to eke out victories over the Empire State Ivies, while the men were outlasted by both. The women’s win against Columbia was its first in 10 years.
Despite the outcomes, the men’s team delivered several impressive performances. One of those performances was the second-place finish for Riley Springman ’18 in the men’s 200-yard butterfly. Springman managed to close the gap between himself and a Crimson swimmer but ultimately could not overcome the leader and was touched out by just over one tenth of a second.
In the same event the following week against Columbia, Springman managed to reach the touchpad first. Jack Nee ’17 joined Springman as the Bears’ only individual first-place finishes of the meet.
The women’s team fared better than the men’s squad for all of its meets. The women bookended both competitions over winter break with commanding relay wins. The Bears also shone in individual competition. Ally Donahue ’18 swam to three first-place finishes between the two meets over winter break. Megan Pope ’18, Reia Tong ’16 and Jenna Zagoren ’17 were also top finishers.
The Bears will have a few weeks to make any adjustments and improvements before participating in their next competition: the Ivy Championships. The women’s meets will take place at Princeton from Feb. 18-20. The men’s championships will run Feb. 25-27 at Brown.
Skiing
At the beginning of January, the ski team kicked off another year of continued dominance on the slopes. The Bears spent weekends in New Hampshire and New York to face off against their eight MacConnell Division rivals. The squad emerged victorious in all four of its competitions over the winter break and lengthened its MacConnell Division win streak to 44. In the Brown and Castelton Carnivals’ slaloms, the formidable combination of Ali Gunesch ’17, Natalie Pearl ’17 and Sylvie Bertrand ’17 managed to sweep the podium.
Track and Field
After beginning the season with the Alden Invitational in December, the men’s and women’s track and field teams resumed competition over winter break with four meets throughout New England.
The Bears excelled in field events. At the Yale Collegiate Invite, Bruno notched the top three spots in the men’s shot put, the top two spots in the women’s high jump and a pair of runner-up finishes in the men’s triple jump and men’s weight throw. O’Sha Williams ’16 also finished on top in the women’s triple jump at Yale — a feat she repeated at the Joe Donahue Games in January — and set a new personal best at the Boston University Terrier Classic.
Bruno also held its own on the track. Natalie Schudrowitz ’18 — recently named Brown’s first cross-country All-American in 15 years — and Max Haensel ’18 found places in the program’s record books at the Battle for Beantown. Schudrowitz’s 4:50.15 finish for the mile became the ninth-fastest in program history. Haensel posted a top-10 program finish when he ran 500 meters in 1:04.20. At the Terrier Classic, Will Sheeran ’16 joined his teammates in the record books, running 5,000 meters in 14:19.38, the 13th-fastest time of the day and the eighth-fastest time in program history. Clare Peabody ’18 also set a new program record for the 1,000-meter race at the same meet.
Ultimately the teams found limited success — neither claimed a first-place overall victory but both secured finishes in the top half of the standings.
The Bears will return to action next weekend at the Armory Track Invite and the URI Invitational.
Men’s Squash
The men’s squash team struggled to find the success it had seen earlier in the season, as it dropped three of its four contests over winter break. No. 16 Bruno (3-4, 0-3 CSA) hosted stiff conference competition in its first contests of the new year. It was a tale of comebacks throughout the weekend. In a show of relentless play, Charlie Blasberg ’18 rattled off three consecutive wins to down Richard Sopper of No. 5 Columbia after being down a match. Thomas Blecher ’18 notched the Bears’ only victory against No. 12 Cornell in five sets. After being down 0-2, Blecher claimed three straight games to win the match. The team finally managed to catch a break when it met Bowdoin. Bruno blanked the Polar Bears 9-0, winning seven of the matches in three games.
