Racquetball… Back in Action!

I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

W. Rugby

Ultimate

Dressage

Men’s Crew

Racquetball

...and more!

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For more information on any of our club sports teams, please visit

us at our website clubsports.uconn.edu

or e-mail us at uconnclubsports@uconn.edu

Club Sports Coordinator: Kate Durant

Kate.Durant@uconn.edu

Club Sports GA: Dani van Vierssen

Danielle.van_Vierssen@uconn.edu

Athletic Trainer Rob Huggins

Robert. Huggins@uconn.edu

HUSKY REPORT The

STORRS – The UConn racquetball team is back in action for the 2012-13 season. With some returning players and a few fresh new faces, they are looking to follow up last season's third place finish. Senior and President Jeff Celone, the top men's player this season, will lead the way in Division one of four. Celone was the Eastern Collegiate Racquetball Conference (ECRC) Regional Champion in Division Two, and he will try to carry that success into the ECRC's top division. D-1 ap-pears to be wide open this year since BU's John Craig Chisom and Rhode Is-land College's Ryan Hunter both graduated. Between the two of them, they won each of the five tournaments last season.

The team’s overall goal for the season is to go to the National Tourna-ment like the past two seasons. “Going to Nationals last season was so much fun,” says junior Leeann Waterbury. On the women's side, Waterbury and fel-low junior Katie Niels, who is also a club tennis standout, will both make the jump from D-2 to D-1 in an attempt to replace Kiersten Ferriera and National's D-2 All-American Kirsten Lurcott. At the first meet in Millersville, MD, Water-bury and Neils will attempt to retain their team’s title as returning champions. Returning senior Mike Schwarzenbach will join Celone in men's D-1. After some minor success in lower brackets of the Division 3 and 4 levels last sea-son, Schwarzenbach will make the quantum leap to the conferences top level. The team is excited to add some new talent to the roster as well. Sophomore Andrew Carrier and Freshman Nick Serrano both have years of racquetball experience and will no doubt be valuable players this season, and for the rest of their years at UConn. Serrano will represent UConn in D-2 in Maryland. On the women’s team, Julie Cappello joined in Division two. Also returning for the second meet and beyond are graduate students Vijay Jasti and Rishi Kanth, as well as junior Nanden Pandit. Kanth had success last season playing dou-bles with Celone in D-2; they won the doubles tournament in Albany, NY. The team has five tournaments scheduled through February. Nationals are sched-uled for March.

By Michael Schwarzenbach

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Men’s Crew

By Nikolos Trantalis

The first month of the semester has been a busy one for the Men’s Crew Team. They have had two regattas thus far: the Head of the Riverfront on the Connecticut River in Hartford, CT, and the Head of the Housatonic on the Housatonic River in Shelton, CT. Competing mostly against other Connecticut schools such as the US Coast Guard Academy, Trinity Col-lege, and Wesleyan University, UConn is pulling their own fin-ishing 4th at Riverfront and 6th at Housatonic. This is signifi-cantly better than in the past. The team is travelling to Boston for the season’s most prestigious event, the Head of the Charles on October 20-21st. With three boats entered this year, the team is looking to compete with some of the best crews in the Northeast on rowing’s biggest stage.

The UConn Paintball Team had their first National Collegiate Paintball Association conference event Sat-urday, October 13th at Matt's Outback Paintball in Cov-entry, CT. With the loss of many key players after grad-

uation last spring, and only a handful of practices, the team was worried how they would fair against the other well-established teams in the Northeast region. The Northeast Conference is composed of five teams this season: UConn, Rutgers, West Point, Northeastern and Temple. The team came out very strong in their first match and beat Temple 5-0. Then in their second match of the day, the team had another commanding win over Northeastern, 6-2. As of this weekend, the team is undefeated in their Conference. Next, the team will go against Rutgers, Westpoint and Northeastern University. In the meantime, the club is looking to host a paintball outing for anyone on campus that would like to attend. Once prices and a date are decided, we will make an official announcement.

Paintball

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to defeat against Wesleyan and Central, which are more competitive teams. The team took advantage of many deep throws and give-and-go offensive strategies to score regularly and keep the last two games close. On October 20-21st, the Women's Ultimate Team will play in a tournament at Rutgers , and expects a strong showing after gaining experience from earlier tournaments.

