CENTENNIAL CONFERENCE SPRING HONORS

Regular-season and post-season spring honors from the Centennial Conference have begun to flow, and Haverford College has its share of recipients. On the heels of weekly Centennial honors in baseball, softball, and women's lacrosse, the final Conference men's lacrosse Player of the Week was Joe Mauri '06, who had 12 goals and an assist in Haverford's final two wins, including eight tallies in an 18-5 rout of DeSales University to tie the College's single-game record. Mauri's 37 goals for the season are the third-best mark by a Fords rookie in the three decades of the men's lacrosse program.

In conference post-season balloting, Mindy Walman '04 was a first-team women's lacrosse all-star, pitcher Nick Chanock '05 a second-team baseball all-star, and women's lacrosse's Leigh James '03 and Margaret Sampson '06, men's lacrosse's Eric Seideman '04 and Mike Fischette '04, and baseball's Brandon Mills '05 and Chris Hancock '03 honorable mention selections.

Walman was Centennial Player of the Week when first-year head coach Mary Ann Schiller's team won the Seven Sisters Championship in March en route to a 9-8 overall record. The season climaxed with a 12-11 overtime win at Swarthmore to clinch the 2002-03 Hood Trophy. James will represent Haverford in the STX Lacrosse Festival Division III North-South Senior All-Star game in Baltimore on June 7, while Sampson collected the most goals ever in season (62) by a Fords frosh.

Chanock started 11 games for Haverford and finished 5-5 with a fine 2.33 ERA, striking out 49 in 65 innings and earning designation as Centennial Pitcher of the Week earlier in the season. Second-baseman Mills batted .347 with 41 hits and ran to a team-leading 23 stolen bases in 25 attempts. Centerfielder Hancock hit .436 with 14 RBIs even though most of his starts came late in the season. Hancock, who recently won Haverford's A.W. (Pop) Haddleton senior award, also pilfered 15 bases in 18 tries as the Fords had 120 successful larcenies during the season. The Fords swept playoff-bound Ursinus to open the Centennial season, and closed the campaign with its first sweep of Swarthmore since 1994 to finish 19-14-1 and tie the most wins in a season by a Haverford diamond nine.

Fischette finished seventh in the league in total points with 20 goals and 26 assists, while Seideman had 16 goals and 23 assists for 39 points while leading men's lacrosse by a wide margin in ground ball successes with 71. Aside from doubling the Fords' win 2002 win total from three to six, the high point of Mike Murphy's first season as head coach was an impressive 7-6 overtime loss to two-time defending NCAA finalist Gettysburg.

Nora Spriggs '06 pitched a one-hit shutout in the opener, then knocked in the game-winning run in the nightcap as Haverford snapped its 36-game Centennial Conference losing streak with its first two softball victories ever versus Ursinus. Spriggs threw a five-hitter later in the week to earn Centennial Pitcher of the Week honors with a 2-0 record and just two earned runs and six hits allowed in 14 innings. Team captain Sasha Brady '03 hit .536 in her last nine Centennial games to help the Fords reach 11 victories for the first time and repeat as a first-team all-conference selection at first base.

Men's tennis shared second-place in the conference (6-2) behind perennial champion Washington College (8-0). In the Centennial individual tournament, Harrison Lee '04 and Aaron Scherb '04 advanced to the semifinals, but third-seeded Carl Lederman '05 and Matt Stein '05 were surprised in the other half of the doubles bracket. Scherb and fifth-seeded Lederman were eliminated in the singles quarterfinals. In the women's tourney, Jennifer Hurford '06 and Anjani Naidu '06 both won easily in their first round singles matches before losing individually and collectively to seeded players in the singles and doubles Rounds of 16.

Senior James, junior Fischette and sophomore Mills all had the unusual distinction of making both the Centennial's all-league playing squads and Academic Honor Rolls in the same season. With spring field teams demonstrating much-improved play in 2003, and six of the eight all-league honorees back plus excellent supporting casts, 2004 should be a season to watch for those HC squads.

The first weekend of May, Haverford's track teams again made a sterling showing at the Centennial championships at Gettysburg, with the men winning their 10th straight CC title and the women finishing fourth. Gold-medal winners also receive first-team all-league honors so Haverford had 10 more representatives in that select company. Will McGuire '05 took the 10,000 meters Friday evening in 31:43.71. Three-time Centennial champion Caitlin Kight '03 upped her meet-record to 3,942 points and led a 1-4-5 Haverford finish in the two-day heptathlon, winning the 100-meter hurdles (17.16), high jump (5'0.25”), 200-meter dash (26.83) and 800-meter run (2:25.30) en route to the title. Casely Doryumu '04 long jumped an NCAA provisional 23'2.75” to win, Tom Reynolds '05 (139'0”) won the discus, and Scott Sargrad '04 (Musselman Stadium-record 9:26.93) captured the 3,000-meter Steeplechase. Terry Kegel '03, Jamie Diorio '04, Eddie Papalia '05, and Varsity Cup winner Greg Bielecki '03 (7:55.80) won the 4x800-meter relay to end Saturday's events on the track. The win gave Kegel an unusual“triple-double” with first-team All-Centennial and Academic Honor Roll recognition in all three seasons of his senior year (soccer, indoor and outdoor track). Jane Steinemann '04 won the 5,000 on in a meet-record 17:35.94 on Sunday to complete Haverford's all-Centennial lineup.