Big Green Teams
With nine games remaining, Dartmouth's baseball team is destined to endure its first losing season in more than a decade, but for all the misery that Tony Lupien and his band have swallowed this spring there has come some light at the end of an otherwise gloomy tunnel.
Had Dartmouth's baseball season begun on May 1 instead of March 17, it might be a dramatically different story. During the first two weeks of May things turned around. Why? Two reasons.
First, three pitchers have found themselves and are pitching the way they should have been pitching all spring. Second, the hitters who have been watching a lot of pitches slip by are starting to get good wood.
Heading into the final two weeks of the season, the record is 9-19-1. The last four games, however, have belonged to Dartmouth and all of those well-earned wins have come on the road.
"We're a pretty good defensive team," said Mark Ditmar, the sophomore second baseman who's probably the most solid defender of all. "What was happening early in the season is that the pitchers would give up a couple of walks, then get hurt with a couple of bloop singles and we'd be in a hole trying to catch up. Now they're putting the ball over the plate, making people hit, and we're getting them out."
The evidence of improved control is obvious: In the last 46 innings they've worked, Mike Draznik, Jim Metzler, and Kevin Kelley (they've become a most imposing pitching nucleus) have walked only nine men among them.
What was unfortunate is that in two games in this stretch, Dartmouth was unable to score a run. Against Harvard, Metzler was the victim of a 1-0 loss. A day later at Providence College, Kelley threw only 73 pitches but the last one was a home run ball that decided another 1-0 game.
Two hours later, though, Draznik (the big junior righthander) had stopped Providence with three hits, 4-0, and things have been humming ever since.
The Eastern League season, which hadn't been particularly memorable, brightened significantly on the final weekend of league play.
At Army, Draznik helped himself most in a 7-4 win. He threw a pair of gopher balls but responded with a two-run homer of his own and added a two-run single in an eighth-inning rally that netted four runs.
The next afternoon at Cornell, the Green was in complete command. Metzler was virtually as sharp in beating the Red, 3-1, in nine innings as hehad been in losing to Harvard a week earlier. Bob Whelan helped the cause with a run-scoring triple and outfielder Todd Tyler delivered the two-run single in the ninth that won the game.
In the second contest at Ithaca, Kelley was also on top of things. He spread six hits and got offensive help from a most improbable source - shortstop Bill Deevy. Deevy, a junior from Arlington Heights, Ill., came into the weekend with a . 143 batting average. By the time Cornell had been knocked from the EIBL title picture, he had singled and scored Dartmouth's first run and then doubled home the insurance marker in a 2-0 win. He came home with a .222 average.
Kelley, a sophomore from Manchester, Mass., has become the surprise of the spring. "Right now, he's our most effective pitcher," said Lupien.
The hitters have begun to produce, too Whelan is plugging along at a .311 mark but has taken the team lead away from third baseman Todd Keiller who has been setting the pace all season but suffered a broken nose during a workout an hour before the Army-Cornell trip began. He played with a puffed face, a move that was typical of his quiet, competitive spirit.
The EIBL race finished with Harvard on top for the third straight year, sporting an 11-2 record. Where the Crimson won the close ones, Dartmouth didn't (until the end). The Green finished with a 5-8-1 record in the EIBL (four teams had eight losses).
Still, Lupien has no complaints about his 17th Dartmouth team. "When things were going bad it would have been easy for people to give up and get down on one another," he said. "But no one did. This team has stuck together through hard times and they began to get some reward for their efforts at Providence, Army, and Cornell."
CREW
Comment offered by Harvard's freshman coxswain about three-quarters of the way through the final of the heavyweight frosh race at the Eastern Spring Championships on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass.:
"They can't be going that fast."
"They" were Dartmouth's freshman heavies and, yes, they were going that fast - all the way to the first championship that a Dartmouth crew has ever won at the Sprints.
