The Oldest College Weekly in America. Founded 1868.

The Colgate Maroon-News

The Oldest College Weekly in America. Founded 1868.

The Colgate Maroon-News

The Oldest College Weekly in America. Founded 1868.

The Colgate Maroon-News

Men’s Hockey Sweeps Senior Weekend Matchups

Jaime Heilbron February 24, 2011

The Colgate men's hockey team is officially sizzling. The Raiders have won four of their last five games, including two against nation­ally ranked teams. Last Friday night, Colgate knocked off No. 16...

Womens Swimming and Diving Takes Patriots

Women’s Swimming and Diving Takes Patriot’s

Emma Barge February 24, 2011

Colgate's women's swimming and div­ing team are the stars of Raiders Athlet­ics this week after handily clinching the Patriot League title at Bucknell over the weekend. The squad captured the lead af­ter the very first day of competition and never let up, finishing with a team total of 862 points. The men's team also traveled to the meet, but did not experience the same noted level of success. They finished fifth place overall with a final tally of 363 points.

The men did, however, mark up the Colgate record books. Most remark­able was Casey Powers, who shattered a 35-year-old Colgate record in the 1650- yard freestyle by an astounding 12 sec­onds with a time of 15:47.15. Senior Tucker Gniewek chipped in with a third place finish in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 44.92 seconds, .15 seconds be­low the previous Colgate record. Junior Costas Hadjipateras finished fifth in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:49.83, almost a minute under the Raider record. Raider teammate Devon Healy also broke his own personal record in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 3:56.49, while the 400-yard freestyle relay unit composed of Dan Sweeney, Pat White, Sam Ellis and Gniewek just missed the team's record by under a second.

The real narrative is in the women's Patriot League competition, where they held onto the first-place spot for three consecutive days to completely dominate the meet.

The team finished the first day of rac­ing with 198 points and swept the top three positions in the finals. Erica Derlath swam brilliantly, finishing over a second earlier than teammates Caren Guyett and first-year Claire Hunter, who also contrib­uted to the Colgate victory. Senior Erin McGraw added to the total point count by earning the 200-yard individual med­ley title as she beat her personal best time by just under a second. Sophomore Emma Santoro and first-year Megan Jex followed closely behind.

The second day of competition marked a slew more of Colgate victories. Sopho­more Kim Pilka shattered the old 1-meter dive record with a score of 303.40 to blast Army's Chelsea Haviland's 2006 mark of 291.85. The 800-yard freestyle relay team set a new league mark to give the Raiders a comfortable margin above their trailing opponents. The relay team of McGraw, Hunter, Santoro and Guyett also shattered an old Colgate record by 1.5 seconds. Their time of 7:20.09 also became the new Patriot League, championship meet and Kinney Natatorium record.

Guyett also did some personal record breaking on the second day of the com­petition in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:47.61, more than a second off both her own preliminary time and pre­vious record-holder Lisa Marchi's time of 1:48.93.

McGraw rose to the occasion in the 100-yard butterfly as the Raiders had three women place in the top five to earn 50 points towards the team score. Mc­Graw won her first individual title with a time of 54.36 seconds, just missing her record time of 54.02 seconds.

Rebecca Murray and Maggie White also contributed to the team tally after finishing the 100-yard breaststroke at third and seventh, respectively.

On the final day of competition, the Raiders' spirits were high. Their times and scores could not be beat and their confidence could only contribute to more success.

In the first swimming final of the day, Derlath won her third title of the week and broke a Colgate record in the 1650 freestyle with a time of 16:24.83, break­ing her personal record by an incredible 15 seconds. The time also broke the Pa­triot League record. Guyett also broke the previous record, but could not match the time of her teammate and finished second in the race.

At the end of the three-day competi­tion, Fernando Canales was named the Patriot League Women's Coach of the Year, while McGraw was awarded the Fe­male Swimmer of the Meet honors. Pilka was also recognized as the top diver with the Female Diver of the Meet title. All in all, the meet marked the victorious end of a successful season for the women.

