Bobcats of the week of Oct. 31, 2011
Tully Hannan ’14 (men’s cross country) and Polly Merck ’14 (field hockey)
Tully Hannan '14
Bates sophomore Tully Hannan led the Bates men’s cross country team to another excellent performance on Saturday at the NESCAC Cross Country Championships, held at Amherst College.
The No. 9 nationally ranked Bates men’s cross country team tied with Bowdoin for second place out of 11 teams at the meet, toughing out terrible course conditions to record the team’s best conference finish since also placing second in 1994. Williams won the team championship with 49 points, followed by Bates and Bowdoin with 79 apiece. Seventh-ranked Middlebury, the pre-race favorite, finished fourth with 94 points, and Tufts rounded out the top five with 109.
Hannan (West Hartford, Conn.) finished fifth overall among 129 runners to lead the Bobcats in an impressive time of 26:20, the best time by a Bates runner ever on Amherst’s 5-mile course, 12 seconds faster than the former team mark held by Dan Johnson ’05. Hannan earned First Team All-Conference honors for finishing among the top seven. Junior Andrew Wortham (Newton, Mass.) took Second Team All-NESCAC honors for his 13th-place showing, with a time of 26:32.
Hannan has been the Bobcats’ top finisher in five out of six races this season, including the NESCAC and State of Maine championship meets.
Polly Merck '14
Sophomore forward Polly Merck’s (Beverly, Mass.) first career goal proved decisive in last Wednesday’s 1-0 win at Colby for the Bates field hockey team.
Merck’s goal, about four minutes into the second half, along with a shutout performance by sophomore goaltender Becca Otley (Cumberland, Maine), allowed the Bobcats to close out the season on a winning note, with their second NESCAC victory of the year.
Bates finishes up at 4-10 overall and 2-8 in the conference, while Colby also closes out the season at 4-10 overall and 1-9 in the league.
Merck, who entered the game with a pair of assists to her credit this season, scored after a scramble in front of the Colby goal with 30:58 left in the second half, knocking the ball past Colby goalie Michelle Burt.
Otley made seven saves to post her third shutout of the season, in her return to action after missing the previous two and a half games with an injury.