Around the Herd: Feb. 19 to Feb. 26 in Athletics

Men’s Swim and Dive

On Thursday, the No. 18-ranked team traveled to Middlebury to compete in the conference championships, which saw a number of strong performances from the senior class in their final laps as Mammoths. Jaden Olson ’25 placed second in both the 50m and the 100m butterfly with times of 21.74 and 47.92. Setting an Amherst record, Fynlan Nadel ’26’s time of 54.46 won second place in the 100m breaststroke race. In the 200m freestyle, Jack Goepfrich ’28 placed second with a time of 1:37.26 to set a school record. Also, Tor Metelmann ’25 set an Amherst record with a finishing time of 1:49.65 in the 200m individual medley. In the meet’s longest event, Gabriele Lunardi ’25 earned third place in the 1650m freestyle finishing in 15:40.44, a top-20 time for Division III this season. Also, with a top-20 mark, the Mammoths placed third in the 200m medley relay with a time of 1:28.69 from the combined efforts of Andrew Yuen ’25, Nadel, Olson, and Ethan Van De Water ’26. Tallying 1,252 points, Amherst placed third overall at the meet. Goepfrich was also named Rookie of the Year.

The team awaits selections for the NCAA Division III Championships on March 19.

Women’s Squash

Squaring off against Lawrence University and Chatham University, the women’s squash team hosted the Amherst Round Robin this week.

On Friday night, at the Davenport Squash Courts, the Mammoths faced off against the Lawrence Saints. Kristen Daniel ’28 battled through a tough match at the first spot, winning the fifth set 13-11 to claim the first win. Amherst dominated the remaining matches, conceding just one game. Ella Miller ’28 — one of the five players to win in straight sets — only lost five points in the entire competition.

On Sunday, Amherst played a dominant game against the Cougars in addition to celebrating their senior players. Tanmai Pathak ’25 opened the competition with a strong straight-set win at the first spot. At the fourth spot, Miller played an efficient game, conceding only five points to win 3-0. Also winning in straight sets, Isabelle Tilney-Sandberg ’25 won her final game with a perfect score of 11-0. The win marked the Mammoths’ ninth sweep of the season.

The team will look to continue their success in Philadelphia at the CSA Divisional Team Championships this Saturday, Feb. 29.

Men’s Squash

This week the men’s squash team celebrated Senior Day and hosted Lawrence University and Chatham University at home.

The Mammoths found themselves at an early disadvantage on Friday against the Saints, losing the match in the first spot. Amherst responded quickly, however, as Gabe Yu ’27 won in straight sets, setting the tone for the rest of the night. The Mammoths took five of the remaining seven games in three sets, including a dominant performance by Grady Herbert ’26 who won his first game 11-0 in the seventh spot. The Mammoths finished 8-1 to win the first match-up in the Amherst Round Robin.

On Sunday, the team returned to the Davenport Squash Courts to celebrate Senior Day against Chatham University. After losing matches at the first and second spots, Joseph Toth ’27 provided the Mammoths with momentum with a 3-1 win at the third spot. Fares Khairy ’28 won three consecutive sets to overcome a two-set deficit at the fourth spot. At the sixth spot, Grady Herbert played a dominant game, conceding just 12 points in a straight-set victory. Walter Huffman ’25 was also strong at the ninth spot, surrendering only 17 points to give Amherst the 6-3 victory over the Cougars.

On Saturday the team will travel to compete in the CSA Divisional Team Championships.

Women’s Hockey

This week, the women’s hockey team played back-to-back games against NESCAC rival Hamilton at home.

On Friday, the Mammoths found the back of the net first against the Continentals; on the powerplay, Emily Hohmann ’26 scored off a feed from Cara Mancini ’27 less than ten minutes into the game. Hamilton responded five minutes later to tie the score 1-1. With less than a minute left in the first period, passes from Marie-Eve Marleau ’26 and Maeve Reynolds ’26 led to a goal by Alyssa Xu ’25, restoring the Amherst lead. In the second period, the Mammoths struck again with a shot from Mancini, assisted by Reynolds and Xu. Ayla Abban ’28 extended the lead with an unassisted goal halfway through the second. Scoring her second goal and third point of the night, Mancini scored on a power play in the third period to give Amherst a final victory of 5-1 over the Continentals.

The Mammoths celebrated their senior players the next day with a rematch against Hamilton. The six seniors — Maggie Groszek ’25, Kelsey Stewart ’25, Xu, captain Anna Baxter ’25, Julia Weiss ’25, and Bush have left quite the mark on this program, making multiple NESCAC championship appearances deep NCAA tournament runs. After a scoreless first period, the closest offensive chance came from the Continentals in the second, which forced goaltender Natalie Stott ’26 to make a diving save. A sequence from Reynolds and Abban set up Marleau for a shot on net, but Hamilton’s goalie stayed sharp as well. With both teams still goalless, the Continentals’ goaltender made another big save to rob a redirect by Marleau off a shot from Gretchen Dann ’26 in the last seconds of regulation. In overtime, Dann intercepted a pass from Hamilton player’s stick and made a pass to Hohmann. The defender returned the puck back to Dann who ripped the game-winning goal into the back of the net. Stott and Kaila Bush ’25’s combined shutout gave the Mammoths their 11th straight win at Orr Rink.

The No. 1-seeded team will face Connecticut College on Tuesday, March 1 in the first round of the NESCAC Tournament.

