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(04/05/16 4:15pm)
By George Tatoris Sports Assistant
Cold bedrooms, flooded bathrooms and jackhammer alarm clocks: three unmentioned features of the Campus Town apartments, which an nj.com article from August 19, 2015, described as “luxury apartment living.”
For a semester and a half, the 446 student residents of Campus Town have been turning the brand-new apartments into a home away from home.
“When they first released the floor plans for the apartments, I kind of knew what I was getting — full kitchen, my own bedroom and sink, bathroom I share with only one person,” junior interactive multimedia major Michael Lore said.
However, some students are encountering small problems they didn’t expect so soon after Campus Town’s inauguration.
When junior interactive multimedia major Angela Arguson moved into Building 2 in August, she expected, like most residents, “really nice housing, since it was brand new and because there was so much talk about it,” Arguson said.
Her new apartment met most of her expectations, but there was a rocky start. During the first week, there was confusion about her room assignment that led her to not have a key, she said.
Arguson also discovered that her bedroom, located above a drafty walkway, is much colder than the rest of the apartment. This issue has still not been resolved.
Arguson isn’t the only student experiencing problems with Campus Town.
Multiple apartments had to have their bathtubs re-caulked. Lore’s was re-caulked several times.
At the start of the semester, several apartments were outfitted with handicapped showers that flooded the bathroom when used.
The showers were designed to allow access for the wheelchair-bound. There is only a drain and a small, rubber lip separating the shower from the rest of the bathroom, according to Greg Lentine, vice president of Sales and Marketing at the PRC Group, Campus Town’s developer.
However, in some showers, the lip was removed or never installed, resulting in flooding. This lasted for about a month.
In Building 700, above the new gym, junior philosophy major Alina Ahsan and her roommates were told by a maintenance worker they were not allowed to use one of their bathtubs. Apparently, it was leaking into the gym below.
Ahsan and her three roommates were told they could only use one shower until the leak was fixed.
They said it would only be a week, but it went on for about a month, according to Ahsan, during which time Ahsan and her roommates received no word from management.
“A month later, no one had come to fix it and we were pretty annoyed because we’d been sharing a bathroom between the four of us,” Ahsan said.
Frustrated by the lack of communication, they started to use the leaking shower again, which was fixed shortly after.
Lentine said that it “could take some time” to find a leak because it could be coming from anywhere in the pipe system.
In a similar miscommunication, junior criminology major Samantha Kennedy and her roommates had to wait a month for their washer to be fixed.
“Without a washing machine in our apartment, we had to drag all of our clothes to our friend’s apartment who lives in a different building,” Kennedy said. “It was incredibly inconvenient.”
The broken washers were a manufacturer problem affecting a small number of apartments, according to Lentine. In response, Campus Town bought new washers and will be using different models in the new buildings.
“We actually went out and bought additional ones so they could be swapped out fast,” Lentine said. “It took a little time to figure out what was wrong with them.”
Out of 130 washers, only “three or four” broke, Lentine said.
Campus Town is aware of the problems facing residents, Lentine said, but the number of problems is very small in comparison to the number of people living there.
Residents were asked if they liked living in Campus Town via a survey sent in November and December.
“Overwhelmingly, everyone’s happy,” Lentine said of the results.
One of the biggest problems for students who answered Campus Town’s survey was slow response times to issues like Ahsan’s and Kennedy’s. To address this, Lentine said Campus Town is hiring a new manager.
In spite of these problems, Kennedy, as well as Ahsan, Lore and Arguson, are all pleased with what Campus Town has to offer.
“The apartment itself has definitely lived up to expectations,” Ahsan said. “The bedrooms are a great size, the semi-private bathrooms with the sinks outside are great and I love the kitchen with the dishwasher.”
Lore said that the apartments are “definitely nicer” than campus housing.
As interactive multimedia majors, Lore and Arguson have an added bonus: the Art and Interactive Multimedia Building (AIMM) is located just across the street.
“I can roll out of bed and get to (AIMM), so that’s a plus,” Arguson said.
Arguson was forgiving of the issues she has had at the still-evolving Campus Town.
“I didn’t expect everything to be 100 percent perfect,” Arguson said. “Most of the issues have been resolved and Campus Town is still improving.”
That improvement can be seen as a canopy of cranes overhead erecting new buildings just down the road. Since late January, two new restaurants — Panera Bread and Piccolo Pronto, the faster cousin of the beloved Ewing establishment Piccolo Trattoria — opened to the general public.
Two more buildings will add 166 beds to Campus Town and bring the total number to 612 by the Fall 2017 semester.
The construction will ideally make students like Lore, who were disappointed by the lack of retail and restaurants when Campus Town first opened, happy.
“I thought that more restaurants would be open by now,” Lore said. “It kind of seemed that the management were hinting at a lot of places opening up in the fall semester or when the spring began, but only a few have opened so far.”
Though disappointed initially, Lore noted his excitement for the new retailers, as did Kennedy.
“I love my apartment and several stores and restaurants are beginning to open up in the buildings, which makes the campus town experience that much more enjoyable,” Kennedy said.
For Lore and Kennedy, the construction offers a glimpse at what Campus Town will become. But for others, the construction is just another nuisance.
At Campus Town, students on their way to class cross paths with construction workers regularly.
“There was a lot more construction going on than I expected,” said junior interactive multimedia major Kathleen Fox, who has been woken up “obnoxiously” by construction at odd hours.
Lentine said housing students was more essential than making sure all the retail was fully constructed.
“If they didn’t have a coffee shop, that wouldn’t be a crisis,” Lentine said.
Construction is not allowed to start until 8 a.m. in Campus Town, according to Lentine, which is a special provision on the project. Normal construction projects in Ewing are allowed to start earlier, but Campus Town delayed construction with the students in mind.
“Truth is, (Campus Town is) still a construction site,” Lentine said. “And until everything (is completed), unfortunately, construction’s going to make some noise.”
Opening stores and restaurants is part of the second phase of construction, according to Lentine. He said they hope to draw consumers during school breaks. As of now, retail slows when campus closes.
Like Lore, Lentine also expressed dissatisfaction with the speed at which retail has been opening.
“We were hoping more retail would be open by now, too,” Lentine said.
In addition to new stores opening up, residents will see the price for rent go up next year from $5,462 per semester in four-bedroom apartments to $5,655.
The two- and one-bedroom apartments cost quite a bit more. This year, two-bedroom apartments go for $6,003 per semester and the one-bedroom, $6,544. Next year, those prices will rise to $6,215 and $6,810 per semester, respectively.
The rise in price was written into Campus Town’s pro forma — a business document that forecasts prices.
“Supply and demand” was also a big issue according to Lentine — almost all the spots in Campus Town are taken, so the price increases. Inflation on costs for labor and materials were also included in the increase.
“We believe our product is worth it,” Lentine said.
Lore was forgiving of the price.
“When they said what the price was going to be, I was a little surprised that it was so steep, but hey, it’s new, it’s fancy, whatever,” Lore said.
The only cheaper options than living in Campus Town for those looking to live in an apartment setting are Hausdoerffer and Phelps halls, off-campus college houses and living off campus entirely.
“I only have limited experience with the upperclassmen campus housing since I’ve never lived in them, only visited, but from what I’ve seen, Campus Town is definitely nicer,” Lore said. “Of course, you get what you pay for.”
Many students seem to think what they get is worth it. Not Fox.
“Campus Town’s cost is almost as much as a monthly mortgage or as much as my aunt’s apartment in Brooklyn each month. It’s obscene. We’re college students. It shouldn’t cost that much,” said Fox, who will be living in an off-campus apartment next semester.
Fox is among a minority of students that will not be returning next year.
Between the management hiccups and the construction, Campus Town is trying to find its sea legs.
Lentine said that given the number of students that live there, they’ve received few complaints. They have also addressed some issues. Originally, all parking in Campus Town was for retail. They have since relaxed that rule, installing 15-minute loading and unloading parking outside the buildings.
In addition, the stairwells, which were once only fire exits, now have scanners to allow students in with their access fobs.
“Things come up and you try and address them the best you can,” Lentine said.
(03/29/16 5:12pm)
By George Tatoris
Sports Assistant
The Lions plowed through unranked Ursinus College, 11-1, on Tuesday, March 22. The team pushed back against No. 12 ranked Messiah College on Thursday, March 24, defeating them, 13-6, but suffered their first loss this season against top-ranked State University of New York (SUNY) at Cortland, 16-9, on Saturday, March 26.
