Dear Alumni, Parents and Eph Fans,
I’m excited to reach out to you on a beautiful spring day in the Purple Valley. The trees are budding and the daffodils are blooming all over Williamstown. The College is alive with students, anxious to be back outside and enjoying the Berkshires. We are in full swing with spring sports and have just a few weeks left of the regular season before we begin our postseason pursuits.
The winter was full of great Eph accomplishments. Both men’s basketball and women’s ice hockey made the NESCAC tournament with men’s basketball hosting the semi and final games. The NESCAC semifinal was against Amherst and drew one of our largest crowds. The student section hosted a SAAC run ‘white-out’ Super Fan event.
The men’s basketball team learned the following Monday that they were selected to the NCAA tournament and would travel to Oswego, NY for the opening rounds. They won the first and second rounds and then headed down to Greensboro, NC for the Sweet Sixteen round to play the 2023 NCAA Champions, Christopher Newport U.
Both Alpine and Nordic Ski teams had a strong year. We were able to host the carnival at Jiminy Peak and Prospect Mountain for the second year in a row. Nordic Ski had a great season with Keelan Durham qualifying for the NCAA Championship in Steamboat CO.
Wrestling took nine men to the Northeast Regionals and qualified Peter Kane for the NCAA National Championship. I was able to travel out to Wisconsin with Coach Scott Honecker and watched Peter come in second in the country—the third finalist ever finish for our Ephs!
The Squash programs took home NESCAC Rookie of the Year awards for both teams (men | women), as Nick Agger earned the honor on the men’s side and Melanie Wang for the women’s squad.
Track & Field had a great winter season despite not having an on-campus indoor facility. The team worked out of a converted mill in North Adams that they affectionately call the ‘Track Shack.’ The speed/power group traveled daily to the facility while our distance runners found space on the turf or around campus to get in some miles. We worked together with the coaches to find meets in the region that would double as competition and training for the later season events. The team sent more than a dozen athletes to NCAA championships in Virginia Beach, VA and made us all proud (men | women).
Swimming and Diving captured both NESCAC titles this year and several individual honors (men | women). Sophia Verkleeren was named NESCAC Swimmer of the Year, Adelaide Herman earned NESCAC Diver of the Year, and Samantha Kilcoyne took home the NESCAC Career High-Point Swimmer Award. On the men’s side, Jacob Grover garnered the conference’s Career High-Point Swimmer Award. Steve Kuster, Allie Clark and James Singewald received the NESCAC Swimming Coaching Staff of the Year honor on both the men’s and women’s side. They qualified 25 athletes for NCAA championships down in Greensboro NC. The team won several All-American finishes and individual titles. Overall the programs finished the NCAA Championships in 4th place on the women’s side and 5th place on the men’s side (men | women). Not only are these athletes amazing in the water, their accomplishments pile up outside of the pool as well. Eph swimmer Cole Mason was named a Rhodes Scholar.
The results from our winter programs have moved us up to 3rd place in the Learfield Directors Cup rankings. Johns Hopkins and NYU are in the top 2 spots and we are the top NESCAC team. The Ephs placed 173 student-athletes on the NESCAC Winter All-Academic Team. Additionally, 27 Ephs were named to the NESCAC All-Conference First Team 17 were represented on the Second Team and 18 on the Third Team.
Our spring sports spent spring break in warmer weather, getting in some great training and a few good competitions.
One if the most exciting moments this spring happened when the rowing teams returned home from their spring trip to Clemson, SC to move-in to the new boathouse for Williams Crew on Onota Lake (slideshow).
I’m looking forward to a great end to the year. Many of our teams are poised to make a run in the post season and I’m excited to travel and support them. I hope to see some of you out there as well!
Go Ephs!
Carolyn Miles
Acting Director of Athletics