Despite having few returning players, Women’s Ultimate played well at CSU, beating Yale 15-6. However, the lack of experience led

Women’s Ultimate

Taekwondo

By Jennifer Gobin

UConn Taekwondo Starts the Season Strong at MIT On Saturday, October 13th, the UConn Taekwondo team traveled to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the first Eastern Collegiate Taekwondo Conference tournament of the year. This tournament is typically the largest of the season, with approxi-mately 400 competitors from various universities in the North-east. This year, UConn’s team brought 23 competitors to MIT, more than ever before. They performed very well in the forms competition, with a 1st and 3rd place finish in the Men’s White and Yellow belt divi-sion, a 3rd place finish in the Women’s Black Belt division, and a top eight finish in the Men’s Black Belt division. In sparring, many mem-bers of the Men’s C (white belt to green belt) Team won matches and advanced past the preliminary round. Later in the day, the Men’s A (black belt) team advanced to the quarterfinals, and the Women’s A team also advanced to the quarterfinals after an exciting overtime match.

By Kathleen Lynch

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Excerpt From the UConn Foundation's newsletter, Our Moment (May 2012) When the UConn Rugby Football Club celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2011, its alumni board looked at the growth of their sport, the strength of their alumni base, and both the potential and need for a stronger future program at the University. What emerged was a vision for an endowed fund at the UConn Foundation to support the club, a goal that members have now met and exceeded by raising more than $26,000. It is the first club sport at UConn to establish such a fund. […] Alumnus Ray Peterson has the broad perspective on the rugby club's success that comes from having played on UConn's first team in 1971, serving as UConn's first All-American rugby player, more than two decades of professional play, and, most re-cently, working as the president of the American Rugby Management Group and part-ner in USA Sevens Rugby, the largest annual rugby competition in North America. "UConn should be a national rugby power," he says. "The sport is rapidly grow-ing, and more schools are starting to get that. It will be an Olympic sport for the first time at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games. We've seen the number of high schools with rugby programs grow from 100 to 800 in just a few years, joining 1,400 college-level programs. How great would it be for UConn to develop an Olympic-level rugby athlete?" Peterson said that the club's most pressing need is a place to practice on a daily basis; they currently share playing space with several other club sports. He believes the short and successful fundraising effort demonstrates there is a passion for UConn's team from its alumni. "NBC Sports televised two days of our international tournament in February and will have two days of the Collegiate Rugby Championship on in June, partly because of the demographics of who plays and watches the sport. It blows away everyone's expec-tations. We have 16 major schools competing; UConn should have a program at that level. As alumni, we're putting our money down to invest in the future of the club. We're serious." The effort to support the fund built quickly and has been supported by both the University and the Foundation. "When you see an alumni group raise this kind of support, so quickly, it's extremely im-pressive," says John Saddlemire, vice president for student affairs. "Rugby played a big part in the UConn experience for these alumni, and we applaud their dedication and hard work in establishing a fund that will live in perpetuity through endowment. " Pablo Perez '95 (member, UConn Alumni Association) is a former All-American player and serves as the president of the alumni board, UConn Rugby Alumni, which has become an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. He shares Peterson's vi-sion for the future of the club at the University and says that the tight community of UConn rugby alumni has never been more united and focused. "Our goal is to first get UConn's rugby program to the elite level it deserves to be at," he says. "In five years, we'd like to be a top-16 program. In ten years, a national champion. This fund is just a first step that we need to take to get there."

UConn Rugby Becomes First Club Team͒͒͒͒to Establish Endowed Fund

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The Women's Rugby Team started off their season with high hopes and a lot of adjustments. Graduating many of our play-ers this past spring, the team has had to make some changes and fill some gaps.