The Lions are 7-1 after the Cortland game and they moved up the coaches’ poll from fourth to third.
“At the start of the game we were excited, but definitely nervous since the majority of us have never played Cortland before,” junior attacker Mia Blackman said.
The Red Dragons were relentless. By the end of the game, they had made 35 shots against the Lions.
Freshman goaltender Miranda Chrone explained one the Red Dragon’s maneuvers which had the Lions on edge.
“Even though I knew they were cutting through the middle, they were smart and acted as if they were going to crease roll,” Chrone said. “So I had to respect the girl with the ball, which left me less time to turn my head and get into position for the girl in the middle.”
Senior attacker Cortney Natalicchio opened the scoring in the game, but her goal was swiftly answered by the Red Dragons opponents — the two players scored three goals in 49 seconds.
Over the next 14 minutes, the Red Dragons added three more goals while their goaltender thwarted each of the Lions’s shots. With less than 10 minutes remaining, sophomore defender Elizabeth Morrison put another tally on the board for the Lions, but by then the Red Dragons were ahead, 6-2.
For the remainder of the game, the Lions were playing catch up.
“The hardest part was playing our game instead of reacting to the game they were giving us, especially since we know we are better than how we played,” junior attacker Mia Blackman said.
Whenever the Lions pushed, the Red Dragons pushed back. After Morrison’s goal, Natalicchio scored another, making it a three-point contest, but Cortland made two more goals, ending the period, 8-3.
The tug-of-war continued into the second half. Cortland made three goals and the Lions answered with three of their own, making it a five-point match, but this is as close as the Lions would get to Cortland in the second half.
In the final 10 minutes of play, the Red Dragons made five more goals while the Lions only made three, making the final a loss, 16-9.
The fight against the Red Dragons brought out the best in the team.
Senior midfielder Megan Devlin had five caused turnovers. Combined, Cortland only had two additional turnovers.
Chrone made nine saves, a season- and career-best for the rookie.
“This game showed me how on the ball you have to be at all times in order to come out on top against good competition,” Chrone said.
Chrone nearly shut out Ursinus College earlier in the week on Tuesday, March 22, but a goal in the last 40 seconds put the Bears on the board, ending the game, 11-1.
“I do have to give them credit, though, because they never stopped,” Chrone said. “They were looking for a goal the whole game and ended up getting it in the last minute of the game. I tried my best, but couldn’t get to it.”
Though Ursinus was unranked, the Lions had trouble scoring on them at first.
After eight minutes, there was only one goal on the board, which was from Mia Blackman, unusual in a usually high-scoring sport. It wasn’t until a timeout and some advice from Head Coach Sharon Pfluger were they able to get the ball rolling.
“At the timeout, coach told us to stop rushing through things and just read the situations so we could capitalize on the openings,” Blackman said.
Blackman scored the first goal after the timeout. From then on it was smooth-sailing for the Lions.
With just one day of practice, the Lions played the Messiah College Falcons on Thursday, March 24, taking home a 13-6 win.
The Lions and the Falcons went at it with zeal from the start — in the first 10 minutes, there were seven goals between the two teams.
The Falcons had the first goal, but sophomore attacker Amanda Muller tied it up quickly. At the break, the Lions were ahead, 7-4, but that changed in the second half.
Thanks to a strong performance from Morrison, the Falcons were kept from scoring again until the last five minutes of the game. Morrison took control whenever the ball was in the backfield. She ended the game with five ground balls, five draw controls and an impressive eight caused turnovers.
While the Lions ended the week with a loss, they remain positive.
“Even though it didn’t end how we would have liked, we now know what we have to work on and it’s going to make us grow stronger as a team,” Chrone said.
(03/22/16 8:28pm)
By George Tatoris
Sports Assistant
Before teaching at the College, professors Kim Pearson, Philip Sanders and Ursula Wolz were scattered across three different fields and three different states. Pearson was in New Jersey writing about new technology at Bell Labs, Wolz was at MIT’s Media Lab in Massachusetts and Sanders was in New York using technology to create art.
Despite the differences, the brilliant ideas from all three professors would soon come together and give rise to the College’s fascinating yet bewildering department: interactive multimedia (IMM).
“IMM is essentially people of varying backgrounds coming together to make cool stuff,” said IMM graduate Josh Lewkowicz (‘15), who is now working at DreamWorks Animation. “It’s a bridge between art and technology. I’ve always felt the purpose of IMM is to give you the technical skills to take ideas and bring them to life with the proper tools and techniques.”
The major teaches students skills across technological fields. According to the College’s website, the major focuses on three main areas of interest: digital media, interactive computing and professional writing.
Lewkowicz chose to focus on cinematography, photography and video editing during his undergraduate years, but other students within the major can go for topics like graphic design, website design and even digital music.
The idea behind the IMM major sprouted from collaborative projects between the journalism, computer science and art departments.
One such project was “unbound,” an online publication that was started in the year 1996 and combined Pearson’s magazine writing class and Elizabeth Mackie’s graphic design class.
The magazine was run by students for years and can still be found at tcnj.edu/~unbound.
The idea for the major began to spread around campus and in 2003, a proposal was submitted to the school and the IMM major was born with Sanders as its coordinator.
“We were an experiment,” Pearson said, speaking of the early days of the major.
The major grew quickly, though, and in 2005, the College was one of three winners of a highly-coveted Microsoft grant worth $80,000 to fund a video game design major.
The interdisciplinary IMM major provided a perfect counterpart to the art of game-making, which calls upon skills from a berth of different areas, including digital arts, music and computer science.
Around this time, the major hired its first professor: Chris Ault.
While the three founders had their backgrounds in specialized fields, Ault was more of a generalist with a focus on graphic design.
Pearson put it bluntly: “Chris was the person we were looking for.”
Ault’s interests range from computer programming to design to music, which is reflected in the décor of his current office — in a corner toward the back of the room sits an old MacBook next to a miniature musical keyboard. He fiddled with a LEGO brick as he spoke.
“I kind of avoided being pigeonholed and focusing in on one, narrow thing,” Ault said. “I always like mixing everything together.”
Pearson noted that Ault already understood aspects of design that the founders thought IMM students should know.
As more students and professors funneled in, the major began to gain credence. No longer were they a bold experiment — interactive multimedia had a greater foothold as its own field developed around it.
Soon, IMM was its own department, with Sanders as its first chair.
In 2010, the department upgraded from the cold recesses of Holman Hall to the high-tech Art and Interactive Multimedia Building. Ault took over as chair for the next five years, followed by Assistant Professor John Kuiphoff in Spring 2015.
Meanwhile, Wolz left the school to start her own company, RiverSound Solutions.
For IMM to work, the catalog must upgrade each year, Ault said. Learning about outdated software does not prepare students for the job market.
“If we end up teaching the same class the same way two years in a row, it probably means we’re not being responsible enough,” Ault said.
Recently, the department added mini-courses taught by alumni that specialize in one specific skill.
Pearson said this new addition is essential. While it’s good to be a jack-of-all-trades, the professor said, students shouldn’t graduate as masters of none.
Alumnus Andrew Kuserk said such courses allow students to “have access to the more small and niche of what this program can teach.”
These mini-courses are the latest example of what Ault believes is the strongest element of the IMM department: community. And Kuserk found just that during his time with the department.
“No matter what, there is never going to be enough professors to cover every single topic in the IMM major, so there (are) going to be some holes,” Kuserk said. “The other students and their specialties is what will fill those holes. Learning from each other is one of the most important parts of being an IMM major.”
(03/22/16 2:33pm)
By George Tatoris
Sports Assistant
Freshman midfielder Erin Harvey stood at the center of Lion’s Stadium on Saturday, March 19, her lacrosse stick poised for the draw.
She knew what was at stake.
The fight against the fifth-ranked Gettysburg College Bullets would have ended just moments ago if not for senior midfielder Megan Devlin, who tied the game up, 9-9, with just 26 seconds on the clock. The game went into overtime.
“With the new sudden-death goal rule this season, I knew how important it was to get possession right away,” Harvey said.
NCAA’s new rule, which went into effect just this year, states that games that go into overtime are decided by the next goal.
Harvey lobbed the ball towards sophomore defender Elizabeth Morrison, who gained control.
After an intense few minutes of play, with both teams missing scoring chances to end it and 1:39 minutes remaining in the six-minute period, senior attacker Cortney Natalicchio sent the ball sailing toward the net and scored her 16th goal of the season, and 102nd goal in her collegiate career.
