Men’s hockey overcomes odds
The men’s hockey team proved many doubters wrong, pulling off one of their best seasons in recent memory. Colgate had been picked to finish 10th in the conference by both coaches and the media in the league’s preseason poll, and that was enough motivation for a team that was coming off a season when they were the first-ever 12th seed in the ECAC Hockey Tournament to reach the final four.


Colgate’s men’s hockey team fell to #1 Union in Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall on March 16. Photo by Bob Cornell

    The Raiders began by winning the Mutual of Omaha Stampede, becoming the first team other than Nebraska-Omaha to win that tournament. Then they split with fourth-ranked Miami at Starr Rink, jumping into the national polls for the first time. From then until the end of 2011, Colgate earned a 9-3-2 record, catapulting the team to their highest ranking since the 1999–2000 season: the seventh spot in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine National Poll.
    The highlight of the season’s second half came on a late January weekend when Colgate beat No. 6 Cornell on national television, 2-1. That win stopped an 11-game winning streak by the Big Red. The following night at Starr Rink, the Raiders exploded for four goals in the third period to overcome a 3-1 deficit and earn a 5-3 win, sweeping Cornell for the first time since 2003–2004.
    The Raiders earned a bye into the ECAC Hockey Tournament and faced Quinnipiac in the quarterfinals at home. The series went to three games, with Colgate overcoming the Bobcats in a 4-0 shutout victory.
    In Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall, where the ECAC tournament was held in mid-March, Colgate ended up 0-2 in the two games. Although the outcome was not what the team had hoped, this was a season to be remembered.

ECAC recognizes Raiders
After an incredible regular season, Austin Smith ’12 was named ECAC Hockey Player of the Year. And, at press time, he was one of three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, which is given to the nation’s top player. That nomination made Smith the fourth Hobey Baker finalist under head coach Don Vaughan, joining Mike Harder ’97, Andy McDonald ’00, and David McIntyre ’10. The announcement of the winner was set for April 6.
    “People sometimes lose sight of the fact that the award is more than just on-ice talent,” said Vaughan of the honor that also recognizes character outside of the rink. “Austin Smith embodies all of the other qualities that the Hobey Baker Award stands for,” Vaughan added.
    With a stellar senior campaign in conference play, Smith ranked first in points (34), goals (25), and shorthanded goals (5) in league action this season. As of press time, the Dallas, Texas, native had 57 points overall (third in the nation) and was leading the nation in goals with 36. He had registered 16 multiple-point games. Smith recorded a +25 ranking overall, and led the nation with his six shorthanded goals overall. He had posted seven power-play goals, five game winners, and two game-tying goals on the season. The senior forward became only the 10th player in school history to reach 75 goals and 75 assists in a career and the first 30-goal scorer in ECAC Hockey since 2001. He twice earned both ECAC Hockey Player of the Month and Player of the Week.
    In addition to Smith, two other Raiders were recognized at the ECAC Hockey Championship banquet at the Atlantic City Convention Hall, placing Colgate players in spots on each of the three all-league teams. Smith received a spot on the first team, while linemate Chris Wagner ’14 was selected to the second team. Thomas Larkin ’13 earned a postseason honor for the first time in his career as a third-team defenseman. Smith, Wagner, and Larkin join 41 other all-ECAC Hockey skaters who have played under Vaughan.
    Wagner also played a big part in the team’s success, with 33 assists, for which he was tied for the league lead going into championship weekend. He scored 17 goals and finished second in the league behind Smith, with 51 overall points. Wagner had an 11-game point streak at the end of the year, with 17 points during that streak. He also had five goals and an assist in the series win over Quinnipiac, including a pair of two-goal games, and 13 postseason points in 13 games. He tallied points in all but three games in the spring semester.
    Larkin was a consistent force on the blueline with a +16, which led all defensemen on the Raiders and was third on the team overall. He posted four goals and 10 assists and had a line of two goals and seven assists for nine points in league play.

The St. Joseph’s University Hawks swooped in on the Raiders in the final game of the University of Virginia Invitational at the end of February, winning 9-4. Photo by Bob Cornell

Raiders in line for NHL
With the conclusion of their senior seasons, many players who have been drafted by NHL teams prior to their admission into Colgate report to their team’s minor league clubs to finish out the season. This year, Austin Smith ’12 and Corbin McPherson ’12 will do just that.
    Smith was a fifth-round draft pick by his hometown team, the Dallas Stars, and was 128th overall in the 2007 NHL Amateur Draft. He will be playing for the American Hockey League’s Texas Stars, located outside of Austin, and might get an opportunity to join the big club, if the Dallas Stars make the playoffs.
    McPherson was drafted by the New Jersey Devils, which have an AHL team in Albany, N.Y., that is also named the Devils. As one of the Raiders’ three captains, McPherson was a leader on the ice this season.
    With the departure of those two draft picks, the Raiders will have three current NHL draft picks on its roster: Jeremy Price ’13 (Vancouver Canucks), Thomas Larkin ’13 (Columbus Blue Jackets), and Chris Wagner ’14 (Anaheim Ducks).