Their pre-season opener was at the Beantown Rugby tournament in Massachusetts. The A-Side put up a tremendous effort against other D1 schools, and they received a well-earned Second Place overall. Their B-Side also held up against other strong teams and ended up winning two games. Women’s Rugby’s first official game of the season was against Norwich Acade-my, a fierce competitor and an excellent rugby team. Despite a loss, the game defi-nitely allowed UConn’s team to grow, and stirred their rugby passions, leaving the girls eager for what promises to be a fabulous Fall season. Their next game was against Boston College and was a very close match with excellent rugby being played on both sides down to the very last second. This past weekend, the team played the Univer-sity of Rhode Island in an exciting night game. The combination of amazing fans and spectacular defensive play gave UConn their first win of the season. Women’s Rugby anticipates a sensational game against Boston University and hopes their adoring fans will be cheer-ing from the sidelines. Also, they have their Alumni Game on October 7th, and the age-old tradition of reuniting their previous play-ers with their eager rookies continues.

UConn Women’s Rugby Football By Kristine Palacios-Baughman

Men’s Volleyball won their tournament on October 13th at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. They went 5 and 3 in pool play to advance to the playoffs where they beat defending NECVL Champion Northeastern 2-1 in the semifinals, and Yale in the finals 2-0. Strong offensive contributions from Outside Hitters Wil Belden and Isaac Stalzer, and good defensive performances by the Middles Leon Gunzl and Preston Lathrop, as well as from the Libero Jeremy Neaton, contributed to the win. Men’s Volleyball will be playing in their next preseason tournament at the University of New Hampshire on November 10th.

Men’s Volleyball By Bryan Huff

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By Scott Schnurr RunUC recently participated at the Heps Cross Country Invi-tational at Princeton University. The invitational was against Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, Maryland, University of Delaware, and many more. Our women showed great strength by running the 6k with a small team. Kristin Weisse (Senior English Major), came in 2nd Place in a race with over 100 women. Our men's team showed great depth and guts, with our top 7 runners all coming in under 30 minutes for 8k. This was our last regular season meet going into the North-east Regionals Championship on October 27th. Look for the RunUC to get another top 5 finish.

Run UC

The skydiving team had training this weekend on Friday night and Saturday. Friday night we took a trip to the vertical wind tunnel in Nashua, NH to practice some freefall skills. Nearly our entire team (18ish people?) was there, and we had 2 hours of flight time in the tunnel. The rookies are improving quickly, and the more ex-perienced members are training hard for nationals in December. On Saturday the weather was great and we were all out jumping at Connecticut Parachutists in Ellington. Some team members

participated in a local 6-way speed competition. The goal in 6-way is to have a team of 6 run out the door of the plane single file and create a single, pre-determined formation as quickly as possible. Your score is the num-ber of seconds it takes the team to build the formation, starting from when the first team member leaves the

By William Harris Skydiving

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Timber By Stephanie Watko

We competed in the woodsmen's competition at the Riverton Fair in Barkhamstead, CT. The events in-cluded underhand chopping, cross-cut sawing, bow saw, and axe throw. We competed against woods-men of all ages and experience levels, and our 14 members who were able to attend were very compet-itive and represented UConn well. Out of the large group of contestants, we managed to place individu-als in the top three for cross-cut, underhand chop-ping, and bow saw. Individuals also kept up with the competition in the huge turnout of 25 contestants in

The women's team played UMass this week-end and lost 5-4. We were ahead for the first two chukkers by 1 goal and UMass came from behind with a foul shot and a lucky bounce off a horse's hoof. Nora Young scored 2 goals Kara Googins scored 1 goal and Audriana Finney Scored 1 goal. The men's team played at Skidmore and lost 21-18. They put in a valiant effort and came back from a severe

deficit to almost tie the game up after the first chukker.

Polo By Kara Googins

Interested in submitting an article for the next issue of The Husky Report?

Please email: Teagan.gaeta@uconn.edu

P A G E 8

Club Sports would like to recog-nize the Triathlon Team for athletic ex-cellence. Triathlete Jeane Theleen took first place in an Olympic distance triathlon at Park City on August 26th. Amy Mausser and Karim Mabrouk al-so took first place at Maniac, a sprint triathlon, on September 9th.

The Triathlon Team holds four practices a week, which focus on the three types of races included in a tri-athlon: swimming, running, and biking. “Training for triathlons is all about mileage,” says Katery Hyatt, president of the Triathlon Team. “The basis of our training revolves around packing in the maximum distances (of all three components) while allowing for adequate recovery to prevent overtraining.”