The sixth-ranked Lions won, 10-9.
The team’s record rose to 5-0 while the fifth-ranked Bullets left the stadium with a record of 5-1 and their first loss of the season.
“It is the first time we have played a sudden death overtime, so I knew taking that shot that it may have been the last shot we would take in the game,” said Natalicchio, who led the College’s offense with four goals and two assists. “If I missed or the goalie made a save, they would have the opportunity to end the game — I knew I had to make it count.”
The Lions struggled in the first half. Junior attacker Mia Blackman made a goal just 40 seconds into the game, but the Bullets kept the Lions from tallying again for another 18 minutes. Meanwhile, Gettysburg scored three goals.
Out of 10 shots in the first half, only three found their mark.
Meanwhile, the Bullets hit the Lions with a barrage of shots — out of 12 shots, six hit the back of the net.
At the break, the Lions were down, 6-3.
“We started off a little slow and were having trouble finishing our shots,” Natalicchio said.
But that all changed in the second half.
“Being down by three at the start of the second half, we knew we were really going to have to work to chip away at their lead,” Harvey said.
With 5:18 left on the clock and the College trailing, 9-7, Harvey took a low shot and brought the Lions one step closer to a tie.
Harvey was shooting high all game and adjusted her shot based on head coach Sharon Pfluger’s advice.
“We could only be happy about that goal for a second,” Harvey said. “The team and myself had to refocus on gaining possession off the next draw so that we could have another possession on attack and try to tie.”
With 3:30 remaining, freshman goaltender Miranda Chrone made a point-blank save to keep the Lions a goal away from tying.
“Being able to keep the score within one or two goals gave my team the motivation they needed to tie and eventually win the game,” Chrone said.
Chrone made seven saves the entire match, which is her highest yet this season.
Devlin, who ended the game with three goals and an assist, showed the Bullets that the Lions were not going down without a fight, scoring a goal just 15 seconds into the second half.
Eight minutes later, Natalicchio scored her 100th goal as a Lion.
“I was so wrapped up in the game that I did not even realize it was my 100th when I scored it,” Natalicchio said. “It is a great memory to have. Reaching that career marker and also winning the game in overtime is something I’ll never forget.”
Natalicchio scored two more goals after that milestone, including the one that ended the game.
Chrone felt “pure joy” after witnessing the final goal.
“I have never had that feeling before after a win,” Chrone said. “And even two days later I still smile just thinking about it.”
(03/19/16 12:58am)
By George Tatoris
Sports Assistant
For the past three weeks, the College’s lacrosse team weaved a trail of scorched earth through New Jersey and Pennsylvania. After beating Ramapo College, 17-1, on Tuesday, March 8, and Neumann University, 13-0, on Saturday, March 12, the Lions are 4-0 on the season.
The team’s high-scoring performance was thanks to a strong senior offense.
Senior attacker Erin Waller was the heavy-hitter in both games, scoring four goals in each.
Waller was involved with the first three goals in the game against the Ramapo Roadrunners. Just 56 seconds in, she scored the first goal of the match and a little under two minutes later, she assisted senior midfielder Megan Devlin to the goal. Waller finished off her early performance just under four minutes in when she got her second goal off an assist from senior midfielder Cortney Natalicchio.
The Lions only needed four minutes to put three goals in the net. By the end of the game, Waller had four goals and five assists.
Natalicchio and Devlin played a part in the dominant offense in Mahwah, N.J., scoring three goals apiece against Ramapo.
The veteran trio of Waller, Natalicchio and Devlin played a major part in the Lions’s offense against the Neumann University Knights.
Waller was just as aggressive, scoring four goals and an assist. Natalicchio was second in scoring with three goals and an assist and Devlin was the first Lion net to net a goal, finishing the game with a goal and an assist.
Sophomore attacker Emily Kratz was third in scoring that Saturday with two goals in the first half and one assist.
Both the Knights and the Roadrunners were kept at bay by a dominant Lions defense.
In the game against Ramapo, Sophomore defender Elizabeth Morrison had seven draw controls against their opponent and caused four turnovers, even helping out the offense with two goals in the first half, allowing the Lions to have a 12-1 lead at the break.
Morrison’s second goal — the defender’s fourth overall this season — was the last goal in the first half of the game.
Freshman goaltender Miranda Chrone made two saves and let the ball get past her once.
Four days later, in the game against Neumann, the Lions’s defense continued their strong defensive strategies.
Morrison had five ground balls, three draw controls and two turnovers. Freshman midfielder Erin Harvey was all over the field with six ground balls, an assist and the final goal of the game.
Thanks to a strong defense, Chrone was only forced to make one save in the entire game.
The Lions have won their last four games with apparent ease, beating the State University of New York at Fredonia, 29-9, Fairleigh Dickinson University, 29-3, Ramapo College, 28-3 and Neumann University, 19-1. In all four of the victories, the team outshot its opponents by at least 18 shots.
Spectators may not see that ease this Saturday, March 19, when the sixth-ranked Lions go toe-to-toe with fifth-ranked Gettysburg College at Lions’ Stadium.
With both teams undefeated, the result of Saturday’s matchup will mean one team ends the game with its first loss of the season.
(03/08/16 6:23pm)
By George Tatoris
Sports Assistant
Their lances were dull, their shields were feeble and their armor was no match for a set of Lions incisors.
The Fairleigh Dickinson University Knights (0-3) lacrosse team were not equipped to handle the pack of Lions (2-0) that devastated them, 12-1, on Saturday, March 5.
Though Fairleigh Dickinson is unranked, the win will still be important in the post-season because the Knights are in the same region, according to sophomore defender Elizabeth Morrison.
The first bite marks appeared just three minutes in when sophomore attacker Emily Kratz landed the Lions’s first goal while another came just 27 seconds later from freshman midfielder Erin Harvey, who scored off an assist from graduate student midfielder Erin Waller.
Harvey put on a strong showing in her second collegiate game — all three shots made it in the goal.
Senior attacker Cortney Natalicchio’s hat trick helped the Lions end the half with a strong 7-0 lead against the Knights. Natalicchio led the Lions offense, ending the game with four goals and an assist that gave freshman midfielder Abby Flagler her first collegiate goal.
The second of Natalicchio’s goals was off an assist from sophomore attacker Amanda Muller.
Waller and senior midfielder Megan Devlin both netted one goal each, bringing the total goals to 12.
Devlin attributed the win to the team’s “cohesion.”
“Everyone had each other’s backs and if a mistake was made, everyone worked hard to make up for it and create something positive,” Devlin said. “Our defense and attack fed off of each other’s energy.”
While the team strived on offense, the defense also performed strongly, as well.
Morrison made herself known on both sides of the field — not only did she pick up 11 ground balls over the course of the game, she also scored a goal in the second half.
“As a defender, I don’t like shooting, but I know that if I do what my coach tells me — fake high shoot low — that I will be successful,” Morrison said.
The same tactic earned her a goal against the State University of New York at Fredonia last Saturday, too.
Freshman goalkeeper Miranda Chrone only let the ball pass by her once the entire game and registered a save early in the match.
“It was their first shot of the game so I knew it was pretty important, especially since we were only up by two at that point,” Chrone said.
Chrone says the win came from the team’s week of training.
“We had a lot of time to go over the mistakes from last game and make ourselves better — we spent a lot of time scrimmaging to get ready for live play,” Chrone said.
That training was especially important because the team is playing with several new rules for the league that have only been in action for one game so far.
Players are now allowed to kick the ball, self-start after a penalty and have more than one defender in the crease.
“Overall, the changes have not been too difficult to adapt to,” Devlin said. “Especially with practice and time (the rules) will become more natural.”
Though the fifth-ranked Lions were expected to win against the unranked Knights, Morrison said the team approached the game like any other.
“I try to go into every game without expectations,” Morrison said. “When you think too far ahead, you forget what’s important and lose focus. With every game, you should have the same mentality — that you need to play your best and respect your opponent.”
(03/03/16 1:52am)
By George Tatoris
Sports Assistant
After a shaky first half, the lacrosse team beat the State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia, 8-3, in its opener on Saturday, Feb. 27. The teams met in neutral territory at Montclair State University’s Sprague Field.
SUNY took advantage as the Lions struggled to find their footing in the first half, scoring three goals while the College could only manage one.
