Big Green Teams
IF there is anything slower than watching grass grow, it's watching the snow depart the Hanover scene this spring.
Oh, it's going. But, oh, so slowly. Particularly as far as the men who battle with Dartmouth's spring sports teams are concerned. The various trips to the warmer reaches of the Carolinas, Virginia, Florida, and Alabama seem almost ancient history already. The rustle of spring, at least on the Plain, is more a too-slow drip, drip, drip.
At this writing, the "regular" season for the Big Green is trying to begin. In lacrosse, there's been a trip to Cornell where the guaranteed good condition of Schoellkopf Field's new synthetic surface was easily offset by 25-degree weather.
In tennis, John Kenfield's team has been making the most of the all-weather courts beside the Wigwams.
In baseball, Tony Lupien's sophomores (there are more than a dozen among the 20 who'll take the field this spring) have only begun to realize that Rolfe Field actually has turf beneath the fading white blanket.
And Dartmouth's oarsmen, after their fourth annual venture to Alabama's sparkling Lake Martin, still are watching the ice flow through the shadows of the Connecticut River's shrouded east shore.
A month ago, in mid-March, Lupien took his 16th Dartmouth baseball team south. When he left he said, "I'll be pleased if we come back with five wins."
The Green won six, lost seven. Five of the losses were to North Carolina State and East Carolina, two of the better teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Southern Conference.
"We played good teams and we played well," said Lupien, as he prepared for the Eastern League season. "We should be a good northern team. The trip is the time to find out where the weaknesses are and to get rid of the mistakes."
Lupien has produced winning teams for the past ten seasons and 13 times since he came to Dartmouth in 1957. He has a team that should be a winner in 1972—and perhaps a much bigger story in 1973.
There are only three seniors on hand this spring—Captain Frank Mannarino in left field, pitcher Charlie Janes, and Wayne Young, the football linebacker who has caught and played the outfield for two years and currently stands as the answer to one of Lupien's biggest question marks—first base.
There is a handful of juniors led by Jim Metzler, the bespectacled pitcher who won three times as a sophomore (without a loss) and took two wins during the trip. He is joined by Todd Keiller, a reserve infielder as a sophomore, who hit .382 during the southern tour and is becoming a good second baseman; and Bob Smith, an outfielderfirst baseman last year, who has become a fine relief pitcher for one reason—"He's got the guts of a burglar," to quote his coach.
The sophomores could be something else. "They have a good attitude," said Lupien. "They're a sassy bunch, they like to play. It's tough to come back to Hanover and spend a couple of weeks indoors again but it hasn't gotten them down."
The guy to watch will be Dave Highmark, whose brother Dolph won 16 games for the Green from 1966 to 1968. Dave gives Dartmouth its best lefthander since Jim Shaw toiled six years ago. With Metzler and Janes. Highmark makes up the starting trio who could be impressive as the spring progresses.
When the southern trip began, Highmark was the first baseman who would be a spot pitcher. However, a slight astigmatism affects his hitting ability and midway through the trip Lupien made the switch with Young. Highmark responded by winning two of three games, including a 13-strikeout performance in a 10-4 win at Delaware. All told, he struck out 31 men in 20 innings.
The other sophomore to watch is Rick Klupchak, the football flash who is speeding around center field and hitting well. The left side of the infield is also new, with Bill Deevy at shortstop and Bob Lang at third base, and there are a couple of catchers—Tim McDonough and Tim O'Connor—who answer the question of replacing Tim Hannigan, the tireless 1971 captain. O'Connor also works in the outfield and may get a lot of work in right field where junior Gavin Troster spent the southern trip but had problems at the plate.
Just as he did last year, Mannarino tore up the opposition with his hitting in the South. The Green leader hit .340 but, most important, he drove in 24 runs (the Dartmouth record for a season is 33 by Bruce Saylor in 1970) and had eight doubles and three homeruns among his 16 hits.
He devastated Old Dominion as the trip began, belting the three homers and driving in eight runs as Dartmouth won twice behind Metzler and Highmark in three games.
Everyone had difficulty at North Carolina State where Janes, sophomore Mike Draznik and another soph, Joe Stensgar, were beaten. Stensgar lost on a tenth-inning homerun after Metzler had struck out 12 men in pitching to a 5-5 tie through the ninth.