Men’s Hockey

The men’s hockey team had a banner weekend with two stellar back-to-back performances for their final regular season games. They started off on Friday at Middlebury, taking on the Panthers. The Mammoths were the first to strike; Andrew Carmody ’26 won a faceoff and sent it up the ice to Matt Toporowski ’25, who forwarded to Josh Burke ’26 for the wide-open score. Just two minutes later, the Mammoths doubled their lead when Vincent Velocci ’27 found the net again, this time off the assists from Burke and Ben Ritter ’26. The Panthers would answer with one of their own in the first period to set the score at 2-1 heading into the second period.

Late in the second period, Middlebury tacked on two more scores to temporarily take the lead 3-2. The Mammoths flipped a switch after the second period, though. With newfound fire, they dominated the third period going on an unanswerable run. One minute in, Toporowski equalized off passes from Burke and Carmody. Then, four minutes later, Carmody got one of his own, off a phenomenal pass from Zachary Murray ’25. The team continued the attack, putting on an offensive clinic. Ben Kuzma ’25 entered the scoring column with a shot off the pass from Zack Jesse ’27. And Kuzma wasn’t done for the night just yet — he scored yet another tally three minutes after his first to put the Mammoths up 6-3. Desperate to bring the game within reach, the Panthers pulled their goalie. Velocci capitalized for the final point, scoring on the open net. With the score sitting at 7-3, the Mammoths got 73 shots from their offense and 26 saves from goalkeeper Andrew Palena ’27.

After a good night’s sleep, the Mammoths took on rival Williams in a game that would determine their final seeding for the NESCAC tournament. Five minutes into the first, Burke sent a pass up the ice to Murray, who corralled it and sent it past the Ephs keeper for the early lead. Then, one minute later, Matt Vander Vort ’27 sent another pass into the offensive half. This time, it was Cristobal Tola ’28, who controlled the puck and scored to put the Mammoths up 2-0. With the momentum growing, the Mammoths simply could not be stopped. At the eight-minute mark, still in the first period, Toporowski got his score when he maneuvered through defenders to triple the lead. And right after him, Bobby Luca ’25 decided he wanted in on the scoring action, sending one past the keep to make the lead 4-0. In the second period, the Ephs successfully found two scores of their own. However, they would never come close to taking the lead from the Mammoths. Kuzma added a score of his own in the second period to slow down the Ephs’ energy. In the third period, both teams showcased strong defense, with the game culminating in a 5-2 final score in favor of the Mammoths. After this weekend, Kuzma and Luca are tied with a team-high 10 scores apiece.

With these back-to-back wins, the Mammoths solidified their NESCAC ranking for the regular season. Sitting at the No. 6 spot, they travel next week to play the Colby Mules in the first round of NESCACs, hoping to avenge their regular season losses.

Track and Field

This past Saturday, the men’s track and field team cleaned up, finishing in first place at the Triangle Classic, held at Springfield College. Charlie Spurrell ’26 had the performance of the meet, setting a new school record with a weight throw of 17.76m. Alec Kuzyk ’27 broke his own school record in the pole vault, and Christoph Osselmann-Chai ’28 won the 60m hurdles while Ben Davis ’26 took first in the 400m. The Mammoths went 1-2 in the 800m, with Parker Boyle ’27 crossing the line to win, followed by Aidan Gemme ’26 less than a second later for the second-place finish. In the 3000m, the Mammoths swept the top three spots, with Ben Kasen ’28, Harrison Talcott ’27, and Sam Young ’27 on the podium.

The women’s team also secured the first-place finish at the Triangle Classic, scoring 15 points. Isabella Lozier ’26 had a banner day, winning the 800m with a time of 2:24.52 and placing third in the mile. With a total score of 2,832, Madison Vant ’28 placed third in the pentathlon, while captain Eliza Cardwell ’25 and Myeh Medina ’26 placed second and third respectively in the 60m hurdles. For their New England Division III Championships, the Mammoths have an impressive 61 qualifiers on the women’s side, three of whom secured their qualifying times at the Triangle Classic.

Both the men’s and women’s teams prepare this week for the New England Division III Indoor Championships next weekend, which will take place at The Track at New Balance in Boston.

Men’s Basketball

The men’s basketball team concluded their season this past weekend, losing to Wesleyan in the NESCAC quarterfinals. On Saturday, they traveled to Middletown, Connecticut, to take on the top-seeded Cardinals. The Mammoths were in it from the very start: Marc Garraud ’27 equalized right off the bat. Buckets from the likes of Chris Hammond ’26, Drew Martin ’26, Ryker Vance ’25, and Elias Chin ’28 helped keep the Mammoths close. Ultimately, though, foul trouble allowed the Cardinals to go on a run in the last five minutes of the first half, which put them up 35-26 heading into the break. But the Mammoths would not be deterred. Coming out of halftime, they traded blows. Finally, with 12 minutes left in the game, they finally gained a slim 45-44 lead off a jump shot from C.J. Mitchell ’25. Their fouls would continue to plague them and allow Wesleyan to retake control of the match. In the bonus early, Wesleyan accumulated free throws throughout the remaining time, capitalizing for a final score of 65-58. Will Scherer ’25 had a team-high 10 rebounds, while Vance had the team-leading 13 points. Chin added three defensive steals. The program looks to regroup and work, always looking ahead to next year’s season. They graduate six seniors: Canin Reynolds ’25, Mitchell, Bobby Sommers ’25, Vance, Noah Helmke ’25, and Scherer. Each of these Mammoths has contributed incredibly to the program, and there is no doubt they will be missed.