“The season’s been going well so far,” he said. “We had a great fall. I can’t be more optimistic. We have a great group of guys together, really hard working. I have no doubts that I’m going to come back healthy and play well. We have a great vibe on our team right now, and we’re in a winning mood.”

Curtis Roby is captain of the Dartmouth men’s tennis team. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

Roby, a native Upper East Sider and graduate of the Trinity School, picked up tennis when he was 11 and has been playing at a high level ever since, though he feels that he didn’t truly hit his peak until college. During his first two years at Dartmouth, he finished 30-20 in singles and 27-21 in doubles. Now the team captain, he’s focused on maintaining that winning record.

“College sports is certainly a lot more intense than what I was used to in high school,” Roby said. “Being on a team and facing so much pressure every match is a little different, but I definitely embrace that.”

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Cross Country—Of all the fall sports, none had more locals competing in college than cross country. The honor roll of runners started in the city, where Natoya Bromfield (LaGuardia) finished 16th for Hunter College at the City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) Championships. Former high school teammates Khrystyna Uhlitskykh and Elizabeth Messina were 21st and 36th, respectively, competing for Brooklyn College. Caroline Chung completed the local LaGuardia contingent, finishing 43rd for Lehman, where Shane King (Environmental Studies) was on the men’s roster. Jeannette Dobosz (Martin Luther King) of St. Francis was 63rd at the Northeastern Conference Championships. Jena Ko, the only other LaGuardia graduate running, was 21st at the SUNY Tech Invitational and 66th at the Liberty League Championships for William Smith.

In the Ivy League, UPenn’s Jeff Weinstein (Dalton) was 65th at the Iona Meet of Champions and 88th at the Heptagonal Championships. Teammate Joe Myrie (Collegiate) placed 113th at the rather pessimistically named Fordham Fiasco. Brian Hill (Regis) was 29th for Harvard at a dual meet with Yale. Dylan Trotzuk was also on the Crimson’s roster, while Dwayne Alexis, another Collegiate alumnus, ran for Dartmouth.

Other former Collegiate runners included Villanova’s Chris Williams, Hamilton’s Hashem Zikry and Ges Adams, who was a captain for Vassar and placed sixth at the Steven Invitational and 43rd at the Albany Invitational. Among his teammates were Rafael Ricaurte (Regis), who finished 21st at the Stevens meet, and William Healy (Loyola), who nabbed 112th place at the NCAA Atlantic Regionals.

The running alumni from Hunter were also numerous. Dan Stair was 120th at the Main Line Invitational for Swarthmore, while Sam Ghitleman competed for Oberlin and finished 14th at the Wooster Invitational and 77th at the North Coast Athletic Conference Championships. At Tufts, Kirsten Brown was 67th at the Trinity Invitational. Her teammate Tina Milburn (Chapin) finished inside the top 200 at the Boston Mayor’s Cup.

Two Brearley alumnae ran for Bowdoin. Skyler Walley placed 37th in a dual meet against Bates, and Christina Argueta placed 44th at the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Championships, 54th at the New England Division 3 Championships and fifth in the Maine State Championships. She was also named to the NESCAC All-Academic Team. Sophie Haas, another Brearley graduate, competed for Grinnell, finishing 166th at the Wartburg Invitational.

Haas’ teammate Sasha Dunbar (Beacon) was 21st at the Midwest Conference Championships, and 126th at the NCAA Central Regionals. Sarah Wenger, who also formerly ran for Beacon, was 11th at the Bard Invitational for SUNY New Paltz.

Luke Willert (Dalton) and Brandon Whitaker (St. Agnes) both ran well as freshmen. The former was 74th at the West Region Preview Meet for Pomona, while the latter was 57th at the Stevens Invitational for Concordia.

Finally, a trio of seniors wrapped up their college careers well. SUNY Old Westbury’s Hakiem George (Life Sciences) earned 39th place at Stevens, Natalia Drozdiak (UNIS) was 18th at the Purchase Invitational for Bard and Bucknell’s Baron Willeford (Columbia Prep) was 31st at the Patriot League Championships and 116th at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals.