 

Track Teams End Season At PL Championship

Matt Flannery February 24, 2011

This past weekend, the Colgate track and field teams traveled south to Annapolis to take part in the Patriot League Indoor Track and Field Cham­pionships held at Navy. The women's squad competed well and earned 58 points en route to a solid fifth place finish. The men accumulated 20 points across the meet, and placed seventh overall. Despite the modest team placements, both squads ran performed well, and several indi­vidual runners and relay units earned All- Patriot League Honors.

The women's squad impressed on Friday and Saturday and asserted their strength in the long distance and medley events. The team also saw some measurable success in the longer of the sprinting events. For the second week in a row, senior Michele Miller turned in a dominant per­formance in the 400-meter dash. Miller posted a final time of 57.87 in the event- good enough for third place overall.

The Raiders proceeded to nearly sweep the podium in the 500-meter dash, as first year Ja­mie King-Prunty and junior Alexandra Atkin­son placed second and third overall, respectively. King-Prunty turned in a time of 1:16.55, and capped off a strong regular season, earning sec­ond team All- Patriot League for her efforts. Atkinson clocked in just behind her teammate, finishing the event in a very respectable 1:17.04. In the distance events, junior star Elise DeRoo reasserted her dominance after a several-week absence from team competition.

The Colgate leader placed first overall posted a time of 2:53.85 in the 1000-meter run. The gutsy performance earned DeRoo first team All- Patriot League honors. In the 1 mile run, DeRoo turned in another dominant perfor­mance in placing third overall. She completed the race in a swift 4:48.44, and earned 6 points for the Raiders in the process.

In the 5000-meter run, senior captain Julie Tarallo placed fourth overall, posting a final time of 17:37.97. Finally, the team performed excep­tionally well in the distance medley, placing first overall and earning first team All-Patriot League honors. Colgate's ‘A' squad (junior Kelly Cat­tano, DeRoo, sophomore Amy Sleeper, senior Hilary Hooley) posted a final time of 11:58.26 in the relay. DeRoo also commented on the ef­fect of earning individual and team accolades in saying, "It's always inspiring to see your team­mates be successful and I think having such a solid group of All-Patriot League athletes will inspire everyone on the team to strive to achieve such honors in seasons to come."

The men's squad didn't experience quite the same level of success as the women, but there were several bright spots for the Raiders across the two-day meet. In the 200-meter dash, junior Grahm Tooker placed fifth overall with a time of 22.34. Tooker continued to contribute consis­tently in the 400-meter dash, where he posted a final time of 49.9 en route to another fifth place finish and another two points. In the middle-distance events, the Raiders experienced even greater success.

In the 800-meter run, seniors Jonathan Knowlton and Andrew Smith placed fourth and sixth, respectively. Knowlton snapped the tape in a quick 1:54.14, while his teammate and classmate flew across the finish line in 1:54.91. The event was a fitting regular season conclusion for the two runners, who were rock solid across the board in the middle-distance events this sea­son. The squad experienced an uncharacteristic lull in the long-distance events, failing to score any points in the longer races at the meet.

That said, the Raiders made up for their unforeseen drop by posting points in all three relay events. The most notable performance occurred in the 4x800 meter relay, where the team's ‘A' squad (senior Ed Boulat, junior Tim Metivier, Knowlton, and Smith) placed second overall. The foursome completed the event in just 7:34.78, and earned eight points for the men's team- nearly half of their entire meet's output. The dominant performance earned each of the runners second team All- Patriot League honors.

Both the women's and the men's teams will have a week off before some mem­bers travel to Boston for the IC4A and ECAC Championships.

The Champions League is Back!

Radoslav Ivanov February 17, 2011

The first knock-out round of the UEFA Champions League finally proved why ev­eryone gets so excited about this tourna­ment. After a fairly boring and uneventful group stage that had no surprises and...