“In the beginning of the game, I think we were a little nervous,” sophomore defender Elizabeth Morrison said. “It was our first time playing full-field with that lineup and it took a little bit of time to get used to.”
The Lions’s only goal in the first half came from junior attack Mia Blackman in the last 10 minutes. Fredonia led, 3-1, but those would be the only three goals scored by the Blue Devils that day.
As the Lions got comfortable in the second half, they pummeled Fredonia, ending the game with an 8-3 victory for the College.
“At halftime, Coach (Sharon) Pfluger told us what we needed to work on and what was working,” Morrison said. “There was also a lot of talk between teammates trying to help each other be more successful. Most importantly, I think we brought up our intensity and started to get more comfortable on the field.”
The Lions made a swift comeback. Morrison was the first Lion to score in the second half and senior forward Cortney Natalicchio tied up the game nine minutes into the half.
Sophomore midfielder Amanda Muller put the Lions ahead with a goal at 19:52. Afterward, nothing the Blue Devils did was enough to stop the team from scoring.
Blackman led the Lions offense after adding two goals to the scoreboard while Natalicchio was second in goals with two total.
With just over 30 seconds left, sophomore attack Emily Kratz scored the eighth and final goal for the Lions off an assist from senior midfielder Megan Devlin.
“It was the first game of the season and we had to get some of the jitters out of our system,” Natalicchio said “Once that happened, we really started to play as a team and that’s how we shut them out in the second half.”
The Blue Devils were not able to score for 49 minutes out of the entire hour and 51 minutes of play, partly thanks to freshman goaltender Miranda Chrone, who kicked off her college career with an impressive three saves.
The Lions outshot Fredonia, 29-9, in the game and 18-2 in the second half.
Both the Lions and the Blue Devils were shut out of the final four in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III Tournament last year and are both nationally ranked by the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) this year — the Lions are fifth and Fredonia is 15th in the polls.
Overall, this weekend was a victory, but the early stumbles of the team in this opener indicate there is still room to grow.
“As a team, we are happy with the outcome, but still have a lot of things to improve on,” Morrison said. “After playing (on Saturday), we can start to make those changes, but overall, it was a good start to the season.”
(02/23/16 9:54pm)
By George Tatoris
Sports Assistant
Lacrosse is looking to qualify for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship for its 32nd consecutive year and to go further than they did in 2015.
Last season, the Lions returned from Hartford, Conn., empty-handed after a loss to top-ranked Trinity College in the third match-up of the tournament, 10-5, only a game away from being in the final four.
The No. 7 Lions held their own — they led the Bantams in shots, 21-19, and had fewer turnovers. But that wasn’t enough to send the Lions to the final four.
“Last year was disappointing, falling one game short of the final four,” sophomore defender Elizabeth Morrison said. “But I think that really motivated everyone that played that we need to (go) back there.”
The season kicks off on Saturday, Feb. 27, with the Lions facing State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia at neutral Montclair State University. Both teams were shut out of the final four last year.
Decorated head coach Sharon Pfluger returns this year after breaking an NCAA record for the most wins while coaching two teams. She boasts a career record of 1,012-152-10 (.864) and has led the women’s lacrosse team to 11 NCAA championships and the field hockey team to nine NCAA titles over the 29 years she’s been at the College.
Pfluger will be honored by the Princeton YWCA on Thursday, March 3, at the 33rd Annual Tribute to Women, which aims to recognize women who excel in their field in the Princeton area.
The Lions are already on stronger footing than they were at the start of the season last year. This year, they were placed fifth in the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association Division III preseason poll with 309 points, two places higher from where they were last year. In the preseason New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) poll, they were picked to win the whole thing.
By the time they face SUNY Fredonia next week, they will have six weeks of preseason training.
With almost as many freshmen as there are sophomores and upperclassmen, this season will demonstrate how the team will play in the coming years. Morrison, who was in the same shoes as the 10 freshmen coming in last season, is optimistic about the younger team.
“We have a large freshman class and some great potential that I think is going to blend well with the returning players on the team,” senior forward Cortney Natalicchio said.
New faces allow returning players to play the mentor role this season, Morrison said. The team’s seniors, Natalicchio, midfielder Megan Devlin and graduate student Erin Waller will play a crucial role in team dynamic.
“This year, our seniors, Cortney, Meg and Erin Waller, are creating an intense environment at practice,” Morrison said. “We are constantly pushing each other to run fast, shoot harder and play better. The team is very close this year and I think that will help us work together to achieve our goals.”
Natalicchio was pivotal for the Lions’s attack last season — she scored a total of 56 points, averaging 2.67 points per game — and Devlin’s 19 season turnovers, 40 ground balls and 70 draw controls were vital to the Lions’s defense, which only allowed an average of 5.25 goals per game.
Morrison will also be important, as she led the conference in ground balls and had an impressive 40 turnovers, the third highest in the conference. She was named Defensive Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year by the New Jersey Athletic Conference.
But in the end, there’s only one way to approach the season: game by game.
“Every day we practice knowing we are ultimately preparing for post-season, but first we need to focus on our conference and region games, and most importantly our game against the defending national champions, Cortland,” Morrison said.
The Lions will play SUNY Cortland on Saturday, March 26, on home turf.
(02/19/16 1:26am)
By George Tatoris
Sports Assistant
It was a long Friday, Feb. 12, for Lions track. They boarded the bus at 6 a.m., arrived in Boston at 11:30 a.m., and after a two-hour rest, took part in a massive, two-day meet hosted by Boston University: the highly-competitive Valentine Invitational.
“Some of the best athletes in the world competed (in Boston) this past weekend and our Lions mixed it up right alongside them,” head coach Justin Lindsey said.
While the College didn’t do as well overall as their Division I (D-I) opponents, the strong competition pushed many Lions to go faster, higher and farther than before.
Seniors Marissa Lerit and Carly Martz were two of those Lions.
Lerit and Martz had the longest day — their event, the women’s 5,000-meter race, was scheduled for 11:30 p.m. It was the last event of the day.
“I’m really happy with how I ran, especially given the conditions,” said Martz, who, along with Lerit, had to take a nap at the hotel to prepare for the race.
Lerit finished 39th, but her 17:53.11 finish in the 5,000-meter was her fastest by almost a minute.
“I was on cloud nine after my race,” Lerit said. One of the senior’s college goals was to break 18 minutes.
Martz took 49th place with a time of 18:35.87, 13 seconds faster than her old record.
Lerit and Martz now have the top two fastest times in the 5,000-meter in the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC).
“This meet was not about place, it was about running fast and competing,” Lerit said.
The Lions did not set out to beat the pantheon of D-I runners they were up against. That goal was “unrealistic,” according to Lerit. This was their last chance to improve conference seeds.
The Lions’s goal was to “Forget about your pace per lap and the heat you are in and just go out the hardest you can,” she said.
A lot of Lions kept that goal in mind. They came back with 21 personal bests, five national performances and three all-time program top-five performances, according to coach Lindsey.
Freshman Kathleen Jaegar ran her fastest 800-meter yet in her Boston debut, finishing 56th out of 192 at 2:15.90, now the fastest 800-meter time in the NJAC.
Sophomore Danielle Celestin had a personal best time in the 200-meter, finishing 75th at 25.90 seconds.
Freshman Erin Holzbaur showed a four-second improvement on her personal best in the mile run, coming in at 5:06.43.
Lerit attributed her success to the wealth of talent in Boston that weekend.
“Racing against people that are faster than you can push you to limits that you never knew that you had in you,” Lerit said.
Senior Jon Stouber raced past his record in the 5,000-meter with a 14:51.75 finish, good enough for 27th place.
“The 5K crew all went out aggressively,” said senior Tyler Grimm, who was also in the 5,000-meter. Stouber, Grimm and junior Andrew Tedeschi were split into three different heats in the 5,000 and were able to see each other run.
The men’s 4x400 relay team beat their season record with a finish of 3:19.68, the 15th fastest time on the field and the fastest time in the NJAC. Freshman twins Noah and Nathan Osterhus, freshman Kamal Williams and sophomore Daniel Lynch were responsible for that finish.
“We needed a race where we all ran well and we finally got that,” Noah said.
Noah had his own personal record in the 800-meter, placing 28th with a finish of 1:53.34.
Freshman Jekabs Hayes beat the milestone he set last weekend at Rider University in the 3,000-meter by almost six seconds, finishing 108th at 8:44.90. In the same race, senior Scott Savage also beat his personal record, coming in 114th at 8:46.95.
