Women's Swimming and Diving | Jumbos head to Florida for intense conditioning trip
While most Tufts students are at home resting up for the spring semester, the women's swimming and diving team will embark on its annual training trip during winter break.
The Jumbos will travel to Florida and spend 10 days working hard to improve their times ahead of some of the most important meets of the season.
"The training trip is the peak of our training regimen, when we have the highest amount of yardage and the hardest practices," senior tri-captain Megan Kono said. "It comes at a really good time when we're in between semesters and we don't have the added pressure of classes and clubs."
Staying conditioned over winter break is particularly important for the swimmers and divers because their times improve as they build up intensity over the course of the season.
"We can't be out of the water for a month, and we prefer to train as a team and be competitive with everyone else," Kono said. "We practice twice a day for two hours, doing high yardage swims, sprints and dry-land workouts. The only things we worry about while there are eating, sleeping and swimming."
Immediately after returning from Florida, the Jumbos will travel to Williams for a three-team NESCAC meet against Wesleyan and the hosts. The Ephs are a conference powerhouse, and the team is eager to measure itself against them.
"We want to show up and be a presence against Williams," Kono said. "It's an important meet for us to establish ourselves and prove that we can be a contender in the top three of the NESCAC."
——by Daniel Rathman
Women's Track and Field | No time to rest for 'Bos
While many sports have competitions over break, the women's track and field team will get a rest from meets. But that hardly means the Jumbos will be lounging at home like their classmates.
In preparation for Tufts' first full meet of the season on Jan. 15 in the Gantcher Center, the Jumbos will spend the break building up fitness and strength. After the Husky Invitational this past weekend, the competitors will now have a chance to work on their individual events and build up strong bases.
Other than the first Tufts Invitational, all of the Jumbos' other meets will take place after classes resume in January. The team sees the time off as a chance to build up the strength necessary for both this indoor season and the coming outdoor season.
With many top performers returning and a great core of young athletes joining the team in a broad range of events, the Jumbos look to improve on what they were able to accomplish last year.
"Our long-term goals are to keep everyone healthy and avoid injuries," senior tri-captainRosieXia said. "We have done a good job of that so far. Hopefully by the Division III New England Championships, everyone will be in the shape they want to be in. We are really excited to see the freshmen run their first few races at the collegiate level."
While it is still very early, the team is looking forward to the tough competitions that lie ahead.
"It's really hard to tell how we will do at this point, but going into the season, we are hopeful that we can be competitive at Div. III's," Xia said.
—by Connor Rose
Men's Swimming and Diving | Tufts gears up for annual training in Fla.
The men's swimming and diving team will take its annual trip to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., during winter break for two weeks of intense training.
Tufts showed it could compete with Div. III powerhouses such as NYU by finishing third this weekend at the MIT Invitational, but winter training — which will include four hours of grueling workouts each day — may be the Jumbos' toughest test yet.
"We're swimming every day, doing dry-run exercises, things like that," senior quad-captain Joe Lessard said. "[In past years], it's been a significant portion of our training, and the fitness level really goes through the roof for the team as a whole."
While the trip is productive from a physical standpoint, it also provides an opportunity to strengthen bonds between teammates.
"There's a lot of training in the sun, and there's a lot of really hard work being put forth, but it's also a good chance to get to know your team and get to know each other," Lessard said. "We live together in hotel rooms; we cook for ourselves. … You really get to know everyone on the team because you spend so much time with each other."
During last year's training, the Jumbos endured record-low temperatures in Florida and even saw some snow, Lessard said. This time around, the team hopes that the trip will offer an escape from the cold, as well as a getaway from the stresses of college life.
"It's a really great opportunity for us to work really hard and focus solely on our swimming and diving," Lessard said. "Without any classes and things like that to distract us, you can just focus in on the training and put forth everything you have for two weeks. When you come back and classes start back up, you have such a good base on which to build that the rest of the season just falls into place."
Tufts will continue its season on Jan. 15 at a tri-meet at Williams with Wesleyan, followed by two big out-of-conference meets against MIT and Boston College.
—by Aaron Leibowitz
Men's Hockey | Jumbos will try to keep up hot streak in January
Heading into the winter break having won three straight games and four of seven overall, the Tufts hockey team is preparing itself for several crucial matchups over the break, including four against NESCAC opponents. First though, the Jumbos will take a well-deserved break for a few weeks, before coming back on New Year's Day for their first practice of the new calendar year. The team hopes that its brightest star, junior goalie Scott Barchard, will by then be able to return to the lineup.
"It'll be great to get some rest and get healthy and hopefully Scott will back after the break," senior quad-captain Tom Derosa, who leads the Jumbos with five goals on the year, said. Barchard suffered a twisted ankle in the Nov. 27 game against Brockport and has been off the ice since.
The critical games, though, start on the weekend of Jan. 7, when the Jumbos have two vital away matches, both against local rivals. First Tufts travels to Babson on Jan. 7, and then the squad will head into the capital city to face UMass-Boston on Jan. 8. The Jumbos have been successful on the road thus far this season, posting a record of 2-1-1 away from home. But the team knows that every away game represents a unique test.
"It shouldn't be too bad, because we don't have to stay overnight, because those schools are pretty close by," Derosa said. "We've already proven we can win on the road, but we just have to stay focused and play well in these key games."
The following weekend, the squad returns to the friendly confines of the Malden Forum, where they take on NESCAC foes Hamilton and Amherst on Jan. 14 and 15. The two games will take the Jumbos past the midway point of their season and give them an idea of where they stand as they head into the home stretch.
