Spring Sports Preview
At first glance it appears that the Dartmouth varsity spring teams have little chance of bettering the records of their winter brethren. Graduation losses have cut heavily into the 1953 baseball, tennis, track, lacrosse and golf squads and this coupled with preseason injuries and scholastic attrition makes it evident that a major rebuilding task will face most Dartmouth coaches this spring. However, final predictions must wait until the spring trips are over.
Dartmouth baseball fortunes this year will probably depend to a great extent on the mound staff. Graduation has removed all the regular outfielders and most of the infield plus the Indians' top hurler of last year, Frank Logan. But Coach Bob Shawkey, now starting his second season at Dartmouth, feels reasonably optimistic about his team at this stage of the game. Captain Pete Mackinnon and Dick Major are both veteran pitchers and they, together with some reserves and a couple of promising sophomores, bid fair to give the Indians a strong pitching staff. The outfield is a complete question mark although Warren Cassidy, Bill Johnson and Emil Schnell have all had some experience. The catcher for the Indians will probably be Lou D'Avananzo, although here again there are some promising rookies who may help out. Jack Hall, Don Swanson, Bruce Haertl and Bob McGrath are all infielders with some experience, but they will have to win their berths from some talented sophomores. At this writing the squad is just starting regular workouts in the gym cage, although the pitchers have been practicing for the past few days. Actually Coach Shawkey has no idea of the squad he will take on the spring trip starting the end of March, which gives some idea of the work ahead.
Dartmouth tennis coach Red Hoehn faces as difficult a season this spring as he has for a good many years. Last year the tennis team finished first in New England and second in the Ivy League, but with the top five men graduated and another called to service with the Air Force, the replacement problem is, to say the least, acute. To add woe to injury, the two ranking '55 players are both unavailable. Macky Wirth has transferred to Stanford University, while Tom Evinrude is ineligible. On the basis of last year and the annual fall tennis tournament, Coach Hoehn has lined his squad up for the April road trip as follows: Number one is Captain Bill Crotty, who played in 6th place a year ago; Stew Stearns, number eight last spring, and Steve Fast, ranked ninth, will play two and three for the Big Green; while Ralph Blount who was out of action last season with a sprained ankle, will play number four. Two sophomores, Bennett Rogers and Dan Anzel, are ranked fifth and sixth, with reservists Tom Hess and Fred Carleton completing the squad. Three other sophomores, Chet Gale, Skip Pessl and Doug Archibald, are just about the only reserves with a chance to move up according to Hoehn. So with a squad composed of one letterman, two reserves, and six or eight men of almost untested ability, there seems little possibility of the tennis team's making anywhere near the showing it did a year ago.
Track has an edge on the other spring sports in that most o£ the squad members have been competing indoors all winter. However, on the basis of a winter record of three wins and two defeats in dual competition and ninth place in the Heptagonals, it is hard to see any improvement this spring. The addition of the javelin throw, discus throw and hurdle races in all of which the Big Green is weak seems to presage a pretty tough season ahead for Coach Ellie Noyes. As we have discussed most of the track team members during the course of the winter season, we will omit a roster analysis at this time and catch up in the May issue with the way the Big Green racers are shaping up.
In lacrosse, Coach Tom Dent is fairly well set this spring with a good nucleus around which to form his team. Led by Captain Tom Bloomer, the squad of eight seniors, eight juniors and 16 sophomores includes a number of veterans. Bloomer, Don Bigham, Tom Dixon, Phil Fen ton, Scrib Fauver, Charley Jacob, Sandy Learnard and Steve Sanderson are all seniors with varsity experience, while returning juniors include veterans like Sabe Abell, Pete Ankeny, Dave Dame, Bob Flood and Dave Thielscher. Among the sophomore group, Ray Cleveland, Bob Lenhard, Bob Spencer and John Wetzel appear the most promising prospects. Excluding the sophomores, this group worked together all last season and should show a marked improvement this spring. However, no practice sessions have been held to date and the squad must rely on the spring trip to bring them into shape for the regular schedule beginning in mid-April.
Golf offers a less encouraging picture. Three of Tom Keane's top golfers were graduated and there seems to be little help among the sophomores. Last fall's tournament failed to produce any surprises and Tom feels that the squad will be fortunate if they can match last year's record of 13 wins against 3 losses. Captain Ward Hamm will lead this year's team which includes veterans Russ Carey, Bob Douglass, Phil Fast, Bob Griswold, Bill Rex and last year's captain, Bob Stiles. Here again it's a case of waiting on that spring trip down South before evaluating the team. At this point Tom Keane is merely watching the snow slowly recede from the Hanover links.
TOP HONORS, giving him a solid claim to being the nation's No. 1 amateur skier, were won by sophomore Ralph Miller of Hanover in both the North American and National Downhill and Slalom Championships last month. In taking the North American downhill title at Stowe and the Na- tional downhill and combined titles at Aspen, 19- year-old Miller, son of Dr. Ralph E. Miller '24, outsped such Olympic champions as Othmar Schnei- der, Stein Eriksen and Christian Pravda.