New Season of Football in Jeopardy

Macklin Woodruff February 17, 2011

Now that the Super Bowl is over and the Green Bay Packers have celebrated back in "Titletown," attention has shifted to the 2011-2012 season. The difference this year, however, is that a season is by no means guaranteed.

The collective bargaining agreement between the NFL owners and the NFL Players Association is set to expire on March 3. The two sides have been very stubborn in their negotiations and thus far haven't been seeing eye-to-eye. Essentially, both the owners and the players want more money.

There are a few headlining issues in these nego­tiations, the first of which is how to carve up the nine billion dollar pie of profit that the NFL nets annually. The players are campaigning for more money because each franchise is valued around $1 billion, but the average players salary is just under $2 million. Right off the bat the owners came out firing. They demanded taking $2 billion of the profit right away and spreading it out amongst themselves, leaving a $7 billion budget to fit every­thing else into. This is a one billion dollar increase from the last collective bargaining agreement, al­located strictly to the owners. Owners argue that they need this extra money in order to cope with the rising costs of purchasing and maintaining sta­diums, and the smaller details that go into running a franchise.

The second point of contention is whether of not to add two games to the regular season sched­ule. Roger Goodell wants to eliminate the four game preseason and sixteen game regular season format. Instead, he wants two preseason games with an 18 game regular season schedule. The play­ers would not have a problem with this setup but the increase in work does not correlate with a pay raise; it is coupled with a reduction in pay. Fans would be thrilled to have two more exciting regular season games and the NFL would make a signifi­cant amount of additional money. Still, the beating that the players take week in and week out cannot be ignored. More play should equal more pay.

The installment of a rookie salary cap is another controversial issue in the collective bargaining talks. First round picks have been getting paid ridiculous amounts of money with lucrative signing bonuses. The issue is not that these players don't deserve money, but it is hard to come to terms with the fact that an unproven player can make $40 mil­lion guaranteed. For example, in the 2010 NFL Draft, Sam Bradford, the number 1 overall pick, was signed to a six-year, $78 million contract with $50 million in guaranteed money. Matthew Staf­ford was the previous number one overall pick and was signed for $6 million less and $9 million less in guaranteed money. The money it takes to sign a number one pick has gone up every year since 2003, with the exception of Jake Long in 2007. This trend doesn't appear to be slowing down, which gives the owners a legitimate reason to want to put a cap on the amount of money a rookie can sign for. We might not see an increase in pay from Sam Bradford's contract this upcoming draft because the top three picks aren't projected to be quarterbacks, but that could all change in 2012.

The NFLPA has started the long process of "de­certifying" themselves. This basically means that they will disband as a formal union so that each player isn't affiliated with the NFLPA and becomes an individual. This is a strategy against the potential lockout because the NFL can't take action against an individual who has a contract unless they want to battle thousands of antitrust lawsuits. The NFL­PA has to decertify by March 3 or else they can't file a lawsuit for six months. This is easy motivation for the players to quickly unite in decertification so that they don't have to wait six months until their next paycheck. In the most recent development, the NFL has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the NFLPA based on their decertification strategy, which the NFL deems as "sham negotiat­ing". This type of unfair negotiation strategy vio­lates their previous agreement to negotiate in good faith. In reality, this charge against the NFLPA is just the owners' way of delaying the decertification process in hopes that it will take longer than the March 3 deadline, taking leverage away from the players. The owners have no incentive to give into the players' demands once the deadline has expired because they are still getting paid during the offsea­son or even if the season never starts. The television contracts will still be paying millions of dollars to the NFL even if a single game isn't being played. But the players will be sitting on a dwindling pile of cash as they inch closer and closer to caving into the owners' demands.

It is hard to believe that the NFL owners are trying to get more money out of a system that has seen a seven billion dollar increase in profits since 1993. But, they believe that as the profits expand, so should the ratio going into their pockets.

One way or another, there will most likely be an NFL season in 2011-12. But it is still unclear as to whether or not that season will start on time, or have a 16-game format. The NFL as we know it could be completely different whenever these chaotic negotiations come to a close.

