Winter Sports
The past month has produced some exciting and thrilling moments in Dartmouth sports. Highlighting these was a nip-and-tuck dual track meet between Dartmouth and Yale which the Indians finally won 57-51; an equally close, record-setting swimming meet against Princeton which the Tigers won 53-42; a high-scoring basketball clash between Dartmouth and Holy Cross which produced new records before the Crusaders won by a 106-95 score; two 4-3 come-from-behind hockey wins over Cornell and Army; and some spectacular individual skiing performances in the Dartmouth Carnival meet.
Despite these fine accomplishments the overall records for the Dartmouth varsity and freshman teams are generally disappointing this winter. The totals for all varsity teams (see summary page) show 23 wins against 45 defeats, while the freshman teams have a record of 22 wins against 16 losses.
The Big Green basketball team is having its worst season since Doggie Julian took over the coaching reins in 1951, but wins over Ivy opponents this month could keep the Indians in contention for a spot in the first division of the league. Captain George Ramming, the towering 6'5" Dartmouth center, has played almost without relief to date, because of a season-long injury to sophomore center Jim Bell, and has averaged 21 points per game as the team's top scorer. In the most recent three games Ramming hit for over 27 points per game and averaged 16 rebounds. Sophomore guards Bob West and Steve Spahn are both hitting consistently at 12 points per game, with forward Dan Berry next in scoring with an 8-points-per-game record.
The Dartmouth-Holy Cross game was an interesting, high-scoring game with the Indians collecting 95 points to equal a Dartmouth scoring record, but the Crusaders piled up 106 as Jack "The Shot" Foley, a real pro prospect, garnered 43 points. It was a 54-51 game at halftime with the Big Green putting on a tremendous offensive drive, but the Crusaders were just too good. An interesting January contest between Boston University and Dartmouth featured the use of Coach Julian's new scoring system of awarding three points for each field goal. The Big Green won this one 119-89 and under normal scoring the result would have been Dartmouth 85, B.U. 67. Julian's suggestion has not received much support from either coaches or players.
The Dartmouth hockey team, as Coach Eddie Jeremiah reported last month, "is still hurting behind the blue line." The Big Green skaters have scoring punch but the defense is not firstrate and Jeremiah has been shuttling goalies in and out of the Dartmouth nets all season in an effort to find someone who can stop a shot with any effectiveness. Bill Edgar and sophomore Kevin Lowther have been sharing the goal-tending duties this past fortnight.
Despite this, the Indians defeated Cornell and Princeton in league play and upset a highly regarded Army team during the past month. Leading scorers for the Indians are Captain Bobby Moore with seventeen goals and eighteen assists for 35 points (bringing his point total to just over 100 for two and one-half years of play), Jake Haertl with eleven goals and nineteen assists for 30 points, and Chuck Ritchie who has eight goals and twelve assists for a 20-point total.
Coach Jeremiah juggled his lineup somewhat for the Army contest, moving Chuck Ritchie to center and Jake Haertl to left wing on the first line and shifting Derek Buntain to center and Warren Loomis to wing on the second line. Defenseman Tom Cranna has been playing very well lately and has also collected five goals in games to date. Unfortunately injuries to Cranna and Derek Buntain in the Harvard clash may slow up the Indians in some of the important Ivy games coming later this month.
The Dartmouth swimming and track squads are the only winter teams on the winning side to date, with the swimmers currently boasting a fine 5-2 record after losses to Harvard and Princeton. (Yale is still ahead!) Captain Charlie Brown set a new record against Princeton with a blazing 22.5 clocking for the 50-yard freestyle. Junior Terry Bentley turned in a record time of 2:09.5 for the individual medley against the Tigers and two events later was just nosed out by Princeton's Jim Griffith who set a new record in the butterfly of 2:07.8. Another Dartmouth mark was set by Jay Pierson who had a 2:14 clocking in the back-stroke but was edged out by Tom Welch of Princeton. Divers Glenn Gemelli and Mike Wolland placed one-two against Harvard, Colgate, Army and Brown. Terry Bentley has racked up five Dartmouth records this season, including a clocking of 2:75.5 in the breaststroke against Army while also winning the butterfly and medley. Reports Coach Karl Michael, "He can do everything but sprint!"
Captain Charlie Brown, however, can sprint and has already broken John Glover's records in the 50- and 220-yard freestyle events and hopes to better Glover's 49.5 mark in the 100. Freestyler Cleve Carney and back-stroke ace John Benepe were sidelined with injuries in late January and are just getting back into form.
To make things even brighter, the freshman swimming team is clipping along in fine fashion (see summary page) with several outstanding swimmers ready to move up to varsity status next year.
Keeping pace with the swimmers has been the Big Green varsity track team under the shrewd and capable tutelage of veteran Ellie Noyes. The Big Green has a current 4-1 record in dual competition, the only loss being a close 57-51½ defeat by Cornell.
The amazing Indians pulled two big upsets in successive meets as they edged a powerful Manhattan team 58-51 and then upset mighty Yale 57-51.