Volleyball—Once again, CUNY schools benefited tremendously from local Manhattan volleyball players. At York, Norman Thomas alumnae Emely Vasquez and Sashe Almonte made big impacts as freshmen. Vasquez started 24 matches and recorded 36 kills, 13 assists, 26 aces, 122 digs and nine blocks, while Almonte started 16 matches and produced 20 kills, 21 aces, 67 digs and 13 blocks. Another Norman Thomas graduate, Rodesha Donaldson, played in 35 matches for Hunter, tallying 25 kills, 20 assists, 41 aces and 165 digs. City Tech’s Stephanie Novas (Art and Design) started all 18 matches and had 28 kills, 16 assists, 14 aces and 21 digs. And at Brooklyn College, Thea Schlieben (Rudolf Steiner) played 21 matches and recorded 22 kills, 16 assists, 14 aces and 69 digs.

Freshmen Adelynn Shreffler and Hannah Cassius competed at upstate colleges. Shreffler (Brearley), who played nine times for Skidmore, notched 11 digs, while Cassius (LaGuardia) played 17 times at Vassar and produced 28 assists, five aces and 63 digs.

Farther afield, there were four locals playing in the NESCAC. They included Amherst’s Mary Reiser (Nightingale), Connecticut College’s Jamie Honohan (Marymount), Middlebury’s Charlotte Heilbronn (Spence) and Bowdoin’s Victoria Edelman (Trinity). Honohan had nine digs in seven matches, Heilbronn recorded 10 digs in four matches and Edelman played 27 times and contributed 120 kills, 30 assists, 10 aces, 34 digs and 51 blocks.

Out in Ohio, Lizzie Orfaly (Fieldston) was a libero for Oberlin and put together nine aces and 113 digs in 23 matches. At rival Kenyon, Meggie Strew (Trevor Day) had 10 aces and 15 digs.

Football—In varsity play, Peter Eames (Riverdale) had the only statistical contribution, playing in three games for Hamilton and breaking up a pass. Three others didn’t get into a game but were on their teams’ rosters: Greg Barton (Dalton) at Washington and Lee, Terence Mooney (Hunter) at Kenyon and Columbia’s Dan Cohen (Horace Mann).

In sprint football, David Jean-Baptiste (Regis) had one catch for 24 yards, one forced fumble and one recovered fumble for Princeton. The Marin Brothers (Riverdale) played at UPenn, with Jordan getting one tackle and Jason running 130 yards on 19 carries.

Other Sports—Mount Holyoke’s Nicole Nounou (Horace Mann) played one game for the field hockey team. And at Vassar Hal Moore (Hunter) Guillermo Farias (UNIS) and Matthew Elisofon (Trevor Day) were members of the rugby squad.

Nick Springer helped the United States Paralympic wheelchair rugby team win a gold medal.

player before a bout with meningitis led to amputations of his arms and legs when he was 14. But the life-threatening experience couldn’t keep him off the ice.
“I’ve been playing sports my entire life,” Springer said. “After I got hurt, I started playing something called sled hockey. I was pretty good at it, but I could only go so far because of my disability. Someone suggested I check out wheelchair rugby. I tried it and immediately realized it was something I could be good at.”
Wheelchair or quad (short for quadriplegic) rugby is usually played on a basketball court with four players a side trying to maneuver a ball over a goal line. Most well known from the 2005 documentary Murderball, it is an intense contact sport where wheelchairs often get toppled over. And that’s where Springer comes in. Without hands, he doesn’t contribute much offensively, but his burly frame and upper-body strength gives him the ability to drive opponents nuts by blocking and sometimes ramming into them.
“I just go out there blocking other players and giving them hell,” Springer said.
He picked up the game at 17 and realized within a year that he had the potential for greatness in the sport. He joined the national development team in 2005 and the Paralympic squad a year later. In 2006, he also traveled to the World Championships in New Zealand and won his first gold medal.
So no matter how much tragedy he has faced, Springer now has two medals around his neck and plenty of optimism for the future. The 2012 Paralympics in London don’t seem so far off.
“I’m the second youngest guy on the team and have no plans to retire anytime soon,” he said. “I’m enjoying this medal, but I just want to keep competing.”