Championship weekend begins for swim, squash, ski teams

Posted by: Andy Walter on February 22, 2013Tags: wins

Margaret Pope and her teammates on the Bates Nordic ski team play host to the NCAA East Regional Championship Feb. 22-23, 2013, at Black Mountain in Rumford. Alpine events are at Sunday River in Newry. File photo by Steve Fuller/Flying Point Road.

LEWISTON, Maine — The biggest weekend of the winter season has arrived for Bates’ men’s squash and men’s swimming and diving teams, while the alpine and Nordic ski teams play host to the NCAA East Region Championships, highlighting this weekend’s Bobcat action.

Bates’ alpine and Nordic ski teams host the final carnival of the EISA season, which doubles as the NCAA East Regional Championships, for the second time in three years (results page). On Friday, men’s and women’s giant slalom races take place at Sunday River in Newry, while at Black Mountain in Rumford, classical technique races (women’s 5K and men’s 10K) take place. Saturday’s schedule includes slalom races at Sunday River and freestyle Nordic races at Black Mountain.

Following the Bates’ women’s team’s third straight fifth-place showing last week, the Bates men’s swimming and diving squad has its NESCAC Championships this weekend, with morning and evening sessions scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Wesleyan. (Live Results / Video).

The Bates men’s squash team has its CSA Team Nationals this weekend at Yale, beginning Friday at 3:30pm with the 15th-ranked Bobcats’ Hoehn Cup (B Division) matchup against No. 10 williams.

The men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams travel to Boston for the all-divisions Open New England Championships, taking place Friday and Saturday.

While other Bates spring athletic teams are on training trips this week (men’s and women’s rowing in Texas, men’s lacrosse in Maryland, women’s lacrosse in Florida), some have been competing this week, too. Baseball wraps up its weeklong trip to Georgia with a doubleheader at Oglethorpe University on Saturday, followed by a twinbill at Emory University on Sunday (Video / Live Stats). Men’s and women’s tennis have been in California this week, and they’ll finish that trip on Saturday with matches at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.