It was the day the frosh reigned supreme in Dartmouth rowing and it says much for what lies ahead for Coach Peter Gardner's heavyweight crew. Things are on the upswing again.
While the frosh had their moment of glory, two other Dartmouth crews fared reasonably well but the heavyweight varsity had to endure disappointment and wait for another day.
Gardner's lightweight varsity, hurt on the eve of the Sprints when Rick Routhier, the veteran at the No. 2 oar, was removed from the boat with a virus. The lights were fourth in their trial heat but came back to win the consolation title.
It was the same story for the freshman lightweights who rebounded from a trial loss to win consolation honors.
The varsity heavies were third (behind Harvard and Penn) in the trials at Worcester (two boats advance to the final in each trial heat) but then rowed their worst race of the spring, finishing sixth in the consolation.
It's a comparatively young varsity eight, stroked by sophomore Ron Gatzke from Stratford, Conn. It lost to Rutgers in the Bill Cup race by a length on the Connecticut River and was nipped by M.I.T. in the battle for third place in the Cochrane Cup race that was won by Wisconsin in convincing fashion on Lake Mendota at Madison.
There's still room for a good comeback, though; first in the Packard Cup rematch with Syracuse and M.I.T. and then in the intercollegiate championships at Syracuse.
The lightweight varsity, with different people missing on different weekends with different ailments, showed they were close to their peak when they trimmed Cornell by six seconds in the Baggaley Cup race a week before the Sprints. But then Routhier went down and the competition was unrelenting.
For all of it, though, the freshman heavies have got people buzzing.
Stroked by Bill Davison from Port Huron, Mich., the frosh knew they were within range after the trial heat. "Harvard won the trial heat but we were only a couple of seats behind," said Gardner. "We knew if we were that close in the trial we could catch them." Harvard had led by open water early in the trial race.
Which they did. The frosh, stroking at a steady 34 after a good start, never upped their beat and left the Crimson and M.I.T. more than a length behind.
GOLF
For most of Dartmouth's spring teams it's been a middling sort of season. Not so in golf where Bill Johnson's swingers have a fine 11-2 record, but a disappointing 18 holes during the Eastern Intercollegiate Tournament at Penn State still sticks in the craw.
Dartmouth warmed up for the EIGA tourney with a hot-shot win over Williams, a team that came looking for an upset and ran into a torrid Green team that fired a five-man score of 367 - an average of less than 74 strokes per man.
That performance had Johnson thoroughly optimistic that the Green could handle just about everyone at the Easterns except Penn State, the host and defending champ.
It didn't happen quite that way. In the opening round Dartmouth soared to a four-man total of 339, a performance that left the team in 18th place.
"They could have given up but they didn't," said Johnson. "They wanted to prove something to themselves and they did."
In the second round, freshman Mike Gleason set the pace with a 75 and Dartmouth's team score of 310 for the round was second only to Penn State which repeated as the Eastern champ.
The effort lifted Dartmouth to 11th place in the final team standings. That horrendous first-round showing seemed to be haunting the Green four days later, though, as Harvard ripped the Green by more than 30 strokes in the annual dual encounter.
The Crimson had been but two strokes better than Dartmouth at the Easterns.
"One round doesn't make - or break - a season," said Johnson. "We've got a good young team and a good record. We'll be all right."
A 13-2 record is the probable final mark and the people who've done most to produce it are freshman Jerry Daly, junior Paul Dixon, Gleason, and sophomore Jay Leonard. They're actually half of a shifting lineup that has shown itself to be the best balanced group of golfers the Green has had in many years.
Except for one fateful day.
LACROSSE
Improvement has been the byword for Dartmouth's lacrosse team. That and scoring balance which has given the Green its best record in nearly a decade, although not the winning or break-even mark that Coach Dudley Hendrick's team had hoped for.
"We've had 20 different players score goals," said Hendrick. "That's why we're better."
That plus a defense that has improved with the vital efforts of junior Mike Shedlosky and senior goalie Mitch Whiteley doing the most good.