Highmark fanned 11 in a 5-3 loss at East Carolina and Janes was beaten 4-1 by the Pirates before the Green turned north.
Five runs in the final two innings produced a 6-4 win over Richmond and Metzler fanned ten in a 6-2 win over George Washington. In a rematch with Old Dominion, the Monarchs won 11-9 as Lang had his bid for a ninth-inning grand slam homer turned into a spectacular sacrifice fly, but Highmark won at Delaware and Janes worked his third complete game in halting Rutgers 9-5 as the Green took their fourth win in the final six duels on the trip.
"They're playing with guts," said Lupien during the early April doldrums. "We'll win some games."
LACROSSE
In 14 games last spring, Dartmouth's lacrosse team scored 70 goals.
In four games against southern opposition this spring, Coach Dudley Hendrick's team scored 53 goals. It was a significant start to what should be an improved campaign for the Green stickmen.
"For the past two years, we've had to rely on one or two men for most of our scoring," said the former Navy AllAmerica, now in his third season at Dartmouth. "Our teamwork is improved and we're finding the open man. We were relying on one-on-one situations, which means unassisted goals, but we had 28 assists during the trip and that's ten less than we had all season in 1971."
On the southern trip, Dartmouth lost to Duke, 14-13 (the Blue Devils won it in the last two seconds) but ripped East, Carolina 26-4. An 11 -5 loss to North Carolina was offset by a 9-7 win over the University of Baltimore (a team that defeated the Green, 8-2, last year).
There were a pair of scrimmage games, too, one a 14-3 loss to Navy (which defeated Cornell a week before Dartmouth's regular season debut at Ithaca) and the other a 26-1 win over the Raleigh (N.C.) Lacrosse Club.
"We've got a number of people who can score for us," said Hendrick, "and we should stay with anyone on our schedule if we can put the defense together." This was the comment after the 17-7 loss to Cornell, the defending national champ and winner of the Ivy League title for the past four years.
The attack is built around Pete Johnsen, a senior from Baltimore, Md., who had 15 goals in five games, and junior Scott Anderson from Ithaca, N.Y., who also had 16 points (nine of them on assists).
There isn't a more rugged midfielder than Bob Bassett, the co-captain from Fayetteville, N.Y., who devastated a Baltimore attacker (and himself) with a fearsome bit of open-field blocking. The Green's other field leader, Steve Tifft from Wayne, Pa., is a most capable performer.
Mitch Whiteley, the regular goalie as a sophomore, had to catch up with his mates after returning from a winter term of foreign study, but he, too, could be one of the Ivy League's best this season.
It will be a hard fight to battle back into the thick of the Ivy race. Dartmouth has taken but one on-field win in the league since 1965 (the Green also owns a forfeit win). It's uphill but the picture is brighter.
TENNIS
The key to success for Dartmouth's tennis team in 1971 (a 12-7 record) was doubles play and Coach John Kenfield feels this phase of his team's play will be as solid this spring—and the singles performance should be better.
The Green fashioned a 4-2 record during the southern trip. Both losses were 5-4 decisions (to Furman and Virginia) and the brightest performer on the trip was Co-Captain Lloyd Ucko, the durable southpaw who won all his matches at the lead position in straight sets. Sharing the limelight with Ucko was junior Bill Kellogg, who was 5-1 in singles.
Ucko and Brian Williams plus Kellogg and Mark Harty were the top doubles combinations in 1971 but Kenfield expects to split them this spring in hopes of producing three strong combinations. Last year, these pairs won 25 doubles matches for Dartmouth.
Kenfield is still a realist as his team heads into the Eastern League season. "We were 3-5 last year, but based on our southern record I feel we can win five or six in the league."
OTHER SPORTS
The trip to Alabama for Dartmouth's crew was marked by the fourth straight win in the Kowaliga Cup race on Lake Martin and Coach Peter Gardner feels his oarsmen are making good progress.
Poor conditions marred the Kowaliga race. "The opportunity to train in warm weather is a great advantage," said the dean of the nation's crew coaches. "We made good progress, better than I'd hoped."
Gardner has some experienced men but must replace five oarsmen and the coxswain from the 1971 heavyweight varsity. Captain George Buesing, Jim Nicotri, Bob Olson, and Charlie Arnold are the leading veterans and Rick Greenberg succeeds John Eaton as the cox.
