With Big Green Teams
DARTMOUTH'S spring teams are for the most part hard at it. All varsity sports are out and freshman teams will soon follow. The immediate objective for most varsity teams is to prepare for the spring vacation trips starting March 25.
Coach Bob Shawkey, starting his fourth season as baseball coach, arrived in Hanover on March 1. To date the cage workouts have indicated that the Big Green nine will have a strong pitching staff, but that there are some major replacement problems. Generally the team should be stronger than last year although there are only seven lettermen returning: John Stoughton at third base, Dave Conlan at first base, outfielders John Mansfield, Bud Roth and Doug Melville, pitcher Rex Feltman, who is team captain, and catcher Scott Gerrish. Bill Beagle, who will be shifted from pitcher to the outfield, George Becker, a shortstop, infielder Doug Melville, and hurlers John Forline and Dick Ruel are other experienced players who should strengthen the team. The sophomore crop of battery men is unusually strong and there are several promising sophomore infielders as well as a couple of outfielders. Power at the plate is still badly needed, but Shawkey hopes that intensive workouts plus a good spring trip and a better break in the weather than last year will solve this problem. A great deal of experimenting and shifting lies ahead, but the prospects are good that this will be the best baseball team in recent years.
Sharing the gymnasium cage with the baseball team are Coach Tom Dent's lacrosse men, and from all appearances this team should improve over last year. Dent has 16 lettermen, the nucleus of last year's team, plus some strong reserves and a few talented sophomores. The defense is questionable at the moment with only Wally Pugh, Charlie Hunter and Randy Hayes as returning lettermen. Midfield is adequately manned with Tim Anderson, Bob Cleveland, Tom Conlon, Lin Spaulding, Bob Spencer and Howie Wisotzkey back. On the attack line are veterans Ron Campion, Pete Gulick, Captain Ray Lenhard and Paul Tiemer. Coach Dent reports himself satisfied with results to date, but wants to get his squad outside before making any lineup selections.
The tennis squad, which has had the benefit of fall practice, is not expected to be quite as strong as last year's team, according to Coach Red Hoehn. The top three players - all lettermen - are Captain Dan Anzel, Dave Kerr and Chet Gale. Fred Darche, Skip Pessl and Doug Archibald are other regulars returning, but they will have to battle a trio of sophomores - Pete Buswell, Tony Jenks and Bob Smith.
Also expecting stronger opposition this spring is veteran golf coach Tom Keane whose team last year won 17 matches, lost three and placed second in the Eastern and New England Intercollegiates. Keane has four lettermen - Captain Al Anderson, Dick Drake, Fred Oman and Don Purple - returning. Seniors Don Kurth and Dave Hurlburt, junior Doug Bleiler and sophomores Pete and Jim Barnes, Brad Curtis and Lou Barteaux will round out the squad. With a good nucleus plus depth, Keane has hopes that the team will repeat last year's success.
One of the newest of spring teams at Dartmouth is the rugby team which is led, coached and managed by Bob Woodberry, a second-year Tuck student. The rugby team lost three contests and won two last year and won the Bermuda Cup from Princeton in a playoff last year at that paradise island. The team will be defending its championship at Bermuda once again this spring vacation and with a number of outstanding veterans back plus some added talent from the 1954 football team it appears that rugby is here to stay. The team prospectus is revealing — "a big, experienced scrum, and fast, shifty backs."
The Dartmouth rowing club, which also got warmed up during the fall months, has a new coach in Thaddeus Seymour, an instructor in the English Department. All crews have been training rigorously in the gymnasium during most of the winter. The club is now well organized and more students are participating every year. The spring vacation races should do a lot to cut the squads down to workable size and a good account is expected from these crews. In the next issue we will report on the rowing club in more detail.
In track, the indoor team has one more dual meet to go, but in this sport there is little difference between the winter team and spring team. The same competitors merely move outdoors and breathe some fresh air for a change, with the javelin throw and hammer toss added to justify the move. Speaking of the javelin throw, Jim Meneely, an Air Force veteran, has returned to handle this event. Meneely had a record of 191 feet with the javelin as a sophomore and his talents are a welcome addition to the squad. Coach Ellie Noyes, who usually manages to pull one or two upsets during the course of a season, reports that the squad will be about the same as it has been all winter and will perform rather weakly against major opponents.
That's the preview of spring sports. Now for a review of winter sports in somewhat more detail.
BIG GREEN SKIERS, the products of Walter Prager's coaching, dominated the nationaland Olympic trial Alpine events at Franconia, N. H., on March II-13. Shown at TOPare Brooks Dodge '51, third, Tom Corcoran '54, winner, and Ralph Miller '55, second,who swept the giant slalom Olympic trial race down Cannon Mountain. BELOW areChick Igaya '57, Japanese Olympic skier, and Bill Beck '53, former U. S. Olympic star,who tied for first in the national downhill event. Igaya retained his national combinedtitle, even though he finished third in the national slalom, behind Miller and Dodge.
BIG GREEN SKIERS, the products of Walter Prager's coaching, dominated the nationaland Olympic trial Alpine events at Franconia, N. H., on March II-13. Shown at TOPare Brooks Dodge '51, third, Tom Corcoran '54, winner, and Ralph Miller '55, second,who swept the giant slalom Olympic trial race down Cannon Mountain. BELOW areChick Igaya '57, Japanese Olympic skier, and Bill Beck '53, former U. S. Olympic star,who tied for first in the national downhill event. Igaya retained his national combinedtitle, even though he finished third in the national slalom, behind Miller and Dodge.