"With balanced scoring, we're a good team," said Hendrick whose club took a 5-10 record into the final three matches. "When we try to rely on one man for scoring, we're in trouble."
The Ivy League race hasn't changed appreciably. The Green got its first on-field Ivy win at Yale (4-3) and seemed to have another against Harvard. Trailing 4-1 as the final period began, Dartmouth rallied to tie the game at 5-5 but fell in overtime to the Crimson, 7-5.
The final Ivy record, 1-5, is an accurate measure of Dartmouth's current strength in one of the nation's toughest leagues. Brown, Cornell, and Penn (Brown swept to the Ivy title) were all convincing victors against the Green.
"We still have a way to go against the stronger Ivy teams," said Hendrick, "but we're thinking about winning and that's an important step at this stage."
Much rebuilding must be made on the attack where the top three scorers, Scott Anderson, John Lyons, and Dick Gamper, will be departing.
TENNIS
Doubles continues to be the name of the game for John Kenfield's tennis team. The Green has used this trademark to build a 10-10 record (3-6 in the Eastern League) and the pair that has done the most good is Bill Kellogg and Andy Oldenburg, a senior and sophomore who posted a 13-2 record in dual action and swept to the finals in the "A" doubles at the New England tournament before falling to Bill Young and Lee Simpson of M.I.T.
"They're clearly one of the best doubles teams in the East this season," said Kenfield. They were combined after the spring trip and have been the biggest noise for the Green ever since, beating just about everyone in sight.
They were one of two Green teams to reach the finals in the doubles play at the New Englands. Kevin Chee and Rich Woolworth also advanced to the finals in the "C" event before losing.
The best surprise for Dartmouth at the New Englands was Jim Myers, the junior from Palm Beach, Fla., who swept past Harvard's Chip Baird to take the "C" singles crown, 7-6, 6-0.
Woolworth was the consolation champ in the "A" singles and Dartmouth finished third in the team standings behind Harvard (50) and Brown (39). The Green had 37½ points after sharing the title with Harvard in 1972.
TRACK
Things have turned around in track this spring, due primarily to a nucleus of freshmen who have been instrumental in a 4-2 dual meet record.
"We didn't have quite enough at the Heps," said Coach Ken Weinbel after the Green wound up in a seventh place tie with Princeton (both with 10 points).
"Not quite enough" was due to leg injuries that have hampered sprinters Rick Berryman and Greg Payne through the spring and hay fever that has cut into the sharpness of quartermiler Rich Nichols.
While they've slipped, another freshman, Tom Fleming, has come to the fore in the sprints. He didn't do well at the Heps but has demonstrated his ability with a couple of 9.9-second efforts in the 100 and solid showings in the 220.
The frosh javelin throwers, Skip Cummins and Rusty Gapinski, have done well (Cummins set the Dartmouth record in March and Gapinski had a throw of 234-feet plus against Harvard) but both were off at the Heps where Gapinski got fifth place.
Dartmouth's top performance at the Heps came from senior Mike Shiaras, the co-captain from Dixon, Ill., who took second place in the shot put with a distance of 53 feet, 1 inch. George Leach, another senior, cleared 6 feet, 8 inches , to take fourth place in the high jump, and freshman Andy Walker got fourth place in the 3000-meter steeplechase.
The measure of the general improvement of Dartmouth's track forces, however, lies in the dual season. After losing at Brown in 1972, 92-61, the Green swept past the Bruins at Hanover this spring, 88-66. They also cut into Harvard's usually lopsided victory margin with their best showing in a number of years.
JV-FROSH SPORTS
An able corps of pitchers has been the key to an 8-2 freshman baseball record. Led by Jim Beattie, also the frosh basketball captain, who had a 4-1 record heading toward the final six games, the frosh hurlers have demonstrated imposing strikeout ability and a collective earnedrun average of 2.74. In 69 innings, they've struck out 83 batters with Beattie, Sandy Sanders, and Dave Dobson (a lefty) getting most of them.
