While some students saw fun and sun or their parents over break, Washington University’s sports teams experienced tons of action. Here’s a quick recap of what happened; detailed spring break coverage can be found on Game On, the Sports blog.
Men’s Basketball
The Field House was the loudest it has ever been in recent times with the men’s basketball team hosting the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds of the NCAA Tournament. The Bears played tough and pulled off two come-from-behind victories. On Friday, the Red and Green erased a 13 point deficit to beat Buena Vista University. Saturday was intense as the Bears shot a season low of 18 points in the first period before going on a 17-0 tear to overcome No.14 Millsaps College.
Earlier in the week, Wash. U. upset No. 6 Augustana College and No. 16 College of Wooster in the opening rounds of the national tournament. Senior Troy Ruths and junior Tyler Nading contributed the most points and some of the biggest plays over Spring Break.
Track and Field
The women’s track and field team scored its highest finish ever backed by pole vault national champion senior Morgen Leonard-Fleckman, who vaulted over a school record 3.86m. Junior Danielle Wadlington came close to winning her own NCAA crown with an 11.68 m in the triple jump but lost by 0.02 m. The track and field team’s performance was rounded out by the fourth place finish of distance medley relay team freshmen Sangeeta Hardy, Kelli Blake, Taryn Surtees and junior Erika Wade.
Softball
The softball team surged throughout the week picking up 13 wins in a row against several ranked opponents. Pitchers freshman Claire Voris and sophomore Megan Fieser had big weeks on the mound with Voris tying the school record of 17 strikeouts in a game against the University of Rochester.
The Lady Bears wrapped up their fifth consecutive UAA title with a stunning six run comeback with two outs in the sixth inning against Emory. “We may be a small team, but we have strong players all the way down the line-up,” said Voris.
Women’s Basketball
The Lady Bears needed a last second three by junior Halsey Ward to overcome the Wilmington Quakers in the opening round of the NCAA National Tournament. Wash. U.’s 73-72 victory over Wilmington spoiled the Quaker’s reputation of never losing an opening round game.
History repeated itself as the Bears faced defending national champion No.6 De Pauw who had home court advantage. Wash. U.’s season was ended with a 73-66 loss despite a 19 point effort by sophomore Janice Evans.
Swimming and Diving
The Bears had two top three finishes as Wash. U. placed sixth at the Women’s National Championships. Junior Kelly Kono took third in the 1650 yard freestyle shattering the Wash. U. record with a time of 17:11.16. Senior Meredith Nordbrock shined with a third place finish in the 200 yard individual medley. Nordbrock demolished the school record coming up with a personal best of 2:02.97. Classmate Priya Srikanth had the highest finishes of her career, placing fifth in the one meter and eighth in the three meter diving competition.
Relay squads did well with the 800 yard freestyle team of Nordbrock, Kono, sophomore Jessie Lodewyk and senior Katie Hodges taking fourth. The 200 yard medley team of Nordbrock, senior Kristen Mann, sophomore Liz Caravati, and freshman Claire Henderson took fifth while Henderson, Nordbrock, Lodewyk and Kono took fifth in the 400-medley relay.
Women’s Tennis
The Lady Bears came close to sweeping the week with three dominating performances against the University of Texas-Tyler, Baldwin-Wallace College and Penn State Behrend. The Red and Green nearly pulled off an upset against No. 9 Denison with a 5-4 loss. Wash. U. was ahead 4-3 before rain postponed the remaining matches to the next day. Freshman Karina Kocemba had a great week on the court winning all four of her singles matches and two doubles matches.
Baseball
The men’s baseball team had a rocky time at the UAA championships after many of the games were postponed due to bad weather. The team had to adjust after a nine day hiatus from games. The Bears went 3-3 in UAA action to secure third place. With the score tied 6-6 against Case and the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, junior Zander Lehmann hit a grand slam to push Wash. U. to victory.