Harvard Varsity Club NEWS & VIEWS of Harvard Sports
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Harvard Varsity Club NEWS & VIEWS of Harvard Sports Volume 47 Issue No. 11 www.varsityclub.harvard.edu June 20, 2005 Seniors Honored at Annual Dinner Historic Season Comes to a Close by Chuck Sullivan Director of Athletic Communications Davies accepted the Radcliffe Prize as Ten Harvard senior letterwinners were honored at the annual the top female athlete. Harvard Varsity Club Senior Letterwinners’ Dinner, held June 8 in She established her- its newest venue, the Murr Center Tennis Courts. In front of a crowd self as one of the of 600 student-athletes, coaches, parents and supporters of Harvard world's elite rowers Athletics, the class was honored for its record-setting season that while at Harvard. Sit- included 14 Ivy Championships, tying an Ivy League record for the most titles by one school in a single season. Football quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick (Gil- bert, AZ), who led Harvard to its most successful sea- son in more than 100 years, and rower Caryn Davies (Ithaca, NY), whose list of accomplishments includes an Olympic silver medal and a world record, were honored as Harvard's top senior athletes. Fitzpatrick was presented with the William J. Bingham Award as the top male athlete of the class of Caryn Davies ‘05 2005. He was unanimously chosen as the Ivy League Player of the Year in 2004 as he led the Crimson to its ting in the five seat for Radcliffe's seventh unbeaten, untied season in school history. He heavyweight varsity eight, she led the won the George "Bulger" Lowe Award as the top col- Black and White's top boat to a third- legiate player in New England and accepted the New place finish at the 2005 NCAA Cham- England Football Writers Gold Helmet as the top Di- pionships and was a member of the vision I-AA player in the region. He went on to be- 2003 varsity boat that won an NCAA come the first Ivy League quarterback since 1984 to title. She spent the 2003-04 academic be chosen in the NFL draft when he was selected by Ryan Fitzpatrick ‘05 year as a member of the United States the St. Louis Rams in the seventh round. All Senior Dinner photos by David Silverman Photography Olympic team that won silver at the www.dspics.com Continued on page 3 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS Women’s Sailing Team Wins First Men’s Heavyweight Crew Teams Brings National Championship Since 1972 Home Third Consecutive National Title by Chuck Sullivan by Jamie Weir Director of Athletic Communications Assistant Director of Athletic Communications On one hand, Harvard’s varsity sailing programs made a bit of 2005 will go down as yet another impressive year in Newell history. On the other hand, it was pretty much business as usual. Boathouse – and while there were some surprises along the way for The history-making part came as Harvard’s women’s team sure, it will be a season to remember for the Crimson crews. broke open what had been a close competition through two days Sure, there were doubters throughout the season. Coming off with a commanding third-day performance to claim the national the remarkable 2003 and 2004 campaigns, many believed that the championship at the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association regatta in tremendous success of those years could be directly attributed to Austin, Texas. the Class of 2004, 14 strong and the core of both the varsity and JV Continued on page 2 boats. However, one reporter mused at this year’s IRA that per- haps that magic lied in the skill, power and determination found in Harvard’s two seniors in the 2005 incarnation: captain Aaron Holzapfel (Kensington, NH) and Malcolm Howard (Victoria, BC), who have been in the varsity boat since their sophomore seasons and have never lost a collegiate varsity race. “They are clearly among the best oarsmen we’ve ever had,” admits Harry Parker, the legendary Crimson coach who, in his 43rd year, continues to deliver some of the best crews collegiate rowing has to offer. Highlights of their rowing resumes include four Sprints golds, three IRA National championships, four victories against Yale, and the preservation of Harvard’s winning streak which now covers 24 consecutive dual races and 32 opponents. Harvard’s last loss to a collegiate crew came in the Grand Finals of the 2002 Eastern Sprints (to Wisconsin); the last time a loss came in a dual race was in April of 2001, to Ivy foe Princeton. Harvard’s last two weeks of the season cemented this current era’s place in Harvard lore. With the win over Yale – Harvard’s Upon winning the title the women’s team celebrated by jumping into sixth straight in the series – the Crimson has now posted three the boat with Sloan Devlin ‘06 and