Melo Needed at Madison Square Garden

Scott Blumenfeld February 17, 2011

The New York Knicks have not had a winning season since the 2000-2001 NBA campaign. In fact, only twice during that span did they even come remotely close to winning 40 games. Fi­nally, after nearly a decade spent embarking on a series of disastrous signings of players, coaches and front office personnel, Knicks fans finally ap­peared to have something to cheer about during the 2010-2011 season. However, except for one inspiring stretch of basketball during the middle of the season, the Knicks have been far from im­pressive. While it appears as if Amar'e Stoudemire has made the Knicks relevant again, all they have accomplished this year might quickly evaporate if the organization doesn't make a serious move to get Carmelo Anthony. What is worse then spending year after year wasting away in obscu­rity in the greatest sports market in the world? Doing so with a $100 million dollar superstar on the team.

I am not suggesting that a Knicks team with Amar'e will be bad in the same fashion that other recent Knicks teams have been, but with the way they have been playing recently, their 4.5 game lead over Charlotte for 9th place in the conference is beginning to look increasingly tenuous. The East boasts the Bulls, Heat, Magic and Celtics, all of which have several past, present or future All Stars on the roster. Thus, the Knicks will never be a contender until they acquire at least one more su­perstar. When considering that all of those teams, with the exception of the Celtics, are led primar­ily by young superstars, it is hard to imagine the Knicks challenging them any time soon without acquiring Melo.

At this point, no player on the Knicks with the exception of Amar'e should be untouchable (The jury is still out on Ray Felton). Gallinari, Fields, Chandler and company are all adequate role players, but none of them should be the piece that stops the Knicks from completing a deal with Denver for Carmelo. Many people are concerned that the Knicks will gut their team in order to get the Nuggets star, which will derail any possibility of competing for a champion­ship. Still, if this Knicks team was ten games over .500 and playing consistently solid bas­ketball all season, I could accept this rationale. I understand that it might be difficult for some of these players to play while knowing that they could soon be traded somewhere else, but so is the nature of professional sports. Plenty of teams go through similar situations and play perfectly well, so this should not be the Knicks' excuse for playing poorly. Breaking up a .500 team by giv­ing away a few solid role players and mid-round draft picks in order to acquire a young superstar in his prime should not be much of an issue. This is increasingly important to note considering the recent consolidation of talent in the NBA recently.

The biggest mistake the Knicks can make would be to plan to wait until the off-season to try to sign Melo. With the NBA's immediate fu­ture still hanging in the balance, I personally have doubts that Carmelo will refuse a $65 million extension with the Nuggets if no trade can be ac­complished. Other teams such as the Mavericks and Lakers have been discussed in trade scenarios where they would look to obtain Melo's services for the remainder of the season as they make their playoff runs. While I think these scenarios are unlikely, it is better not to take the risk that Carmelo will play for one of these teams, loves his new city and decides to remain there. Even if Car­melo makes it to the free agent market, there is no guarantee that he signs with the Knicks. Rumor has it that Lebron was not at all enamored with the Knicks presentation during last off-season. If that was the case, I hope the Knicks would be better prepared for when Carmelo makes his official trip to NYC.

Putting Carmelo on the Knicks would not make them a legitimate threat to immediately win a championship, especially if they have to give up several of their key players to do so. Add­ing his offensive prowess to Mike D'Antoni's high scoring offensive system, however, would create an incredibly potent offense. While they would still be a few pieces away from winning a championship, it shouldn't be particularly dif­ficult to convince a third impact player to join those two superstars in Madison Square Garden. The Knicks are obviously not the only player in all of this Melo drama and thus do not have complete control over the scenario. But, with the NBA trade deadline just days away and the All-Star break nearing, the Knicks need to be doing everything they can to avoid missing out on this opportunity. It is not very often that a player of Carmelo's caliber becomes available, especially when that player has explicitly stated that he would prefer to join your organization. If things do happen to go wrong with the Carmelo situation just please, please don't bring Isiah back.

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