{"id":63093,"date":"2012-06-15T00:00:12","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T04:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=63093"},"modified":"2016-01-14T12:07:14","modified_gmt":"2016-01-14T17:07:14","slug":"bates-in-brief-sports-scorned-runners-lewiston-baseball-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2012\/06\/15\/bates-in-brief-sports-scorned-runners-lewiston-baseball-players\/","title":{"rendered":"Bates in Brief Sports: Scorned runners, Lewiston baseball players"},"content":{"rendered":"

The men\u2019s track team worked hard for its big wins in 2012, including the program\u2019s second-ever NESCAC outdoor championship in April and first-ever New England and ECAC indoor titles last winter.<\/p>\n

For one element of the team, however, the grueling work was motivated by a painful snub two years ago that left them shut out of an NCAA championship meet.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Feisty running by the likes of Tully Hannan \u201914 \u2014 who runs cross country in the fall \u2014 helped to propel the men\u2019s track and field team to multiple titles in 2011\u201312. Photograph by Tom Leonard \u201978.<\/p><\/div>\n

Rewind to November 2010. Bates\u2019 cross-country runners have gathered at the home of head coach Al Fereshetian.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the worst days of my coaching life.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Huddled around his computer, they\u2019re waiting for the NCAA to announce the at-large bids to the Division III championship meet. They refresh the browser maybe a hundred times before the crushing news appears: Bates has not received a bid.<\/p>\n

To the runners, it looks like the selection committee has unfairly tried to balance the field by inviting more teams from outside the college-rich New England region.<\/p>\n

The snub \u201cwas one of the worst days of my coaching life,\u201d Fereshetian says.<\/p>\n

Partly to prove a point to the NCAA, Fereshetian schedules an out-of-region meet at St. Lawrence University for fall 2011. The move is a masterstroke. The Bobcats, then ranked 22nd in the nation, soundly beat St. Lawrence and SUNY\u2013Geneseo, two teams ranked higher in the polls.<\/p>\n

The point is made: New England has both quantity and quality, and deserves to be well represented. In November, Bates is among five NESCAC teams to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA meet (only three were selected in 2010). All five finish in the top 15, and Fereshetian wins NESCAC Coach of the Year laurels, partly because his barnstorming trip to St. Lawrence elevated the conference\u2019s fortunes.<\/p>\n

Since then, the distance runners who felt the snub in November 2010 have used that frustration to focus their efforts in cross country and, during the winter and spring, for Fereshetian\u2019s track and field program.<\/p>\n

Not that they really need more reason to push themselves. In fact, the runners \u201clove the pain\u201d of intense competition, both against other teams and among themselves, says 17-year assistant coach Todd Goewey. \u201cIt may sound weird, but it\u2019s true. They love getting the most out of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

So while the great thrower David Pless \u201913 was the most prominent athlete during the Bobcats\u2019 recent triumphs, the distance runners stepped up with big efforts.<\/p>\n

The harriers who\u2019ve kindled fire for the track team include John Stansel \u201915 of Newburyport, Mass.; Noah Graboys \u201914 of Glencoe, Ill.; Tully Hannan \u201914 of West Hartford, Conn.; James LePage \u201913 of Cumberland, Maine; Andrew Wortham \u201913 of Newton, Mass.; Ben Chebot \u201912 of Newton, Mass.; Mike Martin \u201914 of Slatersville, R.I.; and Ken Whitney \u201913 of West Hartford.<\/p>\n

Fereshetian has no doubt that the snub of the cross-country team in 2010 got everything moving forward. \u201cIt was the genesis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Sports Facts<\/h3>\n

Men\u2019s outdoor track performers won 20 All-NESCAC honors in 2012.<\/p>\n

In one week in April 2012, Leah Maciejewski \u201912 won a Fulbright to teach in Poland while batting .750.<\/p>\n

Campus Pride says Bates athletics is a U.S. model for inclusion and friendliness to LGBT students.<\/p>\n

Swimmer Gabrielle Sergi \u201914 has an edge: Her family owns a pool company.<\/p>\n

\n

Nessrine Ariffin \u201915 Is Best Fast<\/h3>\n

In her debut, squash player Nessrine Ariffin \u201915 confirmed she could be Bates\u2019 best female player yet.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

In her debut, squash player Nessrine Ariffin \u201915 confirmed she could be Bates\u2019 best female player yet.<\/p><\/div>\n

In her first college match in November, she beat Trinity\u2019s top player, Catalina Pelaez, ranked 187th in the world.<\/p>\n

From Penang, Malaysia, Ariffin finished the year 23\u20134, earned Second Team All-America honors and joined Aisha Shah \u201902 and Ricky Weisskopf \u201908 as Bates squash All-Americans.<\/p>\n

Next fall, Ahmed Abdel Khalek \u201916 \u2014 an Egyptian by way of Westminster School in Connecticut, the two-time defending U.S. junior champion and the sixth-ranked junior in the world \u2014 will join the men\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

Squash is perhaps the most internationally diverse of all collegiate sports, and head coach Pat Cosquer \u201998 keeps his team doubly diverse by recruiting students from the StreetSquash and SquashBuster programs in New York City and Boston, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all want to be Bates students,\u201d he says. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to go where they\u2019re known primarily as squash players.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Lewiston Twosome<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Mekae Hyde \u201915<\/p><\/div>\n

At least in recent memory, first-year teammates Mekae Hyde and Alex Parker are the first Lewiston residents to play baseball at Bates.<\/p>\n

Baseball insiders like assistant coach Bob Flynn and equipment manager Jim Taylor can recall no others, and the college\u2019s alumni database turns up nada.<\/p>\n

While they\u2019re rare specimens, Hyde says the decision to attend Bates was, in the end, a \u201cno-doubter\u201d \u2014 the baseball term for a blast that leaves the park, no doubt about it.<\/p>\n

A catcher, Hyde did initially balked at attending Bates. \u201cI really wanted to get away\u201d and play Division I ball somewhere. But after a visit, he \u201cjust fell in love with Bates.\u201d Parker, too, was on the \u201canywhere but Maine\u201d trajectory. But like Hyde, a campus visit sold him.
\n

\"\"<\/a>

Alex Parker ’15<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Hyde played for Lewiston High School, a Class A program, while Parker attended smaller St. Dominic High School in Auburn, a Class C power.<\/p>\n

Both locals came to Bates for the \u201cright reasons,\u201d says head coach Mike Leonard: a potent blend of academics and athletics. \u201cThey both work extremely hard. And they both want to help the team,\u201d Leonard says.<\/p>\n

\n

Sports Quote<\/h3>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s every little kid\u2019s dream to play Division I, but you have to look at what\u2019s better for you in the long term. Education is going to trump athletics every day.\u201d \u2014 Mekae Hyde \u201915, baseball player from Lewiston<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Big efforts by the men’s track team in 2012 were motivated by a painful snub two years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10574,10856,11031,9804],"class_list":["post-63093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-batesnews","tag-bates-in-brief-2","tag-bates-magazine","tag-magazine-spring-2012","tag-tully-hannan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63093"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64559,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63093\/revisions\/64559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}