COACHES BLOG: CROSS COUNTRY, FIELD HOCKEY AND SKIING
The UNH Coaches Blog will be a
weekly feature in which selected coaches share thoughts and
insights about their program. This week’s blog highlights the
field hockey, cross country and ski teams.
FIELD
HOCKEY
We are now finished with our regular season play. We finished the
season with a record of 12-6 after beating Harvard in overtime last
night 5-4.
Whitney Frates (Woodstock, Vt.) scored the game-winning goal at
6:27 in the overtime. Cally Cooke (Newburyport, Mass.) and Kate
Collins Smyth (Parteen, County Claire/Ireland) both tallied a goal
and an assist while both Kara Connolly (Mohegan Lake, N.Y.) and
Hayley Rausch (Severna Park, Md.) were credited with two assists in
a balanced UNH attack. Meg Shea (Melrose, Mass.) scored two goals
and added an assist to continue her point scoring streak to 18
games. Meg Shea now has 23 goals, 9 points, for 55 points on the
season. She is now 2nd all time for goals and points in a
season!
In the America East conference games, the Wildcats are leading
several of the scoring categories. Meg Shea leads the league in
points, points per game, goals, goals per game, assists, and
assists per game. Her fellow forwards follow close behind. Leah
Boody (Amesbury, Mass.) is tied for 2nd in points, points per game,
goals, and goals per game. Whitney Frates is also tied for 4th in
both goals and goals per game.
We look forward to the release of the Conference Awards on
Thursday to honor the ‘Cats in both team and individual
successes.
This upcoming weekend we will be traveling to Albany, which is
hosting the America East Tournament as the top seed. The Wildcats
will take on the defending champs at 1:00 pm on Friday November 6th
in a rematch of last year’s championship game. The Cats look
to reconcile last year’s 2-1 loss, with our sights set on
“Continuing the Climb in 2009.”
(Robin Balducci ’85 is in her 19th year as UNH field
hockey head coach.)
CROSS
COUNTRY
Thanks again for this opportunity to participate in this
year’s UNH Coaches’ Blog for the men’s and
women’s cross country and track programs. This past weekend,
the cross country teams competed in the America East Cross Country
Championships held in Burlington, Vermont. The men finished as
runner-up and the women finished in 4th place. My congratulations
go out to the Binghamton men’s team and the Stony Brook
women’s team for their 1st-place finishes.
Driving home on the bus after the meet I started to think about
the tradition of the UNH cross country program. The men’s
team has had a remarkable string of success at the American East
conference meet. Looking all the way back to 1995, the UNH men have
two 3rd place, five 2nd place and eight 1st place finishes at the
America East conference meet. In the past nine seasons the team has
never finished lower than 2nd, with 6 championships! The
women’s team has also enjoyed running in the America East
meet as well. Looking back to 1997, the UNH women have one 4th
place, six 3rd place, five 2nd place, and one championship in 2003.
That is a total of 28 America East Championship races with only one
finish lower than 3rd place! I would like to thank all the former
student-athletes and coaches who have played a part in this
success.
We are now turning our cross country attention to the NCAA
Regional meet on November 14th at Franklin Park in Boston.
Meanwhile, the track and field teams are very busy training for the
upcoming indoor and outdoor track seasons. We will be opening up
the indoor season the first week of December. That’s only one
month from now!
I will leave you with a run down of the UNH cross country team
finishes at the America East Championship over the past years.
Men
Women
95-3rd
96-2nd
97-2nd
97-2nd
98-1st
98-3rd
99-1st
99-3rd
00-3rd
00-2nd
01-1st
01-2nd
02-1st
02-3rd
03-1st
03-1st
04-2nd
04-2nd
05-2nd
05-3rd
06-1st
06-2nd
07-1st
07-3rd
08-1st
08-3rd
09-2nd
09-4th
(Robert Hoppler is in his 10th year as the UNH women’s
cross country head coach. He has assisted with the men’s
cross country and track distance runners for 13 years.)
MEN’S AND
WOMEN’S SKI
Starting in 1923, the ski team has a great history. With 7
Olympians, 39 All Americans, 7 national champions and 30 top-10
finishes nationally, the team is focused on adding to these
numbers.
Last year the team finished 9th at the NCAA Championships and had
eight All Americans, which is the most for one year in the history
of sports at UNH! Our goal is to continue our climb
nationally to be a top five team consistently.
Being UNH graduates, alpine head coach Brian Blank and I are proud
to continue in the great tradition we have at UNH. The
team’s assistant coaches, Steve Monsulick and AK Walker, are
back for their second year and are doing a great job.
The team will be led by Alpine captains – senior Willie
Ford, Veronique Archambault-Leger, Mike Cremeno, Alex Norden
– and Nordic captains Katie Miller, Tasha Kullas, Dylan
McGuffin and Erick Anderson. We will begin competing in Eastern
Cups in December, and during January break we will be in training
camp in the White Mountains before starting our Carnival Collegiate
Circuit on January 15th.
Check out our history and keep updated on our results at our new
website. www.unhskiing.com
(Cory Schwartz enters his 25th year as ski coordinator/Nordic
head coach for the University of New Hampshire ski team and is in
his 28th year on the staff.)
