Bates Swimming Update

Just a quick note to update you on the season. With over 60 athletes on the team right now the coaching has been very busy - and not as good at 'meet recaps' as I had hoped! Needless to say, below is a great article on Tom Boniface, our senior captain. Earlier this year he was chosen as the Division III swimmer of the week by CollegeSwimming.com. The highest honor possible. Last week his 1:46.0 victory in the 200 free against Bowdoin, coupled with his 53 in the 100 fly against Colby the following day, led him to "NESCAC Swimmer of the Week" honors! The really great thing about the 100 fly is that Tom rarely swims that event - he specializes in the 100/200 free and 200 IM. Also, with 3 events remaining we had a 2 point lead over Colby when Tom stepped up. He dove in and led his fellow teammates to a 1-2-3 sweep that secured the victory for us. It was a tremendous moment in the meet - and as the head coach, I couldn't have asked for more from my captain.

This semester has been very good so far. In my five years at Bates we experienced 2 NESCAC Swimmers of the Week awards prior to this January... and now we have received that honor our past two weekends. Simply put, these are a big deal for us. Being honored in the best swimming conference in the country is something we take seriously. For years the team has seen me post NESCAC Swimmer of the Week honors won by other programs - always with extraordinarily talented individuals and times. It is great to see Bates on the bulletin board now, and they are starting to believe we are part of that elite group.

As for the whole team... well, our men beat Midd for the first time in 21 years January 8th. I have gotten a few messages from alums that were on that team. Very cool! Both teams also took down Colby last weekend in convincing fashion, which always feels good. Our meet against Bowdoin looks lopsided with them winning handily, but to be honest I am very happy with how we performed. It was our second week of school and a Friday night dual meet after a full day of classes. Bowdoin arrived Wed from their training trip to a quiet campus on break, and you could tell their focus was pinpoint by the time we arrived. We had over 70 in-season bests in a losing cause... unfortunately, Bowdoin just looked amazing. We'll see how things fair at conferences (and we clearly have our work cut out for us if we are going to catch them) but I like where we are after a meet in the middle of January - and I like the trajectory we are heading in!

That's enough for now! Take care and have a great day!

In Bates,

Coach Casares

Boniface named NESCAC Swimmer of the Week

Posted by: Andy Walter on January 23, 2012

Tom Boniface '12 claimed NESCAC Men's Swimming & Diving Performer of the Week honors on Jan. 23, 2012. (File photo)

HADLEY, Mass. — Bates senior captain Tom Boniface was named NESCAC Men’s Swimming & Diving Performer of the Week today by the New England Small College Athletic Conference.

Boniface (Youngstown, Ohio) won two events in Saturday’s home dual-meet win over Colby, touching the wall first in both the 100-yard freestyle (48.90 seconds) and the 100 butterfly (53.81). He also swam a leg in Bates’ first-place 200 free relay squad (21.8).

The previous night at Bowdoin, Boniface recorded a season-best and winning time of 1:46.03 in the 200 freestyle.

Earlier this season, Boniface was named a Division III national swimmer of the week by collegeswimming.com.

View the NESCAC Swimming & Diving weekly release.

I'm feelin' good from my head to my shoes
Know where I'm goin' and I know what to do
I tidied up my point of view
I got a new attitude

Patti LaBelle – New Attitude

Dear Bates Students, Faculty, Staff and Friends,

With Clayton Spencer recently appointed as the college’s 8^th president, our community seems to have a new attitude too and is poised to enter a pivotal and exciting era! It is a future filled with challenges, but as president-elect Spencer noted in her introductory address, “Part of the task ahead is, therefore, to embrace with energy and confidence what the college already does so well, even as we challenge ourselves — always — to do better. Athletics at Bates lives this approach and with that in mind, I want to take a quick look back at some of the things we did well this past fall and then look ahead to that which we can do better heading into the winter sports seasons.

Some notable successes from the first half of the year include: the solidification of “Getting It Done”, a peer mentoring program with upper class student-athletes counseling other athletes - mainly first-year students - about properly balancing academics, athletics and college life in general; a 2nd Athletics-led Bates Allies event held in conjunction with National Coming Out Day that saw nearly 1000 members of our community sign the Allies Pledge to respect and welcome all persons; the initiation of an ongoing, year-long leadership training program for all captains/team leaders; and the hosting of the 1st-ever Bates L/A Community Day featuring Lewiston/Auburn families invited to our home athletic contests, free coaches clinics for kids, tours of the campus, youth football games played on Garcelon Field, and local vendors sponsoring pumpkin decorating, face painting, giveaways, etc. Athletics also designated the Community Day as a fund-raiser for the Horn of Africa Famine Relief Effort and generated $600 that was contributed toward that cause.

On the competitive front, Men’s Cross Country finished 7^th in the country at the NCAA National Championships; Football won stirring victories over Williams, Tufts and Bowdoin and a share of the CBB title; the Men’s and Women’s Rowing teams both had excellent races at the Head of the Charles Regatta and swept the CBB chase. Additionally, Head Men’s Cross Country Coach Al Fereshetian was named NESCAC Coach of the Year, several Football, Men’s & Women’s Soccer and Field Hockey players were honored with All-NESCAC selections and Head Men’s Lacrosse Coach Peter Lasagna was inducted into the Rochester Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Lastly, the fall saw the debut of the newest Bates head coaches: Kelsy Ross for Women’s Soccer and Margo Linton for Volleyball.

The winter sports programs have gotten underway successfully and the Bobcats continue to feature one of the broadest arrays of winter programs anywhere including: Men’s & Women’s Basketball, Men’s & Women’s Indoor Track, Men’s & Women’s Alpine and Nordic Skiing, Men’s & Women’s Squash, and Men’s & Women’s Swimming and Diving. In terms of that which we can do better, every participant on each of these teams expects to improve her/himself athletically, to surpass last year’s team achievements and to do all of this while excelling in their academic endeavors.

Your recognition of and support for their efforts, contributes immeasurably to their ability to succeed in all of these facets. Furthermore, by attending their events whenever possible, you personally affirm that the community recognizes and appreciates the dedication required to compete in a sport at this level while at the same time working to be the best student possible. You can view the winter sports schedule at http://www.bates.edu/sports-schedule.xml . Also, many of the contests will be webcast and you can find that schedule at: Bobcat Webcasts.

So let’s grab some of Patti LaBelle’s new attitude by “feelin’ good from our head to our shoes” about where Bates is headed, about what we do so well, and challenge ourselves to do better! Thank you and best wishes for the New Year!

Kevin McHugh

Director of Athletics