The men’s basketball team sported pink sneakers while fans donned pink T-shirts in support of the Play 4Kay initiative to raise money for breast cancer awareness. The Raiders lost to Army 79-59. Photo by Bob Cornell

Women take second at PL Championships
The Colgate women’s swimming and diving team aimed to become Patriot League Champions for the second time in five years, but fell just shy of their goal, taking second at the 2012 championships. With the effort, Colgate placed 10 of its swimmers on all-league teams.
    Navy won the title with 933.5 points, while Colgate finished with 692.5. Colgate kept on the Midshipmen’s heels for most of the meet, but couldn’t overcome the first-day lead set by Navy. The Raiders were led by Lia Kunnapas ’13 and Erica Derlath ’12. Kunnapas tied for fourth in the individual points race, accumulating 55.5 points in the three days of competition, and won two individual event titles. Derlath was sixth in overall points with 52, and won the 400 individual medley for her individual title. Each earned first team All-Patriot League accolades based on event wins.
    Emma Santoro ’13, Becca Murray ’13, and Jenna Jacoby ’13 were all named to the first team as well, based on championship points. Other than Derlath and Kunnapas, Santoro was the highest Colgate swimmer in points with 45 (ninth overall). Murray was close behind, at 10th, with 44 total points. Jacoby was tied for 11th, with 43 points. Santoro and Jacoby made the top team for the second-consecutive year, while Murray made the first team for the first time after earning second team a year ago.
    Six Colgate swimmers earned second team honors for their performances during the championships. Sami Wary ’15 headlined the second teamers, the lone swimmer to earn second-team honors after placing second in the 50 free. Melanie Lockard ’14, Hannah Fitton ’14, Ryan Marynowski ’13, and Megan Jex ’14 made the second team based on championship points. Lockard and Jex earned postseason honors for the second-straight year. Fitton capped off a great season with a second-team spot, while Marynowski was given her first postseason honor. Fitton was named to the Patriot League All-Academic Team.
    Both the women’s and men’s squads were honored by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America with a Scholar All-America Team Award for the fall 2011 semester. The award is presented to college and university swimming and diving teams that have achieved a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher in the fall semester and in the semester of the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships (winter/spring). This was the third-straight semester under head coach Fernando Canales that both teams have accomplished this honor.

In the Patriot League opener on March 10, midfielder Amanda O'Sullivan '13 scored one of the team's 13 goals. The Raiders beat Lehigh by four. Photo by Bob Cornell

Men’s lacrosse off to fast start
Under new head coach Mike Murphy, the men’s lacrosse team had surged, as of press time, to a 7-1 overall record and a top ranking in both the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association National Poll and Nike/Inside Lacrosse National Poll — their best start since 1993. The Raiders had won five-straight games and had held their opponents to under 10 goals a game in four of those wins.
    The team jumped to the No. 12/13 spots in the USILA Coaches’ Poll and the Nike/Inside Lacrosse Media Poll on March 19 after beating Binghamton and undefeated No. 13 Fairfield on March 13 and 17, respectively — the second-highest spot Colgate has reached in the national rankings.
As of press time, Peter Baum ’13 and Ryan Walsh ’15 had already won the Patriot League Offensive Player and Rookie of the Week awards, respectively, twice each this season. Baum was also named the Nike Player of the Week on March 6, while Walsh received Cascade Rookie of the Week honors on March 15. Three Raiders were also named defensive players of the week: co-captains James Queeney ’13 and Kevin Gordon ’12 as well as Bobby Lawrence ’14.
     Baum, who was named the 2012 Patriot League Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, was selected to the Inside Lacrosse Preseason All-America Second Team that was released in the 2012 Face-Off Yearbook and was named to the 2012 Tewaaraton Award Watch List. At press time, the junior was leading the nation and the league in points and goals per game.


