By: Connor Blake, Staff Writer
As the spring semester gets underway, winter sports at the University of Southern Maine are still in season. As the teams near the end of their season, they hope to make the final push for playoffs.
Men’s Ice Hockey: Their season started back in November against a tough Castleton University team losing 4-3 in overtime. They got off to a slow start losing their next four games, but their woes would not be for long as they got their first win of the season against Suffolk University. This first win game off the stick of senior economics & business analytics major Mark Tomaschek in overtime to win 2-1. This was a spark for the Huskies as they went on to shut out Johnson and Wales University 5-0 with a stellar performance from junior general management major and goalie Anthony D’Aloisio, stopping 21 shots. Classmate and junior English major Maverick Lynes scored two goals as they moved to their second win of the season. With only a couple of games in December, the Huskies tied 2-2 against Skidmore College and had their highlight of the season by beating third-ranked Hobart College in a thrilling 3-2 overtime victory. Entering the month of January, while everyone was on break, the Men’s Ice Hockey team was back playing games. The team started the new decade off right by winning against Bowdoin College. The Huskies came up short against their next three opponents but earned their revenge by beating Castleton University 2-0 on January 18th. The team has an overall record of 5-12-3, with January coming to a close the team is sitting in 66th place in the NCAA Division III pairwise rankings.
Women’s Ice Hockey: The season opened up on the first day of November in 2019 against a tough University of New England team losing 3-0, as well as losing 3-1 against Endicott college. It wasn’t long after they secured their first win of the season against New England College, as they won 3-1. They would win two more times in November coming against the University of Massachusetts Boston, winning 4-2 and winning 2-1 against Johnson and Wales University. After an up and down November, The Huskies looked to turn that around entering December, winning two times with two shutout wins coming from an excellent performance in goal from senior exercise science major Whitney Padgett who stopped 25 shots against Bowdoin College to win 2-0. She stopped an additional 22 shots against Salem State University to win 3-0. The women got their first win of the new decade on January 18th against Becker College, winning a thrilling 5-4 game with sophomore health sciences major Julianne Nelson scoring twice, including the winning goal in the 3rd period of play. With only five games left to play, the Women’s Ice Hockey team stands at 8-10-2 and is currently ranked 43rd in the NCAA Division III pairwise rankings.
Men’s Indoor Track & Field: The Men’s Indoor Track & Field team started their season off with the University of Southern Maine open on December 14. While this event didn’t have any team results The highlight of the event came from freshman accounting major Carson Gross who tied the second-highest high jump mark in school history clearing 2.05 meters (6.73 feet). At the USM Open II, the men went on to win with 13 top-three finishes. The Huskies had an impressive five first-place finishes during the event with sophomore general management major Riley Peterson finishing first in pole vault with a height of 4.5 meters. Gross continued his streak, by placing first in the high jump with a height of 1.98 meters. On the track, sophomore biology major Yahya Nure took the top spot in the 5,000 meters with a time of 15 minutes, 32.15 seconds. Joining him was senior exercise major Cam Labrie who won the 600 meters with his time of 1:25.83. Lastly, the Southern Maine 4 x 400 relay foursome of senior nursing major C.J. Moody, juniors Josh Bloom (general management) and Daniel Flaherty (history) and rookie mechanical engineering major Brian Niznik posted the best time of 3:30.57. The team is currently nationally ranked 14th in Division III, and you can see them compete for the Little East Conference (LEC) Championships at USM on February 22 as they go for their 4th straight LEC Title.
Women’s Indoor Track & Field: The Women’s Indoor Track & Field team started their season off at the USM Open on December 14th as well. At the event, sophomore health sciences major Mykayla Hoggard set the school record in the long jump with her mark of 5.73 meters. Hoggard was not done, as she also placed first in the 55-meter dash. Most recently at the USM Open II the Huskies placed 3rd amongst 11 teams, lead by senior health science major Adela Kalilwa who placed first in the long jump with a mark of 5.52 meters and capped off her day by winning the triple jump with a mark of 11.42 meters. The Women’s Indoor Track & Field team isn’t done yet, on February 7 at 6:00 pm the Maine State Championships will be hosted at Costello Sports Complex at USM, along with the LEC Championships on February 22.
Wrestling: The USM Wrestling team started their season off strong on November 2nd winning their first three meets of the season. The team finished November with an impressive 4th place finish at the Doug Parker Invitational at Springfield College. The Huskies didn’t slow down as they placed 3rd place out of 15 teams in their very own Ted Resse Invitational which was held at Costello Sports Complex. At the invitational, senior exercise science major Peter Del Gallo stayed undefeated as he led USM with a first-place finish in the 125 weight class. Since coming back into the new decade USM winning four out of their eight duals. Most notably, Del Gallo continued winning and currently is the second-placed nationally-ranked wrestler at 125 pounds. To see the USM Wrestling one more time this season, they have a home meet against New England College on February 13 in Hill Gym.