Women's 4x400 Winners at NCAA Indoor Championships
The Women's 4x400 Relay team took a third place finish in Friday's prelims and turned it into a championship performance in Saturday's finals to take home the title of National Champion. With two individual All-Americans from Friday's heats (Fiona Mejico 13th in the women's 400, Ren Zanze 14th in the men's 400), the Mules returned from Rochester, N.Y. with plenty of hardware.
Zanze opened the meet Friday with his Second Team performance (finishers 9-16) in the 400, followed by Mejico. Kaitlyn Ewald also competed in the 400 but narrowly missed All-American distinction in 17th. Zanze was joined by Peter Martel, Jackson Coelho, and Levi Biery for the men's 4x400 Relay. Despite appearing to have one of the top times in the opening heats, an unfortunate lane violation disqualified the Mules from advancing. Mejico had one more individual preliminary round to race (19th in the 200) before joining teammates Tally Zeller, Kristina Pizzi, and Ewald for Friday's final event, the women's 4x400 Relay. Colby's time of 3:47.91 was .52 off the top pace of the team from Washington University, setting up a thrilling showdown for Saturday's finals.
Saving their best for last, Colby's performance in the finals set a new facility record with a time of 3:45.95 to edge WashU (3:46.20). Wisconsin-La Crosse placed third and NESCAC rival Williams College finished fourth.
"This is exciting! I am very proud of the professionalism our athletes displayed throughout the entirety of the championship weekend. Coming back with six All-Americans, including a National Champion Relay, is the accumulation of a lot of hard work, commitment, and discipline." - Head Coach Dave Cusano
With the winter championship in the books, the outdoor season is less than a week away. Colby opens its spring break trip on Friday in Atlanta with the Emory Invitational.
Women's Ice Hockey Rocks Mayflower Hill to Advance in NCAA Tournament
With the O'Neil | O'Donnell Forum filled up with campus and local supporters, the Colby Women's Ice Hockey team shook the rafters for four scores en route to a 4-3 win over Wilkes University to advance in the NCAA Tournament. The Mules earned their third bid in the last four years for the national showcase by claiming one of only four at-large bids.
Audrey Shirer gave Colby a quick 1-0 lead just a minute into the contest and Breanna Studley found the back of the net at 15:41 for a 2-1 advantage at the end of the first period. The Mules owned the second period as a pair of goals from Megan Martodam and Molly Lefebvre extended their lead to 4-1. The Colonels answered back with a goal in the third just 21 seconds in and then made it a tight 4-3 game with a late third-period powerplay goal. By playing tight defense in the final 50 seconds Colby held on for the win. The victory was aided by a solid penalty kill, as the Mules kept Wilkes to just one power-play goal on four chances. Mandy Busky totaled 26 saves in the matchup, including some key saves late in the game.
The 18-6-2 Mules advance to the quarterfinal round Saturday to take on NESCAC champion Amherst College. Colby holds the season advantage over the Mammoths with a two-game sweep in February, but Amherst is no stranger to postseason play as they have now reached the NCAA Quarterfinals for the third straight year. The puck drops at 3:00pm.
Baseball Sweeps Brandeis, New England College
With four games in two days, Colby's Baseball team swept Brandeis Saturday and New England College Sunday for a dominant 4-0 weekend.
Saturday's opener in Waltham set the tone for Colby's weekend. With the Mules up 4-1 in the fifth, the Judges plated three in the bottom half of the inning to tie it up. After four scoreless innings, Corey Aubuchon's RBI single in the 10th gave Colby the lead for good.
With quality pitching performances over the two days by starters Derek Woods, Ryan Grecco, and Jack Bohrer, it was Thomas Rioux who stole the show with six scoreless innings in game two against Brandeis. The junior allowed just one hit in the third inning and finished his afternoon after throwing only 65 pitches.
Ryan Grace and Clint Flippo led the way offensively against Brandeis, collecting four hits each in the two-game set. On Sunday against NEC, Flippo was joined by Patrick Shrake as Colby's hit leaders with five apiece. Collecting nine hits across the four games, Flippo is currently batting .531 and has multi-hit games in six of eight to start the season.
Colby now sits at 7-1 with one more game before traveling to Davenport, Fla. for their seven-game spring trip. The Mules will host Husson University on Wednesday.
Defense Key as Women's Lacrosse Steals Come-From-Behind Victory Against Amherst
Colby's Women's Lacrosse team ran its win streak to five games to start the season with a 12-11 win at #17 Amherst. The Mules outscored the Mammoths 5-2 in the final 10 minutes to erase a fourth quarter deficit and keep pace with the other top teams in the NESCAC.