Mariah Jones ’15 made huge plays in the second half of the February 11 game against Lehigh, helping her team maintain their lead and defeat the Mountain Hawks 77-71. Photo by Michael Schon ’12

Hunt named football associate head coach
Dan Hunt, the Raiders’ assistant head coach for the last two seasons, has been promoted to associate head coach. A staff member for 17 seasons, Hunt has served the last six years as the offensive coordinator, and as quarterback coach for the past 13.
    Hunt has seen seven of his players earn all-Patriot League honors and one, the Walter Payton Award. Most recently, all-American running back Nate Eachus ’12 was named the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year in 2010, along with being a finalist for the Walter Payton Award. Eachus was also named the Patriot League Rookie of the Year in 2008. In 2005, Hunt saw Jordan Scott ’09 earn Patriot League Rookie of the Year, while in 2003, Jamaal Branch ’05 rushed for 2,326 yards en route to earning the second Walter Payton Award in school history. In 1999, quarterback Ryan Vena ’00 was named the Patriot League Most Valuable Player. Also under Hunt’s tutelage, running back Daymon Smith ’97 was named 1997 Patriot League Offensive Player of the Year and running back Ed Weiss ’01 was selected as Patriot League Rookie of the Year.
    Hunt began his Colgate tenure working with the tight ends in 1995 and 1996, before one season as the running backs coach. During that time (1997), the Raiders broke the Patriot League record for rushing yardage and, for the first time, produced a pair of 1,000-yard rushers.
    He came to Colgate from his alma mater, Springfield College, where he helped coach the wide receivers and tight ends. Hunt began his coaching career at Christian Brothers Academy in Albany, N.Y., where he was in charge of the running backs and receivers.

Patriot League approves football scholarships
On February 13, the Patriot League Council of Presidents endorsed a policy allowing merit aid to be offered to football players at member schools, beginning with the class entering school in the fall of 2013. In its announcement, the league said the decision will strengthen the competitiveness of member schools and possibly make way for a future expansion of the league. Under the agreement, each school will be permitted to award no more than the equivalent of 15 athletic financial awards each year (a maximum of 60 over four years) to incoming football players, including transfer students. We spoke with athletics director David Roach to find out more about the potential impact of the change on Colgate.

Haven’t Colgate and other Patriot League schools already been offering scholarships to some football players? How does this change things?
Everyone in the Patriot League was offering need-based–only scholarships to football players. This change allows us to convert scholarships to merit aid as needed. It allows us to recruit more broadly from a national field and to recruit individuals with even higher academic and athletic credentials. For both the Patriot League as an organization and for its individual member schools, the decision to adopt scholarships for football makes a great deal of sense.

Will this take away from available financial aid money for other students who don’t take part in athletics?
No, it will not affect other financial aid candidates. We will have the same-sized pool of financial aid funds that we’re cur-
rently allocating for football. So, this change in Patriot League policy really has more of an effect on where and how we find prospective scholar-athletes.

How will this affect Colgate’s academic profile among incoming students overall?
It should have a positive effect. As we are able to become more competitive in recruiting from a larger pool, we will more aggressively seek out better students and better athletes. Year after year, Colgate leads the NCAA and Patriot League in graduation rates and academic performance, and we have every confidence that this will allow us to continue, and even improve upon, this distinction.

Does this have the capacity to make Colgate more competitive in football? And how long do you expect it will take to see results?
We certainly think so, and it shouldn’t take that long to have an effect. The impact may be seen as early as the 2013 season, and it will build each year from there.

Will this make Colgate a “football school”?
No. But in addition to expanding our pool of recruitable student-athletes, it will allow us to play a more attractive schedule. As an example, we hope to play one Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS, which includes schools like the U.S. Air Force and Naval Academies, and Syracuse) per season. Overall, each Patriot League school should become more competitive in NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) football and have a better chance for an at-large berth in the NCAA FCS Championship.

Are there any other ways you expect this change to impact Colgate?
Overall, it should have a positive effect on diversity. We will now be able to recruit more nationally and reach certain parts of the country from which we did not recruit in past years.

— Debra Townsend

Student-athletes participate in Naval leadership conference
Caitlin Cremin ’14, Jonathan Mputu ’13, and Patrick Letourneau ’13 represented Colgate at the annual U.S. Naval Academy Leadership Conference January 29 through February 1.
    The trio, among 200 participants from more than 45 military and civilian colleges, were chosen for their contributions to their teams both as athletes and students on campus. In 2002, the conference, originally only for senior midshipmen and cadets from each of the service academies, expanded to include students from national colleges and universities to discuss leadership themes relevant to government, business, and academics, in addition to the military.
    “The conference was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said Cremin, who is one of the court leaders for the women’s volleyball team, as the libero. “The amalgamation of leaders from military, corporate, nonprofit, scholarly, and athletic backgrounds created an environment that fostered diverse discussion and interpretation of what it means to be a visionary leader.”
    Speaking at the conference were General James N. Mattis, USMC, Commander, U.S. Central Command; Anson Dorrance, University of North Carolina Head Women’s Soccer Coach; Howard Putnam, Former CEO of Southwest Airlines; and Herman Boone, Former T.C. Williams High School Titans Football Head Coach.
    “The knowledge I gained through the events, keynote speakers, and discussion panels is something that I will take back and apply to my life, my sport, and my academic career,” said Mputu, a football player. The wide receiver, who has played in many games for the Raiders on the gridiron, looks to be one of Colgate’s key contributors in 2013. “The Naval Academy is a great institution, and their idea of developing visionary leaders through hard work, determination, discipline, self-belief, and confidence is something that I have a lot of respect for and highly encourage,” he said.
    A leader on the men’s soccer team, Letourneau played all 22 games on defense this past season, helping the Raiders to their fifth Patriot League Championship. At the conference, he enjoyed meeting people from all over the country and shared ideas on how to improve their own leadership on their teams.
    “What I am taking away is that leadership exists in many different situations and takes form in many different styles,” he said, “but the basic foundation for each leader is similar in that certain characteristics are shared to lead a group of people toward a specific goal.”