On the field, junior Chris Guglielmo went higher than he ever did in the pole vault at 14’9,” the second highest in the NJAC.
A lot of Lions returned from Boston with a new milestone to beat, including Lerit, who dashed past one of her all-time college goals this weekend.
“I guess I’m going to have to set a new goal now,” Lerit said.
(02/16/16 8:55pm)
By George Tatoris
Sports Assistant
After only one week of classes, sophomore interactive multimedia major Evan Jones found himself inside the Arts and Interactive Multimedia building at 6:00 a.m., working industriously in front of a computer monitor.
He wasn’t there to study or to do a project — he was there to participate in the Global Game Jam (GGJ), a 48-hour video game-making marathon hosted at different sites around the world, from New Zealand to Hawaii. It is the largest game jam in the world.
In game jams, participants called “jammers” must create an original game focused on a given theme within 48 hours.
The College has been a part of the Game Jam world since 2009, when a group of students organized a trip to the Philly Game Jam and returned with two awards. One team, TCNJ Yellow, came back from the trip with the “Most Innovative Game” and “Best Adherence to Theme” awards.
Since then, students organized two more trips to the Philly Game Jam — one in 2011 and another in 2012. In 2014, the College became a site for GGJ, offering the services of the Arts and Interactive Multimedia Building to local jammers.
The theme for this year’s GGJ was “ritual.”
“I saw it as a chance to improve my skills in a stressed environment and to emulate what it would be like to work on a team,” said Jones, who has made games both for classes and on his own in the past.
In 2012, the College’s team, again comprised of both students and alumni, won the “Most Innovative” and “Judges’ Choice” awards for a game that allowed the player to control time to solve puzzles. They called it “Kairos.”
Alex Cap, a 2011 alumnus of the College, was part of Team Kairos. It was his second Game Jam.
Cap was a music major at the College, so it was only fitting that he wrote the music for the game, which he still features on his website, alexcapmusic.com.
“Of course I enjoyed (winning awards), but what is most exciting to me is what happens during the Jam — fast-paced creation and problem solving,” Cap said.
Cap feels the experience helped his career in the long run.
“In general, the jams helped me to think on my feet and go with my gut in making creative musical decisions,” Cap said.
After having no GGJ on campus last year, participants were happy to have it back at the College this year.
According to Fishburn, one neat aspect of the College’s GGJ site is that the gaming groups had access to the entire building instead of being cloistered in one room. As a result, groups spread across different rooms of the site.
Jones wasn’t the only student who stayed late — some even slept on floors and beanbag chairs. Jones tried to take a nap on a table before deciding he preferred a bed.
“Tables are not comfy,” Jones said, “nor is the floor.”
Sites are allowed to give out awards like “Best Adherence to Theme” or “Most Creative Use of Theme” if they wish, but according to the GGJ website, this Jam’s primary function is to “stimulate collaboration,” not competition. The College did not hand out awards.
One way the GGJ encourages collaboration is by making sure teams are formed on the spot. For the most part, it is strangers working together to meet a deadline.
“The experience of working on a team with people you possibly have never met before is probably the most powerful part of game jam,” said Josh Fishburn, assistant interactive multimedia professor and organizer at the College’s GGJ site.
This is Fishburn’s fifth year organizing a GGJ. Though this is only his second semester at the College, he previously organized events at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
There is also some collaboration between groups themselves. When Jones stretched his legs, he headed over to another group to playtest their game and give feedback. Seeing everyone’s progress encouraged Jones to work harder.
“It’s not a competition, but at the same time, you don’t want to be the worst game there,” Jones said, “so you kind of are just trying your hardest to keep up with everyone else.”
Jones teamed up with junior interactive multimedia majors Christian Czmar and Malakye Otey.
The group made a game titled “Tomorrow Never Comes,” which focuses on the mundanity of rituals by following the daily life of a protagonist working in a field.
Other groups put a religious spin on the theme or had their player perform rituals to cast spells.
Fishburn hopes that they will be able to pull in jammers outside of the College community next year. Some familiar faces might also be there in 2017.
“It was stressful. It was painful. It was horrendous,” Jones said. “And I loved every second of it and I want to do it again.”
(02/10/16 9:44pm)
By George Tatoris
Sports Assistant
There was only one other team to beat on the track on Saturday, Feb. 6.
Each year, the track team faces the College’s local rival, the Rider University Broncs, in Lawrenceville, N.J.
This year, the Lions held fast, securing impressive wins over their opponent, but were ultimately stampeded by the Division I Broncs. The men’s team lost, 106-60, and the women’s team, 100-64.
“Leaving without the win definitely made us realize that we are really going to have to put in work the next few weeks before conferences,” sophomore Emily Mead said.
Freshmen brothers Noah and Nathan Osterhus, senior Laron Day and freshman Kamal Williams lost the 4x400 meter relay by less than a second, clocking in at 3:23.94 behind Rider’s 3:23.01. They were “neck and neck,” according to Mead.
“My coaches and upperclassmen have been talking about how competitive this meet always is and I see why they said that,” Noah said.
Though they lost, they were fast enough to qualify for the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships (ECAC).
“People were cheering like crazy and it’s awesome how much support we got for that relay,” Noah said. “It always helps when your teammates are cheering their heads off for you.”
Despite the loss, there were plenty of great performances.
In the women’s 4x400 relay, senior Joy Spriggs, Mead, freshman Kathleen Jaegar and senior Kristen Randolph won with a time of 4:03.22.
“Once we established a lead, we were determined to keep it,” Mead said.
In the women’s 3,000-meter, freshman Erin Holzbaur took first with an impressive time of 10:23.31, more than four seconds ahead of any Bronc runner.
Sophomore Danielle Celestin won the 200-meter dash with a brisk 27.09-second finish.
The women’s 800-meter was a neck-and-neck duel for first, with Jaegar taking the win from Rider by less than a fifth of a second. Jaegar finished with a time of 2:21.72 while Madeline Hummel from Rider finished a half a step behind at 2:21.84.
In the men’s 3,000-meter, a pack of Lions took four of the top five spots — junior Andrew Tedeschi finished first with a time of 8:50.05. Less than a second behind, senior Scott Savage took second with a time of 8:50.80 and rounding out the top three was freshman Jekabs Hayes who finished with a time of 8:51.58. Senior Tyler Grimm was the last of the four, finishing fifth with a time of 8:54.82.
The men outran Rider in the 4x800 relay as well. Sophomore Daniel Lynch, junior Chris Arnold, freshman Jack Wood and junior Brandon Mazzarella pulled together for a rapid 8:02.66 finish, above and beyond Rider’s 8:26.87.
Noah hit an ECAC qualifier in the 800-meter with a 1:55.64 finish, but the effort was only good enough for second place.
“I went out just like I wanted to, but I didn’t have enough in me to finish strong and get the win that time,” Noah said.
But these strong victories stand in stark contrast to the meet’s outcome. Head coach Justin Lindsey hopes the team comes away from the loss with a sobering reminder that “giving 150 percent does not always end in victory” and that they don’t back down in later meets.
“People give up just before the breakthrough comes,” Lindsey said.
And the Lions don’t plan on stopping until they do just that.
(02/02/16 9:42pm)
By George Tatoris
Sports Assistant
Lions track had a strong showing at the Haverford College-hosted McElligot Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 30, with debut performances and top finishes in multiple events.
“I thought the results were strong,” head coach Justin Lindsey said. “We competed well and things look good going into the championship month.”
For senior Roberto Guiducci, who ran a personal best in the 5,000-meter, the meet was vindication after a long slump that began with a disappointing end to cross country last year, when the men underperformed and finished ninth out of 37 teams.
“The team had goals throughout the cross country season that were obtainable,” Guiducci said. “But by the end of the season, we fell short… It has been hard to recover.”
Guiducci took ninth in the 5,000-meter, crossing the finish at 15:40.22, and said he’s “looking forward to run faster in races to come.”
The 5,000-meter was a race of firsts for the Lions. On the women’s team, freshmen Natalie Cooper and Emma Bean debuted in the 5,000-meter with third and fourth place finishes, respectively — Cooper crossed the finish at 19:11.81 while Bean followed at 19:33.50.
Sophomore Sarina Sokoloff finished off the pack of three in fifth with her own personal best time of 19:39.05.
In the 4x400 relays, both the men and women had second-place finishes for the College.