Christina Dahlman '07. L-R: straight undefeated seasons, the first such run since Parker’s “Rude Daphne Lyman '05, Dahlman, Emily Simon '07, Genny Tulloch '05, Jessica Baker '06 and Devlin. Continued on page 6 Sports, continued from page 1 gers scored in six of the nine innings and scored 14 runs on 20 hits. For its part, Harvard ripped 15 hits, but saw only two go for extra The familiar part was the Crimson’s winning the Leonard M. bases as the Tigers advanced with a 14-6 decision. Freshman Fowle Trophy as the nation’s top collegiate sailing program. centerfielder Matt Vance (Solama Beach, CA) was named to the Harvard, which had never won the award in its first 28 years of Regional All-Tournament team. existence, has now won the trophy in each of the last five years. The Fowle Trophy is presented based on overall performance Men’s Tennis (13-10 Overall, 5-2 Ivy League) at the six ICSA North American Championships. In addition to tak- It was an amazing run for Crimson senior Jonathan Chu (New ing first in the women’s dinghy event, Harvard also took fourth in York, NY), who made legitimate bids for national championships the team race championship and seventh in the coed dinghy cham- in both singles and doubles at the NCAA tournament in College pionship. The Crimson also received strong finishes in both the Station, Texas. men’s and women’s singlehanded events which were held in the Chu reached the semifinal round in both singles and doubles, fall. pairing with freshman Ashwin Kumar (Round Rock, TX) in the The national title in women’s sailing was Harvard’s fifth in that latter bracker, before falling to the eventual national champions in sport and the first since 1972. both tournaments. Chu’s performance in singles marked the deepest that a Harvard player had advanced in the bracket since James Blake ’01 reached the national championship match in 1999. Both Chu and Kumar were recognized as All-America selec- tions for their performances in the tournament. Women’s Tennis (19-7 Overall, 7-0 Ivy League) The Crimson rode home court advantage to a pair of wins in the NCAA tournament, but saw its national title hopes end at the hands of a Stanford squad that was not to be denied. Harvard won its opening-round match at the Beren Tennis Center with a 4-0 decision against Maryland as freshman Celia Durkin (Los Angeles, CA) clinched it with a straight-set win. The win pushed Harvard into a second-round match with Ten- nessee, and again, it was Durkin who delivered the clinching point. She battled back from a one-set deficit to claim a three-set victory in No. 3 singles, sending Harvard to the round of 16 in Athens, Ga., with a 4-1 win. But nagging injuries and a quality opponent took their toll on the Crimson in the round of 16 as top-ranked Stanford won a 4-0 decision. Harvard’s top singles player, senior Courtney Bergman Harvard women’s sailing team receiving their national championship (Boca Raton, FL), was unable to compete after she aggravated an trophies. L-R: Daphne Lyman '05, Christina Dahlman '07, Sloan existing injury in doubles play. Devlin '06, Emily Simon '07, Genny Tulloch '05, and Jessica Baker ‘06. Track & Field After ending the first day of the three-day regatta in second The third time was the charm for Harvard freshman Lindsey place, the Crimson jumped ahead of top-ranked College of Charles- Scherf (Poughkeepsie, NY). Of course, the first and second times ton on Day 2, holding a one-point lead on the field heading into the weren’t too bad, either. final day of sailing. Scherf earned All-America status for the third time in an in- The Crimson’s depth proved to be the deciding factor as credible freshman year as she placed fourth in the 10,000-meter run Harvard used strong efforts in both the A Division and B Division at the NCAA championships in Sacramento. Scherf had previously races to run away with a 22-point win against the 18-school field. been named All-America in both cross country and indoor track Harvard finished with a low score of 160 points to easily and field. outpoint second-place College of Charleston, which had 182. Scherf became the first Harvard woman to earn All-America Georgetown was third with 190 points, followed by Old Dominion honors in both indoor and outdoor track since Dora Gyoffry ’01, (194), Connecticut College (201), Dartmouth (209), Stanford (214), who doubled in 2000. Yale (215), Brown (225) and Navy (226) to round out the top 10. Harvard also had an All-America on the men’s side as junior Harvard’s A Division entry of senior Genny Tulloch (Hous- Samyr Laine (Newburgh, NY) — the Heptagonal champion in both ton, TX) and sophomore Emily Simon (Oak Brook, IL) won three indoor and outdoor competition — took seventh place in the triple of its 14 races and placed second in the division standings.