Men's Basketball: The Jumbos' drive to the Sweet 16 capped a two-year turnaround from an abysmal 8-17 mark in 2003-2004. While a buzzer-beater by Amherst's Andrew Olsen ended Tufts' postseason run in the NCAA Tournament, it did little to diminish what coach Bob Sheldon and the Jumbos had accomplished.
The team's 23-7 clip set a school record for wins, and the Jumbos were an overtime NBA-distance three away from a NESCAC banner.
Senior tri-captain Dan Martin earned a selection to the All-NESCAC First Team and various All-Region teams, and junior captain Dave Shepherd made a name for as a go-to guy, coming through with buzzer-beating heroics more than once. Coach Bob Sheldon was named D3Hoops.com's Northeast Region Coach of the Year.
Women's Basketball: With its 52-41 loss to Bowdoin in the first round of the NESCAC Tournament, the team finished the season at 10-13 overall and 3-6 in conference play, marking its first sub-.500 record during the four-year reign of coach Carla Berube.
Stumbling through an inconsistent season, the Jumbos barely claimed a seventh seed in the conference and were crippled by by an anemic offensive output, shooting 36.0 percent from the floor, and averaging a decade-low 54.4 points per game.
In a high point during a frustrating season, senior tri-captain Jessica Powers became the eighth Jumbo in women's basketball history to reach the 1,000-point plateau. In addition to Powers, the team graduates the other two senior tri-captains, Katherine Miller and Julia Verplank.
Women's Squash: The women's squash team finished its season with a 10-12 record and a national ranking of No. 21, a drop of five spots from last year's No. 16 finish. The season was full of winning and losing streaks that kept the team hovering around .500 for much of the season.
Assistant coach Orla O'Doherty took over coaching duties mid-season when head coach Kate Bayard suddenly resigned. Postseason play was disappointing, as the Jumbos fell in the first round of the NESCAC Invitational and went 1-2 in the Howe Cup, the season's culminating tourney.
However, 10 of the team's members were freshmen and sophomores, including No. 1 player sophomore Rebecca Rice, and the Jumbos will field an experienced team next year.
Men's Squash: By the slightest of margins, the Jumbos secured a No. 16 national ranking to earn a berth in the Hoehn Division at the College Squash Association team championships.
The team advanced no further, however, losing consecutive matches to Cornell, Bates, and Navy to end its season at 11-12.
Sophomore No. 1 player Jake Gross led the team in wins, finishing with a 15-8 recor, followed by senior Dan Karlin, finishing with 12 wins in the middle of the lineup.
Fencing: It was a record season for the women's fencing team this winter. Led by coach Jason Sachs, the team fought to a third-place finish in a field of seventeen at the NIWFA Championships. Freshman Christine Lee capped off the season by taking part in the NCAA Nationals in Texas, where she placed 22nd in a field of 24.
Women's Swimming: Tufts finished fourth in the NESCAC Championships, an impressive achievement given the strength at the top of the conference.
The squad swam well at NESCACs, with almost everyone swimming personal bests by a large margin.
Junior Chloe Young-Hyman earned All-Conference honors for her third-place finish in the 50-yard breaskstroke, an event in which she owns the Tufts record. She also qualified for to Nationals, where she swam admirably, finishing 17th in her marquee event, the 100 yard breaststroke, and finishing top-40 in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle.
Women's Indoor Track and Field: Sophomore Catherine Beck won NCAA New England Regional Athlete of the Year as the Jumbos took down four school records and sent eight runners to Nationals. Beck set two school records, junior Sarah Crispin set a record in the 1,000 meters and sophomore Sarah Martin set one in the weight throw. Although the team had no All-Americans, it sent two relays - the 4x400 and the Distance Medley Relay - and two individuals to Nationals. At Div. III New England's senior Rachel Bloom, Crispin, and Beck all won individual events, as Tufts took second to Williams for the fourth year in a row.
Men's Indoor Track and Field: The men's track team took Williams' Div. III New England dominance head-on, scoring 131 points to finish a close second to the Ephs in February. The team dominated in the field events on the backs of junior Fred Jones and sophomores Dan Marcy, Jeremy Arak, and Nate Scott. The team's traditional distance nucleus still had success behind seniors Matt Lacey, Matt Fortin, Pat Mahoney, and sophomore Josh Kennedy. Kennedy, Mahoney, Jones, and Arak all took individual titles at Div. III's.
Tufts sent five athletes to a disappointing Nationals, with Jones bringing home the only All-American honor for his fourth-place finish in the long jump. Lacey, Fortin, Arak and Marcy all competed as well.
Men's Swimming: The Jumbos earned their highest finish at Nationals in 25 years, finishing 10th with 119.5 points at Carleton College and earning five All-American honors and four honorable mentions.
Senior quad-captain Jon Godsey set school records in the 200-yard backstroke, the 100-yard backstroke and the 200-yard IM, and the team set a school record in the 800-yard freestyle relay. Junior Greg Bettencourt also set a school record in the 500-yard freestyle. Godsey and Bettencourt were joined by senior quad-captains Brett Baker and Jason Kapit, juniors Justin Fanning and Mike Kinsella and freshman Andrew Shields at NCAAs.
Second-year coach Adam Hoyt won NESCAC Coach of the Year as the Jumbos cruised to a 9-1 dual meet record and a second place finish at NESCACs, their highest ever.
Ice Hockey: Coming off a slow start to the season, the Jumbos put together an impressive winning streak in late December and January to put the team in contention for a playoff berth. In the second half of the season, however, the Jumbos were plagued by injuries to their key starters and finished with an overall record of 9-12-3 (6-11-2 NESCAC).
The Jumbos found themselves in the hunt for a playoff position up until the team's final two games, both of which were must-wins in order to secure the final playoff seed. With the loss of the leading scorer senior Matt McCarthy, the Jumbos could not find the offense to pull off a victory in either of the two contests, falling to Babson 4-2 and tying UMASS-Dartmouth at two.