The men lost to first-place finisher and New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) rival Rowan University by a mere sliver of a second, as the College’s final leg, senior Laron Day, crossed the finish for a combined time of 3:28.96. Freshmen Nathan Osterhus and Kamal Williams and senior Mike Larkin put Day in position for the finish.
“Everyone was there to compete, and all the hard work we have been putting in definitely showed during the relays,” sophomore Emily Mead said.
Mead, along with senior Joy Spriggs, freshman Alesia Passaro and senior Kristen Randolph, comprised the quartet that took second in the women’s 4x400. The women clocked in at 4:08.14, four seconds behind Rowan.
“We are all great friends, and you can definitely see that chemistry in the relay,” Mead said.
Both teams fared well in the 400-meter race, as well.
Spriggs sprang passed her competition for a 1:00.67 finish, beating out a runner from Rowan for first. Her time ranked 15th nationally. Not two seconds behind, Randolph took third with a time of 1:02.44. For the men, Larkin took sixth with a time of 53.05.
In jumping events, senior Courtney Paciulli toppled her competition in the triple jump and scored the longest jump in the NJAC this season with a length of 35’10.5”.
In the pole vault, junior Tracy Prentice, along with freshman Danielle Cozzarelli, soared the highest with heights of 10’2” and 9’2.25,” respectively.
On the men’s team, the Lions took second, third and fourth place in the pole vault. Junior Chris Guglielmo took third with a height of 13’11.25,” sophomore Nicholas Genoeso took fourth also at a height of 13’11.25” and freshman Sebastian Camacho rounded out the pack with a height of 12’5.5”.
The Lions will compete in a dual meet against local rival Rider University this Friday, Feb. 5.
(01/26/16 10:47pm)
By George Tatoris
Staff Writer
For freshman athletes, college sports means going beyond what they’ve ever achieved.
“It is a lot different from high school, and I feel myself pushing a lot more in practice,” freshman Noah Osterhus said.
Osterhus is in his first year of indoor track and field at the College and despite the challenges, he’s already become comfortable as a Lion.
At the Villanova Open, hosted Friday, Jan. 8, Osterhus won the 800-meter event with a rocket-fast time of 1:55.87 against a slew of Division I opponents.
Just a week later at the Ramapo Invitational on Friday, Jan. 15, Osterhus ran the 500-meter for his first time in a competition and posted the fifth-fastest time at the College since 2000. His 1:05.27 finish landed him in second place.
“I always go for the win, and although I was disappointed I didn’t (win), it’s all about getting better for the championship part of the season,” Osterhus said.
Osterhus is just a sliver of the talented freshman class that played a key role in the success of track and field so far this season.
“This freshmen class is one of, if not the strongest, freshman class we’ve brought in since I’ve started coaching here,” head coach Justin Lindsey said.
That freshmen talent led the women’s team to first place at the Ramapo Invitational with 91 points — ahead of second-place Ramapo’s 82.5 points — and the men’s team to second place with 79.5 points, behind Rowan with 124 points.
Before the Invitational, the Lions had impressive showings at both the Villanova Open the week before and the Metro Holiday Season Opener in early December.
As the area welcomed a winter storm and scores of students trod onto campus to start their semester this weekend, the track team competed at the Princeton Open on Sunday night, which was delayed a day due to the weather.
The icy roads prevented some teams from attending, but competition was still fierce.
Sophomore Allison Fournier, senior Joy Spriggs and freshmen Kathleen Jaeger and Erin Holzbaur joined forces in the 4x400 meter relay to post the fastest time in the nation in Division III (D-III) this season, already putting them in contention for nationals.
Spriggs also took third in the 400-meter, with a time of 59.30. In the 200-meter dash, sophomore Danielle Celestin took fourth with a time of 27.27.
On the men’s team, sophomore Andrew McNutt won the triple jump. With a distance of 46’-10.25,” McNutt landed the fourth longest jump in D-III this season, and the second longest in the College’s history.
With teams missing, both the men’s 800-meter and the 3,000-meter races were reduced to an all-Lion roster. Osterhus won the 800-meter with a time of 1:56.64 and senior Scott Savage won the 3,000-meter with a time of 8:47.34.
Junior Brandon Mazzarella and freshman Daniel Brennan finished the one-mile run in tandem — Mazzarella took second with a time of 4:27.65 and Brennan was nine seconds behind with a finish of 4:36.50. There were only four contestants in the race.
Mazzarella said his time was slower than he wanted, but it was a good “learning experience” that will “hopefully reshape (his) mindset for future races.”
At the Villanova Open earlier this month, another freshman, Madison Heft, landed in fourth after clearing 10’6” in the pole vault, the third-best height in the history of the indoor women’s team at the College.
The Ramapo Invitational saw two freshmen make fast times in the one-mile run. Erin Holzbaur finished second with a time of 5:10.21 — a personal best — and Madeleine Tattory finished fifth with a time of 5:19.29.
“It felt great to run my PR this early in the season and I’m looking forward to continuing to better it,” Holzbaur said.
Like Osterhus, Holzbaur also had to adjust to demands of the track season. In cross country, she ran the 6K — more than three miles altogether — meaning she had to quicken her pace to do well in the one-mile event.
Runners need a “different mindset” when racing the one-mile, she said.
At the same meet, Jaeger finished third in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:20.71. The fastest Lion on the track that day was senior Kristen Randolph, who blew past her competition in the 500-meter to take first with a time of 1:20.30.
At Ramapo, the College got a whiff of what their conference has to offer this year.
“The Armory meet allowed us preview our conference competition and our team stacked up well next to them,” Holzbaur said.
The men’s team’s second-place win at the Ramapo meet was reinforced by a victory in the 4x400 relay. Senior Laron Day, freshman Kamal Williams, sophomore Daniel Lynch and Osterhus pooled their skills to finish at 3:22.65.
With the freshmen running so well, things are looking hopeful for indoor track.
“They are running much faster than we could’ve hoped and a lot of them have been PRing so it’s keeping them hungry and motivated in training,” Mazzarella said.
“It’s a very young team and the leadership by the upperclassmen have been the key to this continued success,” Lindsey said.
(12/01/15 10:37pm)
By George Tatoris
Staff Writer
The men’s and women’s indoor track teams are training hard for their opening meet, the New Year’s Invitational hosted by Princeton University, which will be held on Friday, Dec. 11.
The meet will feature teams from all three divisions and will not be scored.
At last year’s invitational, the women’s team excelled thanks to the efforts of its senior class, with 10 top 10 finishes.
Four of those top 10 finishes were achieved by seniors and the winning relay team was comprised of three seniors.
In the 4x400 relay, then-seniors Michelle Cascio, Joy Spriggs and Katelyn Ary, along with then-junior Kristen Randolph, took eighth place, with a combined time of 4:03.91.
The relay team eventually competed at the NCAA Division III Championships in March 2015, earning All-American honors in the process.
With so much talent loaded at the tail end of the age range, the pressure is on the incoming freshman to keep the team alive in years to come.
Freshman Erin Holzbaur, who had a promising debut in cross country this past semester, believes she will see more progress this coming winter.
“I am confident that the success we had during the cross country season will transfer over to the track,” Holzbaur said.
At the same meet last year, then-junior Jake Lindacher finished fifth overall in the 60-meter high hurdles with a time of 8.39 seconds.
Lindacher would go on to qualify for the NCAA National Championship, as well, finishing 13th overall in the event with a time of 8.35 seconds.
While the season will just be beginning for sprinters, hurdlers and field athletes, distance and mid-distance runners have a season of cross country under their belts to warm their gears for the winter season.
The College’s men’s and women’s teams fell short of Nationals this year, though both claimed ninth in the Atlantic Regionals Championship.
The difference in track is that the cross country runners will be spread across several different races instead of one single race.
“What I do like is how there are more options than just the 6K, so I’m excited to change it up and try different events,” Holzbaur said.
After the New Year’s Invitational, the next competition won’t be until Friday, Jan. 8, at the Villanova Open in Staten Island, N.Y.
(11/17/15 9:00pm)
By George Tatoris
Staff Writer
More than 500 cross country runners from schools across New York and New Jersey gathered for the NCAA Division III Atlantic Region Championships this Saturday, Nov. 14, which were hosted by SUNY Geneseo.
The Lions went in with high expectations — the men’s team was ranked third in the region and the women were ranked eighth. But the competition would turn out to be too much.