In golf, Coach Bill Johnson has a sophomore-laden squad which ran into a horde of southern players during the Miami Invitational Tournament and returned battered but really none the worse for wear.
Florida's Gary Koch won the 72-hole tourney with a 275, 11 under par and 12 strokes ahead of his nearest rival. For the Green, sophomores Steve Bell (314 and three rounds under 80) and Paul Dixon (318) set the pace.
Dartmouth has won 34 of 40 dual matches during the past three seasons. "We're young but we should be all right, once we can begin regular play," said Johnson.
The Dartmouth track team spent two weeks training in Florida and got a taste of some of the nation's best opposition in the University of Florida Relays (the first stage of training for many Olympic hopefuls including former Dartmouth great Tom Laris, the superb distance runner).
GREEN JOTTINGS
Construction is under way on a women's physical education facility which will be ready for use in September. The two-story complex, located at the southeast corner of Alumni Gym (facing the entrance to Davis Rink), will provide locker and related facilities for women students who will attend the College this fall.
The upper area of the two-level structure will be ready in the fall. The lower level, scheduled for later completion, will include special facilities for women faculty and staff in addition to team dressing rooms as Dartmouth prepares to enter women's team in intercollegiate competition.
In swimming, Dartmouth men set a pair of College records during the NCAA meet at Army, but the Green didn't score a point in the heady national championship event. Sophomore Brad Gilman knocked nearly a second off the 500 freestyle mark set by freshman John LeMoal during the Eastern meet. (4:45.9) and veteran standout Jim Gottschalk lowered his own record in the 200 medley with a time of 1:55.9.
"We peaked for the Easterns and couldn't hold the edge in the nationals," said Coach Ron Keenhold. Demonstrating the pace, Chris Carstensen failed to qualify in the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.4 seconds, a clocking that earned him fourth place in the 1970 NCAA meet.
Keenhold gained some consolation two weeks later in the AAU meet at Dallas when Mike Brown, the 1970 captain and All-American, qualified for the Olympic Trials as he finished tenth in the one-meter dive and eighth in the platform event.
In basketball, James Brown has been elected captain for 1972-73. The former scholastic All-American from New York City repeated as an All-Ivy honorable mention choice and ranked fifth among Ivy League scorers.
Bill Raynor, the wispish guard from Roxbury, Mass., was named the Ivy League's sophomore of the year and also won the Albert D. (Dolly) Stark Award as Dartmouth's most valuable player. Raynor was an All-Ivy second team selection and finished fourth in the Ivy scoring race.
In skiing, Sumner Erbe from Otis, Mass., and Erik Jebsen from Oslo, Norway are co-captains of the 1972-73 team. Erbe was Dartmouth's leading Alpine racer last winter while Jebsen has been one of the East's best crosscountry racers for the past two years. Both are juniors.
Ned Dripps, a senior, won the Robert Gebhardt Award for sportsmanship in skiing at Dartmouth while George Perry and Dave Hazelett, the 1971-72 co-captains, shared the Norwegian Trophy for contribution to the team.
Sports Schedule
BASEBALL—May 1, Boston University; 5, Cornell; 6, Army (2); 7, Providence (2); 12, Yale away; 13, Brown away; 16, New Hampshire away; 18, Springfield away.
LACROSSE—May 3, Holy Cross; 6, Harvard away; 10, Williams away; 13, Princeton; 16, New Hampshire away.
TRACK—May 2, Harvard away; 6, Brown away; 9, Springfield away; 13, Heptago-nals at Penn; 20, New Englands at Massachusetts; 26-27, Intercollegiates at Penn.
TENNIS—May 2, Yale away; 5, Cornell; 6, Army; 9, Amherst; 12-14, New Englands at Amherst; 15, Middlebury away.
GOLF—May 1, Norwich; 3, Williams away; 6-7, Eastern Intercollegiates at Yale; 10, Harvard; 15, Middlebury; 18, New Hampshire and Springfield at Durham.
CREW—Heavyweight: May 6, M.I.T. and Wisconsin; 13, EARC Regatta at Worcester; 20, M.I.T. and Syracuse at Syracuse; June 1-3; IRA Regatta at Syracuse. Lightweight: May 6, Cornell away; 13, EARC Regatta at Worcester.
The hub of Dartmouth's pitching staff this season consists (I to r) of sophomoreDave Highmark, senior Charlie Janes, and junior Jim Metzler.
