The rites of spring
While the men's and women's crew teams were in Tennessee, the other spring teams escaped the 24 inch blizzard that belted northern New England on March 14. The baseball team settled in Florida with captains Mike Timmons and Steve Karol leading a mostly-veteran group in the field with a mostly rookie group on the mound. Assistant Coach Ace Adams is coaxing the freshman pitchers along including John Sierotko, Neil Schiff, and Tom Balish, all righties.
Both lacrosse teams headed for the Virginia area with women's golf off to Hilton Head, South Carolina where, coincidentally, they visited women's basketball coach Chris Wielgus, now retired and awaiting birth of a second child. (For more on Chris, see "Those Championship Seasons" in the March issue of the MAGAZINE.)
The men's golf team flew to California before re-routing to Houston. Dartmouth was the first-ever team from the Northeast to play in the Houston All America Invitational at Bear Creek. Also in California was the men's tennis team the women opted for their traditional trip to the Miami area.
The track teams also fought their way out of the snow and finally reached Florida for ten days of training, competition, and sun.
Once back in Hanover, junior Jim Sapienza will undoubtedly be the athlete to watch when the men's track team with a 10-1 indoor record competes on the Harvey L. Rohde '39 Track at Memorial Field. The 20-year old capped another outstanding indoor season in March with a brilliant third place finish in the NCAA Champion ship at Syracuse's Carrier Dome. He trailed only Washington State's Peter Koech and Brigham Young's Ed Eyestone. Sapienza ran the winter season with an eye towards a banner outdoor season. He plans to run in the Olympic 5,000 or 10,000 meter trials. "Jim should be superb outdoors," said Coach Vic Lananna. "Last year he was worn down somewhat during the winter, but this year he goes into the out door season ready to race and hungry."
Sapienza has already qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship May 28-June 2 in Eugene, Oregon in the 5,000 meters and has a chance to perform in front of a partisan crowd when the New England Track and Field Championships come to Dartmouth on May 10-12. More on these events forthcoming in the June issue of the Magazine.