Ski team races to success
Colgate’s alpine ski team had another successful year, with both the men’s and women’s teams making it to the United States Collegiate Ski Association (USCSA) Mideast regional competition at Bristol Mountain in Bristol, N.Y. The women placed fourth, and the men placed seventh.


Schussing success: the ski team made it to the U.S. Collegiate Ski Association Mideast regional competition this year.

    Kirsten Halvorson ’15 had a great starting year as she ran first for the women’s team and placed first multiple times. Another first-year, Jimmy Mallon ’15, ran first for the men’s team; Chase Begor ’13 and John McCoy ’14 ran second and third, respectively.
Each team is composed of approximately 25 members and competes against 14 other schools from New York. Colgate’s team trains every Tuesday and Thursday night at their home mountain, Toggenburg Mountain Winter Sports Center. Head coach Jim Longo, who has been coaching Colgate skiing for more than 20 years, is assisted by Todd Enders and Mike Ketcham, who both also coach at Toggenburg. This year’s captains were Chelsea Baum ’12, Margaret Powell ’12, and Johnny Lembeck ’12.
— Mark Janett ’12


Raider Nation
Fan spotlights with Vicky Chun ’91, senior associate athletic director

Jim Case ’77

Bleeds maroon: Father is William Case ’52 and brother is David Case ’80. Daughter Katie ’15 plays on the varsity women’s ice hockey team. A former pitcher for Colgate’s varsity baseball team, Jim was known for his split-finger “forkball” pitch.
Occupation: Attorney
Resides in: Grosse Pointe Shores, Mich.
Game: Women’s ice hockey; Colgate defeated Syracuse 5-0, 1/2/12

Have you noticed any changes since you were a student?
The changes are monumental … the school is more civilized now, ha ha!

What is your favorite memory of your times as a Colgate student?
The camaraderie with the guys on the baseball team. We had tons of fun together and made lasting friendships.

Did you ever think that your daughter would be on the varsity women’s ice hockey team at your alma mater?
As a student, not in my wildest dreams. Now it brings tears to my eyes. It has been terrific seeing Colgate through her eyes, and that is so special.

Stanley Fisher

Occupation: Has worked at Colgate for 28 years (buildings and grounds for 16 years and then custodial to present day; he currently works in Huntington Gymnasium)
Resides in: Hubbardsville, N.Y.
Game: Men’s ice hockey (ranked #19); defeated Cornell (ranked #6) 5-3 in front of a sold-out crowd, 1/28/12

How long have you been attending Colgate sporting events?
I started going to games 14 years ago and have been going ever since.

Have you had the chance to get to know any of the student-athletes?
Yes, mostly the football and softball players, but other student-athletes as well. They are all terrific, good kids with a great sense of humor. All of the student-athletes are really busy, but they do take the time to say hello and are respectful.

What’s the next game you’re looking forward to attending?
I’m looking forward to us hosting ECAC Hockey Playoffs [in mid-March]. The team is doing really well this year, and it’s great seeing all of their hard work paying off.

Caroline ‘Poto’ Potolicchio ’14

Stats: Women’s ice hockey team; psychology major
Hometown: Bethesda, Md.
Game: Men’s lacrosse; defeated Vermont 10-6, 2/18/12

Why are you at today’s game?
My brother [one of four] came to visit because he’s looking at attending Colgate and possibly playing lacrosse.

What are some of the things you like about the athletics department?
Raider Nation! And being a member of the Rowdy Raiders. It’s been a lot of fun being a member and receiving cool Colgate prizes for attending games. It’s been great seeing students supporting our philanthropic causes, like our Autism Awareness game and basketball’s Play 4Kay pink games.

What do you like best about attending Colgate?
The academic reputation, and the size of the school — I love being able to walk around and see familiar faces.