The Manhattan upset was the first Dartmouth win in history over the Jaspers. Harry Jenckes and John Penn finished one-two in the weight toss for valuable points. Gerry Ashworth and Bill Zeilman outdistanced Manhattan's highly regarded John Fernandez to finish one-two in the dash with a 5.5 clocking to tie the Dartmouth cage record, and Nick Jennison captured the mile race and Tom Laris the two-mile event.
Jennison had a spectacular day against Yale, winning the mile and 1000-yard race and anchoring the winning two-mile relay team. Veteran distance runner Tom Laris, after a poor fall, has been steadily improving this winter and ran well in the Yale meet. Actually the early February snowstorm that blanketed the East helped the Indians to victory over the Elis as the Yale coach and four of their top runners were stranded in New York and could not get to Hanover for the meet.
Laris turned in a fine 9:11.4 in winning the two-mile race against Maine, while Bill Zeilman set a new Dartmouth record of 5.4 in the semi-finals of the dash at Maine, but then was edged by teammate Gerry Ashworth in the finals.
And, as is the case with swimming, there's a fine, undefeated freshman track team to provide some capable replacements for the varsity next year.
After some fairly good seasons on the squash court Coach Red Hoehn is facing a really lean year as the Indians have but one victory against seven defeats. Coach Hoehn has juggled his lineup to some extent and has been pleased with the improvement made by sophomores Chuck Parton and Bob Kaplan. Again he may get help from a better-than-average freshman team, but several years of rebuilding loom ahead in squash, although the recent 8-1 victory over Wesleyan was encouraging.
The wrestling team (2-5) has also been having its difficulties, particularly with mid-season injuries to regulars Captain Hop Holmberg, Lee Bateman, Gerry Raczka and Eli Torbert. Raczka, a football guard, made his debut against Springfield in the heavyweight division and did well despite losing. The addition of Raczka permitted Lee Bateman to move into the 177-pound division for which he is best suited. Despite the poor showing to date, Coach Bill Craver is optimistic about the balance of the season and about the future of wrestling at the College. More candidates are turning out every year and that necessary development era for any new sport seems over.
Dartmouth's superiority in Eastern and national skiing circles is clearly over - at least for the present - as a strong and well-balanced Middlebury team won convincingly in both the Dartmouth and Williams Carnival meets and looks to have a good chance to annex the national title with the NCAA Championships scheduled for mid-March at the Middlebury Snow Bowl.
Yet Coach Al Merrill has a good team this winter with senior Art Bookstrom winning Skimeister honors at the Dartmouth Carnival by putting together a first-place finish in the slalom, a seventh in the downhill, seventh in cross country, and a fine fifth in jumping. Jim DeLong captured ninth in the slalom, second in downhill and tenth in jumping to help the cause, and Jim Page took third in cross country and 17th in the downhill. Dick Nordhaus placed sixth in the slalom and 14th in the downhill, Skip Bean finished tenth in cross country and John Dickey thirteenth for other Dartmouth points. The final team scores showed Middlebury first with 586.6 points, Dartmouth second with a 551.0, and New Hampshire, Maine, Paul Smith and Norwich trailing behind.
The Big Green skiers finished a disappointing fourth at the Williams Carnival with Middlebury first with 590.6 points, New Hampshire second with 540.1, Williams third with 540.0 and Dartmouth fourth with 531.2. Actually the Big Green was handicapped by illness and injuries for this meet. Four-event ace Art Bookstrom had an ankle injury which kept him from jumping, but he managed to finish second in the downhill. Jim Page was also slowed down by a bad ankle and could not compete in the alpine events, although he turned in a fine performance to take second in the cross-country race, and Jim DeLong was also off form and finished poorly in the jumping with Jim Page taking tenth in the jump. Alpine specialist Buster Welch competed despite a high fever but could not run effectively, and Skip Bean was missing in the cross-country race due to an injury. Bob Bigelow, the best cross-country racer, is out for the season. The only top skier in shape was Dick Nordhaus who finished among the top dozen racers in the alpine and cross-country events.
Coach Karl Michael has reason to be pleased with these three varsity swimmers, all record-holders. They are (1 to r) Jay Pierson '62, backstroke; Captain Charlie Brown '61, freestyle; and Terry Bentley '62, breaststroke. The varsity has won five of seven meets.
Dartmouth's Art Bookstrom, who captured Skimeister honors in the Winter Carnival meet, demonstrates his winning form in the slalom, which he won with two fine runs at the Skiway.
Distance runner Nick Jennison, a mainstay of the track team, was especially potent as Dartmouth upset both Manhattan and Yale. Against the Bulldogs he won the mile, 1000-yard run, and anchored the two-mile relay.
Jim Page turned in a fine performance for the Green as he captured third in the arduous Winter Carnival cross-country race.
Dick Nordhaus blazed his way down the slalom course to cop sixth place for the Green in a Carnival meet dominated by Middlebury.