Both teams finished ninth out of 37 schools, failing to qualify for the NCAA National Championship as a team. The women had 241 points while the men had 264.
One of the most difficult obstacles was the sheer number of runners on the course — over 250 competitors were in each race.
“There were so many girls packed up and I got stuck on the inside of a lot of turns,” senior Carly Martz said.
In addition, with temperatures dropping around 20 degrees and only reaching the late 30s and early 40s this weekend, some runners found it difficult to adapt to the cold.
“For me, personally, it was kind of hard to breathe,” senior Marissa Lerit said.
The cold and the crowded course didn’t stop Lerit from being the first Lion across the finish in the women’s 6k, coming in at 22:58.0, earning her 32nd place.
Freshman Erin Holzbaur and Martz were the next two Lions across the finish line, coming in at 47th and 49th, respectively, with a runner from Rochester University in between them.
“I raced pretty much how I always race,” Martz said. “Unfortunately, this wasn’t the race to go out slow in.”
Martz said her first mile was shorter than what she wanted. To make matters worse, the crowds made it difficult to catch up. When she finally reached Holzbaur and freshman Madeleine Tattory ahead of her, she was exhausted, but Holzbaur encouraged her to pick up the pace.
Holzbaur came in at 23:16.7 and Martz at 23:19.9. Tattory came in 51st at 23:27.1. The final scoring runner was freshman Emma Bean, who came in at 62nd at 23:37.0.
The women’s team met expectations according to coach Justin Lindsey. Since five of the team’s top seven runners are freshmen, the young team will be able to grow.
“We will build on this season and look forward to the coming years with this group,” Lindsey said.
The men’s team did not see as much success as the women.
“The competition was very talented,” junior Andrew Tedeschi said.
Tedeschi was the first Lion across the finish line, coming in 12th, with a time of 25:43.9. While the team itself did not qualify for nationals, Tedeschi’s performance was enough to qualify him as an independent.
“I gave the race my best effort and I’m happy with how it went,” Tedeschi said.
The next Lion did not cross the finish line for another 30 seconds — senior Jon Stouber finished 34th with a time of 26:14.6.
After another 30-second gap, senior Roberto Guiducci crossed the finish line at 26:45.2, earning him 67th place.
Behind him, senior Tyler Grimm and junior Brandon Mazzarella finished with less than half a second between them. Grimm took 75th at 26:56.0 and Mazzarella took 76th at 26:56.2.
The ninth place finish was leagues below their third place seed.
“The men did not step up to the competition like we hoped they would,” Lindsey said. “They had an off day and it cost us.”
With this meet, cross country is done for the year. For seniors, it also marks the end of collegiate cross country.
“It was a great season,” Martz said. “I wish I had 100 more.”
(11/03/15 9:30pm)
By George Tatoris
Staff Writer
Most of the men’s cross country team wasn’t even born when the College’s New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Championship streak began, but that didn’t stop the team from adding another year to the now 22-year winning streak on Saturday, Oct. 31. The team garnered 31 points to narrowly beat out Ramapo’s 37 points.
The women continued a streak of their own. They won their third consecutive championship title with 21 points against second-place Rowan’s 64. Both the men’s and the women’s team had all of five of their scoring runners in the top 10.
“It was good how we could grab the victory against a very strong Ramapo team,” senior Tyler Grimm said. “The margin may have been a little close for comfort, but we got the job done.”
For junior Andrew Tedeschi, the win represents a passing of the torch.
“Both my college and high school coaches were athletes at TCNJ during the streak, and it’s a humble feeling knowing I’m a part of that tradition,” Tedeschi said.
Tedeschi was the first Lion across the finish line, placing him third with a time of 25:01.87, just eight seconds behind first place. He had the lead but was outrun by two Ramapo runners at the finish.
Grimm, and fellow seniors Roberto Guiducci and Jon Stouber crossed one after the other, taking fifth, sixth and seventh, consecutively. Grimm finished at 25:10.08, for fifth; Guiducci took sixth with a time of 25:13.92 and Stouber clocked in with a time of 25:14.90 for seventh place.
The last Lion to score was freshman Jekabs Hayes, who finished 10th at 25:36.47. He was followed by freshman Brian Mitchell in 11th at 25:45.25 and junior Brandon Mazzarella in 12th at 25:48.74.
Mitchell and Hayes stuck together most of the race and encouraged each other to keep running, resulting in both beating their personal records by over 20 seconds, with a time under 26 minutes for their first time in the 8k.
Grimm said performances like those of these freshman are an example of the team’s “depth,” meaning if someone underperforms, other teammates are able to pick up the slack, which is good for the team.
“It means that the future cross country team is going to be in good hands after graduating this year’s senior class,” Grimm said.
On the women’s side, senior Marissa Lerit won the women’s 6k.
As the race started, a Ramapo runner took the lead, but when she began to falter a little over a mile into the race, Lerit made her move. She finished with a time of 21:58.12.
Lerit did not run last year due to a fractured toe.
“It is still rather surreal to me that I won NJACs,” she said. “I went from not running at all this year to having one of the best collegiate seasons of my life.”
Lerit said the support of her teammates and the guidance of her coaches were the primary catalyst to her success this race.
In their first college championship, freshman Erin Holzbaur finished second with a time of 22:12.79 and freshman Madeline Tattory placed fourth with a time of 22:14.42.
“Unlike most of the other meets, I knew something was on the line,” Holzbaur said. “It gave us pressure to run our best.”
Senior Carly Martz placed fifth with a time of 22:17.31. Like Lerit, Martz did not run for an extended period — she suffered an injury while studying abroad last semester and didn’t run at the beginning of the season.
Junior Laura Straub was the last scoring runner, finishing ninth with a time of 22:38.16.
(10/06/15 4:58pm)
By George Tatoris
Staff Writer
During one of the country’s countless high school football games last Friday night, in the small town of Washington, N.J., as students cheered from the rafters, the Warren Hills Regional High School quarterback — 17-year-old senior Evan Murray — was struck in the backfield during the second quarter. He was holding his side as he walked to the sidelines.
A short while later, he collapsed and was brought to Morristown Medical Center by an ambulance. There, he later succumbed to his injuries.
Doctors have since determined that Murray’s spleen had been swollen, and the heavy hits he sustained during the game had ruptured it.
Murray was one of three high school players to die from in-game injuries in September. The other two were Tyrell Cameron of Franklin Parish High in Winnsboro, La., who died of a neck injury and Ben Hamm of Wesleyan Christian School in Bartlesville, Okla., who passed after a week in a medically-induced coma from a head injury.
According to the 2014 Survey of Football Injury Research, of the six direct fatalities that occurred in a football game during the ’14 season, which include deaths related to tackling and head-to-head collisions, five were high school players.
Of the 10 indirect fatalities, which covers things like heart-related and deaths caused by heat stroke, eight were from high schools.
These numbers show a steep rise from the 2012 season, during which zero high school deaths were recorded.
As these numbers rise, people are asking the question — should we allow our kids to play this sport?
While Murray’s death has struck a chord with his small community, an online poll seems to indicate that the majority of people in the area do not think banning football is a viable solution.
According to a poll on Lehigh Valley Live’s website, almost 70 percent of the 793 people who voted said they still support keeping high school football as an option for students.
Although many would like a scapegoat, the deaths of these three young men were nothing but tragic accidents. If Murray’s spleen had not been swollen, he might’ve been able to walk away from those hits. The sport of football itself cannot be blamed for these problems.
Even so, the fact that high school football fatalities are so much higher than college and professional football fatalities indicates a problem under those Friday night lights.
Kevin Guskiewicz, founding director of North Carolina’s Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center, said the source of this problem lies in the players’ age.
A teenager’s brain is still developing, Guskiewicz told USA Today for an article about high school football fatalities last year, and so, while their bodies can take high-velocity hits, their brains become susceptible to concussions and serious brain injury.
These injuries can happen especially on a field of younger players who may not have the experience to perfect techniques.
In an interview on NJ 101.5 about Murray, ex-Giants punter Sean Landeta said that high school players are more cavalier about injuries, especially with something like an enlarged spleen.
He said if he were in high school and a doctor told him he couldn’t play due to an enlarged spleen, he would play anyway because he wouldn’t feel any pain.
“At that young age, you don’t realize how that’s something that could kill you,” Landeta said.
Murray was laid to rest Thursday, Oct. 1, while hundreds of mourners paid their respects. He was an honors student and also played on the school basketball and baseball teams.