The matchup saw a back-and-forth battle, with the Mammoths initially taking a 4-2 lead in the first period. The Mules bounced back to tie the game at six midway through the third period. In the final quarter, Kins Helmer tied the game at 2:43 followed by Julia Jardina’s 20th goal of the season, the game-winner with 57 seconds remaining. The contest was marked by significant penalty action, including eight total green and yellow cards.
Jardina led the offense with four goals followed by Ainsley Dion and Olivia Kraus, both with a goal and a pair of assists. Helmer contributed three goals as well while Kat Munter added nine draw controls.
Colby's 5-0 record places them in a three-way tie for first in the NESCAC with Middlebury and Tufts, and also slides them up to #5 in the IWLCA poll. The Mules will open spring break in Waterville Saturday morning as they host Hamilton at 11:00am.
Women's Tennis Earns Ranked Win over #25 Brandeis, Sweeps Smith
After beginning the spring season with three straight road matchups, the Mules hosted Smith and #25 Brandeis over the weekend on Mayflower Hill.
On Saturday the Mules swept Smith College 7-0. The #3 team of Ella Novion and Amelie Gal led the way in doubles with a 6-0 victory. In singles, Colby continued to assert control, with Finestone winning in straight sets 6-2, 6-3 at #1, and Novion (6-2, 6-1) and Waka Aida (6-3, 6-2) also securing comfortable victories from the third and fourth spots. The Mules' strong performance across the board clinched the shutout win.
The following day Colby defeated #25 Brandeis decisively 6-1. In doubles competition, Aida and Isabella Suk secured a 6-4 victory at #2 while Novion and Gal won 6-1 at #3 to secure the doubles point for the Mules. In singles, Colby continued their dominance winning five of the six matches, including close wins from Michaela Landry, Novion and Suk.
The Mules will now head to the Golden State for their spring break matches with a 4-1 record. They will kick off the week with Occidental on Sunday, March 23rd.
Men's Tennis Sneaks by Saint Michael's
In their spring season home opener on Friday afternoon, the Mules defeated the Purple Knights in a close 4-3 battle.
To begin the contest the Mules dominated in doubles, winning all three matchups to earn their first doubles point of the season. Josh Kaplan and Diego Sosa teamed up at the #3 spot, taking down their opponents 6-3 while Aidan Kwong and Marco Ziets-Segura secured an impressive 7-6 (6) victory at the #2 spot. Jake Cohen and Jason Daly (headline photo) found themselves down 1-3 at the #1 position before putting together an impressive run of games, taking five of the next six to clinch the doubles point for the Mules, 6-4.
In singles, Colby secured victories from Cohen (6-2, 6-1) and Daly (6-2, 6-3) at the top two spots, while Ziets-Segura (6-2, 6-4) also earned a straight-set win at #4 singles to close out the 4-3 team victory.
Men's Tennis (2-3) will now head down to Orlando over spring break for three matches at the USTA National Campus. Their first match will be against Lawrence on Monday, March 24th.
Hot First Half Doesn't Hold For Men's Lacrosse Against #10 Amherst
Facing their second top-10 opponent in a two week span, the Men's Lacrosse team opened strong against Amherst jumping out to a 6-5 halftime lead. A staunch Mammoth attack recovered in the final 30 minutes to jump back in front and turn away the Mules 14-8.
Colby showed resilience throughout the game, especially in the first half. After trailing 2-0 early in the first period, the Mules responded quickly with goals from Will Steele, Bennett Goller, and Jackson Alvord to tie the game at three. In the second, Colby scored three unanswered goals from Goller, Gavin Rothenberg, and Steele to take a 6-3 advantage. Though Amherst surged in the second half, the Mules kept battling with Rothenberg adding two more goals. The Mammoths kept up the pressure, including winning 64% of the face offs, and closed out the game to remain undefeated on the season. Will Heisler finished with 15 saves in the cage as Matt Murer totaled five ground balls.
Colby will head to Hamilton on Saturday for a 1:00pm showdown.
Special thank you to the photographers who helped make this production possible: Bonnie Baker Photography, Steve Cheney P'25, Stephen R. Clouthier, Traigh DeMasi '28, Jamie Fiedorek '25, Steve Fuller @flyingpoint, Peter Li '26, Michael Maher, Reese Robinson '27, Junan Shimizu '25, Daryn Slover P'28, Marty Thornton Photos, Ansley White '26, and the Colby Communications team.