As many students realize their time in their own beds and with golden-nugget-free meals will soon come to an end, athletes from Harvard’s more aquatic teams have been enjoying training in different places all over the world.
Travelling for winter training is nothing new for Harvard Athletics. While both men’s and women’s basketball and hockey must return to Cambridge shortly after Christmas, other teams with winter seasons use their extended breaks as an opportunity to train and improve outside the confines of the College.
With Sunday’s high in Cambridge forecasted to be 21 degrees, the men’s and women’s swimming teams will be trying to soak up the sun as much as possible as they end their time in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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2011 was a big year in Harvard athletics. Women’s soccer captured its third Ivy League championship in four years. The men’s basketball team took home a share of the Ancient Eight title and entered the nation’s Top 25, both firsts in program history. Football set a modern-era program record for points in a season, scoring 374 points en route to a 9-1 finish and a league crown. Four other teams—men’s fencing, men’s heavyweight and lightweight crew, and softball—also finished 2011 on top of the Ivy League standings.
There were a number of standout individual performances as well. Women’s fencer Alexandra Kiefer captured the NCAA Foil Individual title. Men’s basketball forward Keith Wright became just the second player in Harvard history to take home Ivy League Player of the Year honors. Women’s soccer and lacrosse captain Melanie Baskind was named to the First Team All-Ivy in two different sports and was selected as the Ivy League Player of the Year in soccer.
We at The Back Page have taken on the tall task of determining the best Harvard athlete of 2011. Here’s how it will go down: we’ve selected 16 standout Harvard athletes—eight male and eight female—and set up two single elimination brackets. Each round, Harvard’s finest will square off in head-to-head matchups. And based on their performances in 2011, we will determine who advances and who is eliminated until just one male and one female remain. Then, the two champs will square off to determine the top Harvard athlete of 2011.
This morning we featured the matchup between Jennifer VanderMeulen and Bonnie Hu. Now, in our final matchup on the women’s side, we have soccer’s Mel Baskind against field hockey’s Cynthia Tassopoulos.
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2011 was a big year in Harvard athletics. Women’s soccer captured its third Ivy League championship in four years. The men’s basketball team took home a share of the Ancient Eight title and entered the nation’s Top 25, both firsts in program history. Football set a modern-era program record for points in a season, scoring 374 points en route to a 9-1 finish and a league crown. Four other teams—men’s fencing, men’s heavyweight and lightweight crew, and softball—also finished 2011 on top of the Ivy League standings.
There were a number of standout individual performances as well. Women’s fencer Alexandra Kiefer captured the NCAA Foil Individual title. Men’s basketball forward Keith Wright became just the second player in Harvard history to take home Ivy League Player of the Year honors. Women’s soccer and lacrosse captain Melanie Baskind was named to the First Team All-Ivy in two different sports and was selected as the Ivy League Player of the Year in soccer.
We at The Back Page have taken on the tall task of determining the best Harvard athlete of 2011. Here’s how it will go down: we’ve selected 16 standout Harvard athletes—eight male and eight female—and set up two single elimination brackets. Each round, Harvard’s finest will square off in head-to-head matchups. And based on their performances in 2011, we will determine who advances and who is eliminated until just one male and one female remain. Then, the two champs will square off to determine the top Harvard athlete of 2011.
Yesterday we took a look at the matchup between Alexandra Kiefer and Josephine Pucci. Now, we turn our attention to our third showdown on the women’s side: lacrosse's Jennifer VanderMeulen v. golf's Bonnie Hu.
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Junior Christian Webster, pictured above, and freshman Corbin Miller suffered injuries recently and were forced to sit out against Monmouth on Tuesday. Coach Tommy Amaker does not have a timetable for the guards' return.
The Harvard men’s basketball team’s backcourt took a hit this past week, as both freshman sharpshooter Corbin Miller and junior wing Christian Webster went down with injuries.
Miller suffered a ligament strain in his left thumb that has forced him to miss the Crimson’s past two games. Webster joined Miller on the bench for Tuesday’s matchup at Monmouth having taken a shot to the hip during practice.
“[Webster] didn’t practice Thursday,” Harvard coach Tommy Amaker said. “He said he felt better, but he still wasn’t able to practice, so he’s been out. Corbin the same way.”
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Harvard secondary and special teams coordinator Tony Reno will be named the next Yale head football coach tomorrow, the Yale Daily News and New Haven Register are reporting.
Reno will replace former coach Tom Williams, who resigned Dec. 21 amid allegations that he lied on his resume regarding his candidacy for the Rhodes Scholarship.
With three years of experience at Harvard, Reno is also familiar with the Bulldogs program, having coached there for six years. A secondary coordinator for five of those seasons, Reno produced some of the top pass defenses in the nation, with the Bulldogs ranking third nationally in pass defense in 2007 and 2008.
While at Harvard in 2010 and 2011, Reno didn’t have the same level of success, with the Crimson ranking fifth and sixth in the Ancient Eight in pass defense, respectively. However, some of that can be attributed to the strength of Harvard’s rush defense, which forced opponents to work more through the air.
In 2002, while at Worcester State—his alma mater—Reno won the AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year Award.
Apart from his coaching skills, Reno also has years of experience as a recruiter. The head football recruiter near the end of his first tenure at Yale, Reno had recruited for the Crimson in the southeast U.S.
A press conference to announce the decision is expected at 4 p.m. tomorrow.
-Check thecrimson.com for updates.