The triathletes arrive at their races before dawn. After they set up the transition areas, or the places where the triathletes switch between swimming, biking, and running, the team regroups and excitedly waits for the start of the race. “The atmosphere before the horn is one of high energy and anticipation,” Katery says. Despite fiercely competing against one another during the race, there is camaraderie among the triathletes after the race. Katery explains that, “The competitive, charged pre-race atmosphere is transformed into a jubilant celebration as everyone congratulates each other.”

Well done, Triathlon Team! All of UConn looks forward to your future victories.

Triathlon Team Triumphs: Three First Place Winners By: Cayla Brown, Secretary, Club Sports

This past season, the Club Sports Organization had the initiative to create a fundrais-ing opportunity in which all Club Sport teams, along with other Student Organizations, could actively participate in. By opening the Depot Field Concession Stand facility, Club Sports gave organizations the opportunity to use the space to generate sales during Club Sports games taking place on nights and weekends. This type of activity brought sport teams closer as they supported one another in an effort to increase fan attendance. While this project is still in the early stages, there is much promise that the semesters to come will be very suc-cessful ones.

New Depot Field Concession Stand By: Kelsey Hahn, Intern, Club Sports

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The weekend of October 13 and 14 UConn traveled to Penn State University in State College, PA to participate in the National Club Baseball Association (NCBA) State College Fall Classic. The team went 1 and 2 with losses to both the University of Maryland and Penn State University. The win was against the Uni-versity of Delaware.The weekend of October 20th and 21st the baseball team traveled to Syracuse University to compete in a conference play. They played a double header on Saturday and a single game on Sunday. The baseball team swept and won all 3. Baseball plays in the Division I of the National Club Baseball Association (NCBA). They are in the "North Division" of the "North Atlantic Confer-ence." Their conference consists of Syracuse University, Cornell University, Uni-versity of Albany, University of Massachusetts, and Cortland University. Each

weekend baseball will play an opponent that usually involves a 3 game series where two games are played on a Saturday while 1 is played on Sunday. They are currently 4-2 in conference having lost 2 of 3 versus Cornell earlier in the conference season.

Men’s Club Baseball By Michael Crawford

UCONN Dressage’s Busy Fall Semester...

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Job Duties: Going over field res-ervations, Purchase requests, filing paperwork, checking and answer emails, among other things. Favorite part of your job: “It’s helpful to know what is going on so I can help my team with any confusion they may have that is Club Sports related. It also helps to keep my team on check with handing paperwork in on time. Plus the people here are really nice!”

Position: Club Sports Office Staff Major: Art Major How did you get involved?: “When I was a freshman my sister worked here and she told me it would be a good thing for me to get involved especial-ly being on a club sport. I played lacrosse and was also at the time interested in Sports Managment thought it would be a good idea.”

Office Staff Highlight: Olivia Taylor

The UCONN Dressage Team kicked off the semes-ter with several important and exciting events at Horsebarn Hill Arena. The team held tryouts the first week of classes and was able to welcome several new and returning members to both Varsity spots and Alternate Spots. On September 22nd the team hosted a clinic with Gold Medalist Debbie Hubbard and invited equestrians from UCONN as well as the Storrs community to ride and audit. The clinic proved successful with fifteen riders throughout the day and numerous auditors. The team had a great day- everything ran smoothly and all the horses were extremely well behaved. Riders were taught effective Dressage techniques to better improve their horses' athletic abilities. Hubbard also stressed the importance of correct rider position that is im-portant for the team to concentrate on for horse shows. The team traveled to University of Vermont Septem-ber 28-30th to compete in the first double show weekend of our region and the first shows of the Fall 2012 season. All riders competed on Saturday and UCONN Team A placed 3rd. Sunday proved to be a very suc-cessful day for UCONN, with riders in 1st level placing 2nd and 3rd, riders in Upper placing 1st and 2nd, rid-ers in Lower placing 1st and 2nd, and a rider in Intro placing 3rd. UCONN Team A won 1st place for the day, followed closely with UCONN Team B in 2nd. It was a very fun and successful weekend for UCONN and the team was very happy with the results of the weekend. The team also hosted their Fall Home Show on October 13th that proved to be a success when the team placed 2nd and had a great time!