Report - Wentworth Institute of Technology

Wentworth is extremely proud to add seven members to the Athletic Hall of Fame. The sportingachievements of Warren Cochrane, AET ’81 (rifle); Ivan Filippov, BMT ’01 (hockey); Kevin Hanlon, BCT ’05(basketball); and Donald “D.J.” McBain, BCMT ’01 (lacrosse); and the personal commitment of MylesElliot, AC ’28 and Eugenia Louise Sweeney, and Dr. John Van Domelen, have demonstrated Wentworthtraditions of perseverance, talent, and generosity of spirit for our current and future students to build upon.Athleticspage10With a running start at making Wentworthhistory themselves are Sherrad Prezzie-Blue,BSM ’08 (men’s basketball rookie of theyear ’04-05), Todd Doyle, BSM ’09 (men’sbasketball rookie of the year ’05-06),Cheyenne Noble, BMET ’07 (women’sbasketball rookie of the year ’03-04, firstteam all conference ’04-05 and player of theyear and first team all conference ’05-06),Danielle Banks, BINT ’10 (women’svolleyball rookie of the year ’05-06) andmen’s soccer rookie of the year ’05-06,Mike Gregory, BAET ’10. With outstandingincoming talent like these young studentathletes,the upcoming years look to bemore exciting than ever.While men’s basketball was in a rebuildingyear, the team’s accomplishments in ’05-06speak for themselves with their first playoffappearance since 2001. In a momentstraight from a highlight film, Wentworth,seeded number eight, beat the number oneseed, Roger Williams, 68-67 with a basketat the buzzer in the first round of the tournamentto win their first playoff game since1999. They bowed out to eventual leaguechampion Endicott, 74-60, in the semifinals.Finishing 10-16, the team won 10 games forthe first time in five years, building on thework of their back-to-back rookies of the year!Led by Commonwealth Coast ConferencePlayer of the Year Cheyenne Noble,women’s basketball had its most successfulseason ever with a 14–11 record, going tothe conference tourney for the first timesince 1999. With all five starters returning,the team holds great promise for theupcoming year.Although Wentworth hockey has recentlyseen four conference championships in fiveyears, injuries hindered the team last year.After a bad stretch mid-season, the teamreally came together to put up a string ofwins and earn the sixth seed in the conferencetourney at Nichols. In the quarterfinals anddown 5-0, they drew strength to score fivegoals and bring the game even, forcingovertime.While they had a few opportunitiesto take the win, Nichols scored, ending theevening and the season. This season theteam welcomes new head coach R.J. Tolan,up from associate head coach last season.Early challenges against nationally rankedHobart and Geneseo in the late fall willoffer opportunities and invaluable experienceto this young team, which has 23 freshmanand sophomores making up the bulk of the29 student-athletes on the roster.The rifle team, the oldest sport on theWentworth campus, qualified for the Mid-Atlantic Rifle Conference championships.Although defeated by Princeton at the conferencechampionships, look for the teamand senior Stan Nobles, BCET ’07 (co-captain)to make their mark this year.With only one graduating player in 2006,the baseball team moves into the new seasonwith a powerful recruiting class. The newsquad came together in late January and willmove on to training in Florida over SpringBreak.Men’s lacrosse has been consistent,although they lost leading team scorers andtheir best defensive player from 2005; theymanaged a 5-8 record, bringing in somepowerful wins to close the season. This yearholds promise coming on the heels of arebuilding 2005-06. Coinciding with theopening of Sweeney Field 10 years ago,Men’s lacrosse was made a varsity sport in1997 and after almost 10 seasons has a50-50 win-loss ratio.The men’s soccer team finished first in theconference with a record of 13-2-1.Accomplishing a lot on the field, they tiedthe best regular season record in Wentworthhistory and went undefeated at home. Theteam was awarded the CommonwealthCoast Conference Team SportsmanshipAward, an award voted on by coachesthroughout the league. With this pastseason’s rookie of the year, Mike Gregory,and coach of the year, Bob Long,Wentworthsoccer has a bright future ahead.Starting 1-7-1 was not the goal, so thewomen’s soccer team put on the after-burnersto leap to 8-9-2. The team finished close toa 500 season and played in the conferencetourney only to be defeated by the eventualconference champion, Endicott, in the firstround. Moving from the club level to varsitysport in 1998, the program chalked up 10wins in just its second year. In nine years, theteam has won 93, or 57 percent, of its games.Danielle Banks, rookie of the year and thefirst women’s volleyball player at Wentworthto ever win a major conference award, leadsthis season’s women’s volleyball into somegreat challenges. With a well-rounded teamand Banks’ killer statistics, these matches areset to inspire.With the newly renovated Tansey Gym floorcompleted volleyball and basketball areready to mark their territory and bring evenmore success to Wentworth.Wentworth’s student-athletes are a uniquebreed. In Division III, it is not a scholarship,but rather love of the game that drives theathletes. As pointed out by AssociateAthletic Director Bill Gorman, in exchangefor hard work and talent, Wentworth’sstudent-athletes take away extraordinarytime-management skills. “Making the mostof your courses, practice and travel time,on call for co-ops and 8:00a.m. classes,you have to learn time-management skillsto survive.”