Men’s Lacrosse
With more than a month before their first regular season game, Georgetown is already garnering accolades.
After finishing 7-0 in the ECAC conference last season, the Hoyas were picked to win the conference for the ninth straight year and swept the ECAC individual preseason awards. Four members of the team were named to the preseason all-ECAC team.
Senior attackman Brendan Cannon was selected as the preseason ECAC offensive player of the year for the second consecutive year, and senior defense Jerry Lambe was selected as the league’s preseason defensive player of the year, also for the second consecutive year. Cannon registered 44 points last season on 21 goals and 23 assists en route to being named second team All-America by the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association, and his 1.53 assists per game ranked 19th in the country. Lambe, who was also named second team All-America, was nominated for the Tewaaraton Trophy recognizing the top Division I lacrosse player in the country.
Completing the sweep was sophomore attackman Ricky Mirabito, who was named preseason ECAC rookie of the year. Mirabito sat out last season but was an UnderArmour and USILA All-American during his senior season at Chenango Forks High School.
Attackman Andrew Brancaccio and defenseman Barney Ehrmann, both sophomores, joined Lambe and Cannon on the preseason All-ECAC team. Ehrmann was a second team all-ECAC selection last season, and Brancaccio, who was named honorable mention all-America last season, finished second on the team with 20 goals.
The Hoyas open up their season on Feb. 23 at the Multi-Sport Facility, when they play host to local rival Maryland.
— Ryan Travers
Sailing
The Hoyas rang in 2008 in style, finishing fourth out of 28 schools in the 23rd annual Rose Bowl Regatta. Sailing at the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in South California, Georgetown used a mix of youth and experience to beat the best the West Coast had to offer.
With freshmen Charlie Buckingham and Ashley Phillips in the A Division and seniors Blaire Herron and Leigh Fogwell in the B Division, Georgetown finished behind only St. Mary’s, Boston College and the College of Charleston, while beating out Stanford, USC and UC Irvine among others.
According to Head Coach Mike Callahan (SFS ’97), Georgetown travels out to the West Coast for the regatta to attract the top high school sailors competing in the high school Rose Bowl Regatta. Callahan’s recruiting efforts have worked in the past — Buckingham, from Newport Beach, Calif., and Herron, from Coronado, Calif., both sailed in the regatta during high school and were attracted to Georgetown.
“It’s a good regatta to expose Georgetown to the West Coast,” Callahan said.
Overall, the Hoyas (145 points) were three behind Charleston (142 points) in the final standings. With two heats remaining, Georgetown was in third place and in striking distance of second, but Charleston and Boston College each finished strong to bury the Hoyas.
The duo of Buckingham and Phillips recorded two first and second place finishes to capture fourth in the A division overall. They were one point ahead of USC, and individual finishes of 19th, 12th and 17th late in the regatta hurt their chances of moving higher.
The senior girls in the B boat placed third in their division and had seven top-five individual finishes to their name.
“College sailing is a real co-ed sport in that the girls can compete against the guys, and when the girls sail well they beat all the guys,” Callahan said.
The race for first place was a tight one, with St. Mary’s hanging on to a four-point margin despite Boston College winning the final heats in both divisions.
According to Callahan, practice for the spring season will hopefully start at the beginning of February if the conditions on the Potomac River permit.
— Kevin Wessel
Track and Field
Laziness, overeating and escapes to warmer regions are three ideas usually associated with thoughts of the holidays and winter break. However, for members of the track and field program, winter break entails a continuance of their training regimens. Some athletes have to put up with frigid temperatures, icy streets and messy trails. And while the rest of us were enjoying our last days of break this past weekend, the Hoyas competed at George Mason’s Father Diamond Invitational, opening up a new year with performances that showed the team’s potential for a very successful season.
While only running a few select members from the squad, the Hoyas were able to post some impressive individual marks with the men finishing fourth and the women coming in seventh overall. On the men’s side, seniors Justin Schied and Neil Grosscup finished first and second in the mile run, posting Big East qualifying times of 4:16.31 and 4:16.60, respectively.
Adding to the middle distance success was the duo of sophomore Dan Leyh and junior Ricky Barrios who finished second and third, respectively, in the 800m run. Sophomore Alex Bean, while starting the race at a fairly conservative pace, was still able to turn in a third place performance with a Big East qualifying time of 2:26. Matthew Jimenez added to the success, placing third in shotput.
However, perhaps the performance that brought the best news for the Hoyas was junior Terrell Gissendanner’s personal record and Big East qualifying long jump of 7.11m.
“Terrell did a great job. ... We’re really looking to him to step it up this year in both the jumps and the hurdles and become much more of a contributor to the team on a regular basis,” Head Coach Pat Henner said.
On the women’s side, freshman Deidra Sanders placed second in the 500m run with a time of 1:17 and sophomore Tanore Barrow topped her old school record with a throw of 13.36m, which was good for second place as well. Another performance that caught the coach staff’s eyes was senior Alex Baptiste’s sixth place long jump of 5.39m.
“For us to be successful this year Alex’s going to be somebody both in the jumps and on the track who’s going to have to really step up her game. We’re really looking for her to become a big time contributor to the team,” Henner said.
The Hoyas are currently working towards getting ready for the Virginia Tech Invitational which takes place this weekend.
“This weekend, we really expect everybody out there competing to get their Big East and IC4A ECAC [qualifying times] and then by the end of January beginning of Feburary we’re going to be looking for some NCAA caliber times,” Henner said.
— Dave Baran