Outfielder Russ Bartlett (.375) is the leading hitter. The co-captains are first baseman Greg Cronin and outfielder Dirk Nelson (who has played only two games due to an injury).
The jayvee golfers have been led by junior Bob Atwell and have a 3-2 record, while in lacrosse the early scoring punch that produced three wins (55 goals) in four games has been somewhat muted by Brown and Harvard. Rich Auletta, a cocaptain along with defenseman Tom Daniells, had 25 goals in the first four games.
The frosh tennis team had a 4-1 record even though three of the top frosh players - Rob Tesar, John Glover, and Mark Friedman - have been used primarily with the varsity.
In jayvee track, the Green reserves built a 3-1 record with one meet remaining, again showing the coming depth in the track program.
OTHER SPORTS
The sailing team, led by Leo McCusker, took sixth place in the Mosbacher Trophy race, the event that determines the annual Ivy League sailing champion. McCusker crewed the yawl skippered by Al Tierney that finished eighth among 11 boats in the John F. Kennedy Trophy race that settles the national collegiate yawl championship.
In women's sports, the tennis team won its first three matches and the doubles combination of Ann Fritz and Anne Rasmussen won the title at the Seven Sisters Tournament, a nine-team event in which Dartmouth tied with Radcliffe for third place in the team standings.
The women's lacrosse team also won its first two matches, defeating Colby and Keene State.
AWARDS
James Brown, the All-Ivy League basketball standout, has won two of the major athletic awards presented annually at Dartmouth. Brown, from New York City, was selected by vote of the varsity coaches to receive the Alfred E. Watson Trophy as the outstanding athlete of the current year. He also is the recipient of The Dartmouth Cup, presented by the undergraduate daily newspaper to the senior who on and off" the field reflects the greatest credit on the College.
Brown, the 1972-73 Ivy League scoring champion, ranks second among Dartmouth's all-time scoring leaders and was drafted in the ninth round of the NBA player draft by the Kansas City-Omaha Kings.
The Kenneth Archibald Athletic Prize for 1973 has been awarded to Bob Norton, the co-captain of Dartmouth's fourth straight Ivy League football championship team. The award is made to the senior who is judged to be the best all-round athlete in his Class who has also achieved high academic standing. An All-East, All-Ivy, and honorable mention All-America guard, Norton has an academic average that has been of dean's list or better standing throughout his four years at Dartmouth.
The Timothy Wright Ellis '55 Memorial Award was made to senior Jim Edgeworth from Wellesley, Mass., the hockey defenseman who also is a varsity golfer. The award recognizes outstanding qualities of personality, friendliness, loyalty, and perseverance that were so conspicuous in the late Tim Ellis.
The Tirrell Physical Improvement Prize, presented by the Physical Education Department, has been awarded to freshman Brian Fuld from Rolling Hills, Calif. During his first year at Dartmouth, Fuld completed senior lifesaving qualification, SCUBA certification, and. water safety instructor qualification.
An award that has been initiated this year recognizes outstanding performance in hammer throwing. The Cahners Award has been presented by Robert Cahners '64 of Boston who set the Dartmouth hammer record in 1962. The record stood until broken by DeWitt Davies in 1969. Davies and Bill Dinneen '71 will be retroactive recipients of the award. They were the Heptagonal hammer champions in 1970 and 1971 respectively.
Norman Cahners, father of the donor, won the first Heptagonal hammer title as a Harvard undergraduate in 1935.
Freshman sprinter Tom Fleming lost a close one to Harvard's Baylee Reid in the100-yard dash but came back to beat him in the 220. Fleming has been a standout thisyear also in freshman football and hockey.
Basketball captain James Brown, all-Ivyguard, has won the Watson Trophy as topathlete at Dartmouth this year and alsoThe Dartmouth Cup as the senior athletereflecting greatest credit on the College.