"We've only had one loss in the conference, but we'll know more after we play Conn. College [this Saturday, Dec. 11]," Derosa said. "So far we've been playing well, and these conference games are what decide the course of the season."
—by David McIntyre
Men's Basketball | Team will be put to the test against NESCAC rivals soon after break
Though the campus will be quiet and cold, the men's basketball season will be heating up after New Year's Day. After the last game of the semester tonight at UMass-Dartmouth, the Jumbos will only have 10 days after the end of finals to rest up before the heart of the season begins.
At 3-4, the team is still struggling to erase the memory of another NESCAC basement finish, and hopes to firmly establish its role as a contender with strong performances in six games over the break.
"After our week or so-long break, we go right to Virginia for our tournament games," senior tri-captain Sam Mason said. "I think getting back on the winning track right when we get back from break will be the most important thing for us."
First up is a battle with Roanoke at the Morris Cregger Classic. A strong 4-2 team, the Maroons are averaging over 84 points a game and will put the Jumbos' consistently solid team defense to a good test. The squad will wrap up the road trip the next day with another game against an unannounced opponent at Morris Cregger.
Two days later, on Jan. 5, the team will play closer to home at MIT. On the same day last year, the Jumbos gave up a 13-point first-half lead to the Engineers to end up on the losing end of a 71-59 score. The Jumbos will need to make sure their finishing problems from last year — which briefly reared their ugly heads on Tuesday night when an 18-point first-half lead turned into a six-point loss — do not become a trend as NESCAC games approach.
Clark will provide Tufts' final non-league game of the winter recess — and another chance for the Jumbos to prove that they have addressed the issues which last season caused their first loss to Clark since 2002.
From there, the stakes rise. On Jan. 14 and 15, Tufts will meet Middlebury and Williams, respectively, in Cousens Gym for its first two NESCAC games of the year. As of now, both the Panthers and the Ephs are undefeated and a win over either the 2009-10 NESCACNo.1 or No. 2 could set a positive tone for the rest of the season.
"We know they're going to be tough games, just like all NESCAC conference games," Mason said. "We're just going to do the things we've been trying to do all year to get on the right track in conference play."
The team's rest will be brief. But with an opportunity to come away with non-conference wins they didn't have a year before — including two conference upsets — the Jumbos aren't too worried about missing time on the couch at home. Instead, they're focused on showing what they can do on the basketball court.
"We're playing pretty good defense right now and we're just trying to take more steps to become an even more solid defensive team," Mason said. "That is, playing defense for a full 35 seconds and ending that with a rebound and not just 30 or 32 seconds which is what we have been doing. And then we want to get out and run for the easy bucket."
—by Claire Kemp
Women's Basketball | Jumbos have loaded schedule ahead
After its home matchup on Saturday afternoon against New Paltz St., the women's basketball team will take a break from competition before returning to campus in late December to prepare for the Naismith Classic. The Jumbos on Jan. 2 will then travel to Springfield for their first game of the tournament against Keene St.
Refocusing after a break is a challenge for any team, but a tournament on the road can help expedite the process of working out the kinks and reviving chemistry on the court.
"It'll be nice to come back and go to a tournament where we're away for two nights as a team," sophomore forward Sam Tye said. "Being there will really make us focus on basketball after having a week off. Being in season when classes aren't in session in general presents an opportunity to focus 100 percent on basketball. Without any other distractions, the team really gets a chance to bond."
January also means the start of the team's NESCAC season. After a home game on Jan. 6 against out-of-conference foe Regis, the Jumbos will host a back-to-back NESCAC weekend, playing Middlebury on Jan. 14 and Williams on Jan. 15 in Cousens Gym.
"Our NESCAC schedule is huge," Tye said. "Every NESCAC team is good, so every conference game is a big game — nothing is guaranteed. Middlebury is a perennial good team, and we lost to Williams last year, so we really want to prove ourselves in the NESCAC right from the beginning."
The Jumbos on Jan. 17 finish their winter break schedule with a home game against non-conference opponent Wheaton.
—by Kelsey Perkins
Men's Track and Field | 'Bos seek improvement over break
After opening its season last weekend at the Jay Carisella Invitational, the men's track and field team will spend a month training over break before hitting the competition scene again in January, when the bulk of its season will begin.
The squad will return early to campus before classes and pick up where it left off. While some athletes will compete in the Dartmouth Relays Jan. 7 and 9, others will compete in the Tufts Alumni Invitational that same weekend. The first meet for the squad as a whole will come on Jan. 15 with the Tufts Invitational I hosted at the Gantcher Center.
"Most of the guys started out their first meet at Reggie [Lewis Center for the Jay Carisella Invitational] in really good shape. It was a good jumping off point," senior co-captain Jeff Prunier said. "The goal for Tufts Invitational I is to come back even faster and stronger. I think everyone has the potential to improve on their times and performances."
For some athletes, January will be the start of their seasons, especially for most distance runners who just came off of their cross-country seasons. "I think that it will be a really exciting meet and a good start to indoor," Prunier said. "It will be pretty exciting to see how [the distance runners] do now that they are running shorter distances and faster. They look really fit, so it will be good to see them on the track for the first time."
After Tufts Invitational I, the team will have another month of competition before it enters championship season mid-February, where all of its training will be put to the test against the rest of New England.
-By Lauren Flament
