Hot Take: Softball will sweep the series against the winless University of Pennsylvania
Ava Politis | Team: Softball | Event: Three-game series against the University of Pennsylvania
After dropping their last two Ivy League matchups, Dartmouth softball will host a three-game series this weekend against the 0-12 University of Pennsylvania. UPenn is the only team in the Ivy League without any conference wins. With the 5-4 Big Green currently tied for third with Brown and Harvard, they should have no trouble sweeping the Quakers and improving their record to 8-4. With three wins, they could surpass Harvard and Brown in the standings.
Reigning Ivy League Pitcher of the Year Jensin Hall ’27 will be taking the circle this weekend after pitching a gem against Princeton on April 4, where the Big Green won 2-1. A typical collegiate softball game has seven innings, but eight scoreless innings pitched by Hall kept the game tied at zero. It was not until the ninth that the Tigers finally hit a solo homer to make it 1-0.
Hall’s teammates were able to back her up as Cwen Wilson ’27 hit a game-tying homer in the bottom of the ninth and Justice Malone ’27 walked it off with a solo homer in the bottom of the tenth.
Hall pitched ten innings, the most in her collegiate career, and allowed only one run with eight strikeouts and four hits. With this momentum, she should have no trouble pitching a shutout game against the Quakers who have scored only 85 runs this season, the lowest in the Ivy League.
Hot Take: Track and Field will break more records in this weekend’s meets
Sid Singh | Team: Men's and Women’s Track and Field | Event: Friar Invitational and UMass Commonwealth Invitational
Track and Field has wasted no time vaulting into the record books at the start of their outdoor season. In the season’s opening weekend, they shattered five program records and had five more finishes break the top 10 in school history. Two of these records, the Men’s 400 meter and the Men’s 4x400 meter relay, stood for over 30 years — previously set in 1992 and 1975, respectively. The team continued to make history in the University of Connecticut Dog Fight Invitational last weekend, where Cate Schelly ’27 won the women’s discus event and placed tenth in Dartmouth’s all-time list.
The Big Green will bring this escalating momentum into their two meets this weekend. Along with momentum, they will carry a nearly full team, unlike the first two weekends in which only a handful of athletes competed.
“We are starting to get in the meat of the season as almost everyone is competing this weekend,” said Ayush Saran ’27.
The full team is well-rounded, with sprinters, distance runners, and throwers all getting top 10 placements in their first three meets, so several athletes are in contention to keep rolling and break another record. Some clear candidates are sprinters Bryce Thomas ’27 and Jada Jones ’26, who have already broken the 100M and 400M program records, respectively. However, don’t be surprised if there’s a new name in the record books, such as distance runner Ashton Bange ’27.
“The team is feeling good about the early-season fitness we have,” Bange said. “The fitness I’ve built from the fall and winter showed as I ran a personal record in my first outdoor 1500m.”
Whether it’s Bange, Thomas, Jones, Schelly or another impressive athlete, the Track and Field record books will continue to be rewritten this weekend.
Hot Take: Number three doubles Denny Bao ’28 and Alex Knox-Jones ’25 will remain undefeated
Madison Savoy | Team: Men's Tennis | Event: 8 Against Hate Weekend
The Men’s Tennis team has had a well-ranked season thus far, placing between the high 50s and 70s. Although the team had a disappointing weekend where they lost 0-4 to the University of Pennsylvania and 0-7 to Princeton University, the number three seed doubles team, composed of Denny Bao ’28 and Alex Knox-Jones ’25, remains promising.
Despite their last two matches being unfinished, the team has remained competitive. At UPenn, the duo was just trailing behind 6-5 as the match was stopped when the Quakers secured the doubles point. At Princeton, the pair were leading 5-3 when the match ceased as the Tigers grabbed the doubles point.
According to Bao, the pair began playing together at the start of spring break. Since then, they have been a dynamic duo: at 5-0, the pair has won every match they have finished since they began holding the third doubles seed. Notably, they have two wins against ranked opponents — a 6-2 win over No. 73 Loyola Marymount University in the season opener and a 6-3 win over No. 14 Harvard University.
Bao, Knox-Jones and the rest of the Big Green squad will bring this confidence and momentum to the remainder of the season.
“I feel like we’re playing really well together.” Bao said. “Hopefully, we can get a few more wins for our team in the next few matches.”
Be on the lookout for an exciting game on Friday at 2:00 p.m., where Men’s Tennis plays Yale University, as well as a handful of upcoming matches at the Boss Tennis Center. As far as I am concerned, the Yale Bulldogs’ third doubles team should be worried.
Hot Take: Brand will lead Dartmouth to a first place finish at the Princeton Invitational
Brendan Meyers | Team: Men’s Golf | Event: Princeton Invitational
On April 12 and 13, the Dartmouth men’s golf team travels to the Princeton Invitational, facing off against a field of Ivy League opponents. Two weeks away from the Ivy League Championships, the Big Green will take advantage of this invitational to earn a first-place finish, led by Tyler Brand ’27.
The Big Green have momentum after their third place finish at the Columbia Spring Invitational last weekend, which was their second-highest finish of the year. The Big Green will be pushed forward by Brand, who tied for first last weekend. Brand shot a 70 in the first round, an even par, followed by a 69 to shoot a cumulative -1. He has the chance to replicate his first-place finish this weekend among teams that the Big Green have competed against in prior invitationals.
Brand should have assistance from fellow team members Alex Gu ’25 and Eli Kimche ’25, who finished 10th and 26th, respectively, at Columbia. With their collegiate careers nearing a close, both are poised to elevate their game with only two invitationals left.
With the Ivy League Championships in two weeks, the Big Green will make the leap and have the momentum to achieve their first win of the season.