(10/06/15 4:56pm)
By George Tatoris Staff Writer
As foreboding rain swept the East Coast this Friday, over 100 of the region’s finest cross country teams, scattered across all three Divisions, gathered at Lehigh University for its renowned Paul Short Invitational.
The College’s women’s team was among those competitors.
“This is the biggest meet on the East Coast,” coach Justin Lindsey said. “They have three college sections with 45 teams of 10 athletes in each section.”
The women’s cross country team ran a strong race: the Lions finished 18th out of 45 teams — beating out nine Division I programs — with a total of 424 points.
They were the sixth highest Division III team out of 18 and had the same amount of points as Division I contender, Siena College.
Division I Saint Joseph’s University finished in first with 166 points.
The Lions ran in the Brown section, the second toughest of the three (Gold, Brown and White).
According to Coach Lindsey, the coaches and captains of the men’s team decided not to compete in the Paul Short this year.
Andrew Tedeschi, a junior on the men’s team, said the decision was made to give the men a break before other competitive meets.
The most common problem for the hundreds of young runners that would compete in these races was the muddied course, but that did not deter the fastest Lion of the race, freshman Erin Holzbaur.
“Cross country is truly about running through any type of weather,” Holzbaur said. “Finishing the race covered in mud proves that you worked even harder.”
Holzbaur took 27th out of 385 runners with a finishing time of 22:10. She was the fifth Division III runner overall.
“I knew it was going to be a highly competitive race and that I had to have a fast start to be in a good position,” Holzbaur said.
Behind Holzbaur, fellow freshman Madeline Tattory placed 67th with a time of 22:39. The last Lion to finish in the top 100 was freshman Abigail Faith, who took 92nd place with a time of 22:53.
Behind this freshman trio, junior Laura Straub finished 117th with a time of 23:05.
Just behind Straub, two freshmen — Natalie Cooper and Alyssa Kramer — crossed the finish line in tandem to take 121st and 122nd place, respectively, both with times of 23:07.
All five Lions finished in just under a minute of each other— only four other teams in the top 20 finishers had shorter spreads.
Short spreads are a result of the Lions’ pack running, which both the men’s and women’s teams stress during training. Running together helps the Lions boost morale and gather points at big meets such as the Paul Short.
“Heading into the meet I felt we had a strong chance to improve on our pack running,” Lindsey said. “And I believe we accomplished that today.”
It wasn’t just that the team had a great showing at the meet, as many Lions broke personal records on Lehigh’s course.
“I think overall we had a great showing, all most everyone ran their season best times,” Holzbaur said. “The meet definitely made everyone excited for the championship season.”
(09/24/15 12:24am)
By George Tatoris
Staff Writer
A cross country runner, more than anyone else, knows the importance of pacing.
To get fast times, runners need to start off slowly and speed up at crucial moments throughout the course.
However, at the Rider Invitational this Saturday, Sept. 19, junior Andrew Tedeschi wanted to see how far he could push himself by pushing himself earlier in the race.
At the 5K point, he began to feel the burn.
“I never ran that fast to start out an 8K,” he said. “I was afraid I would burn out for the last two miles.”
Among the schools present, the College was the only non-Division I team on the course that day.
When Tedeschi realized his Division III position among the leaders in a majority Division I race, he thought of his teammates pushing forward behind him, and found the inspiration to push ahead.
He finished third out of 137 runners with a time of 24:53.
“I would say breaking 25 (minutes) is a pretty cool achievement to pass in cross country,” Tedeschi said.
Behind Tedeschi, junior Roberto Guiducci finished 12th overall with a time of 25:04.3. Senior Tyler Grimm was behind Guiducci with a time of 25:11.8.
Despite being the only non-Division I team on the course Saturday, the men didn’t let themselves get intimidated.
“It is important that we stay focused and race like it is any other day,” said Guiducci before the race. “If we go out there and perform how we usually do, there is nothing to worry about.”
The College finished third with 76 points, behind Marist College in second with 65 points and Monmouth University in first with 42 points.
Freshman Madeline Tattory was top Lion in the women’s race, finishing 22nd out of 141 runners with a time of 23:13.5.
Shortly behind Tattory, a pack of five Lions crossed the finish line in a 25-second spread.
Seniors Marissa Lerit and Carly Martz finished within a fraction of a second of each other.
Lerit took 29th with a time of 23:37.5 and Martz finished 30th with a time of 23:37.9.
Just behind them, junior Laura Straub took 31st with a time of 23:31.4.
Freshmen Abigail Faith and Emma Bean rounded out the pack, taking 33rd and 34th, respectively, with times of 23:33 and 23:39.4.
The women’s team took sixth place with a total of 145 points while Quinnipiac took first with 49 points.
“We have worked so hard as a team these past few weeks and are eager to show everybody what we can bring to the table,” Lerit said before the meet.
The Lions ran on familiar ground — the meet took place at Rosedale Park, where the College recently hosted the Blue/Gold Invitational.
Lerit said that the Rider Invitational helps runners “get familiar” with Rosedale’s course while showcasing their talent by going up against other strong collegial programs.
The Lions trained hard for the past few weeks in order to prepare for that competition.
For Tedeschi, it was “an awesome feeling seeing the training paying off” at the Rider Invitational.
The men’s team will not compete until the DeSales University Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 10, while the women’s team’s next meet will be the Paul Short Invitational on Friday, Oct. 2.
(09/15/15 8:28pm)
By George Tatoris Staff Writer
Men’s and women’s cross country dominated the Delaware University International this Saturday, Sept. 12, using pack running to powerful effect against their contenders, which included conference rivals Rowan University.
Pack running is a tactic that involves running in groups with teammates of a similar skill level, which helps with pacing and boosts runners’ morale.
The College cinched the first five spots in the men’s race and in the women’s race — while the top two finishers were from Delaware University — a pack of Lions in third through sixth pushed the College ahead of second place Delaware University by six points.
Junior Andrew Tedeschi led the front pack with a finish time of 26:55.21. Senior Roberto Guiducci followed a little less than a second behind with a time of 26:56.19. Behind him, sophomore Dale Johnson closed in at 27:02.11 for a third place finish. Senior Jon Stouber took fourth with a time of 27.11.06. Senior Tyler Grimm rounded out the pack in fifth with a time of 27:12.54.
The men’s sweep was “really incredible especially against Rowan, who is our main competitor in the conference,” Grimm said. “It’s a testament to our training so far. Our pack running was tremendous today.”
The Lions paced themselves at first, and found themselves in the top pack with a single Rowan runner. Using hills and turns to their advantage, the pack of Lions broke away, using teamwork to move ahead as a group.
It took less than 20 seconds for all five Lions to cross the finish line together. A tight spread like that will come in handy in later meets, Grimm said.
The men finished with just 15 points — where the lowest score indicates a win. The astounding win was more than 40 points less than second place Rowan.
Pack running also played a part in the women’s team’s first place finish.
Heading the pack in third place was freshman Madeline Tattory with a finishing time of 23:50.69. Less than half a second behind Tattory, freshman Erin Holzbaur finished in fourth with a time of 23:51.17. In fifth, senior Marissa Lerit finished with a time of 24:01.23 and in sixth, freshman Emma Bean finished with a time of 24:02.89.
Also in the top 10 was freshman Abigail Faith, who was eighth with a time of 24:15.28.
“It was a lot of fun seeing so many of us place in the top ten,” Tattory said.
This meet was Tattory’s first glimpse at pack running outside of training. Pack running wasn’t stressed as much in her high school and wasn’t required as much in last week’s Blue/Gold Invitational.
It took all four women Lions less than 15 seconds to cross the finish line together.
According to Guiducci, the course was “one of the tougher ones” he has run in college. The White Clay Creek State Park course in Newark, Del., starts by going downhill, and then turns into rolling hills the rest of the way.
Tattory said it was “more of a cross country course” and “a lot harder” than the one at Rosedale Park in Hopewell, N.J., which was the venue of last week’s less competitive Blue/Gold Invitational.
In addition to the difficult hills, the course was marked with only faint white lines to direct runners. As a result, senior Scott Savage — who was leading by a few seconds — made a wrong turn which he had to correct, according to teammate Grimm. Savage finished 10th with a time of 27:38.05.
If not for that wrong turn, Grimm believed that the College could have taken the top six spots in the race.
“We are a pack team,” said Guiducci, “that is one of our strengths. We work off each other’s energy in the race.”