Who's who in the NESCAC

The Jumbos are preparing for their upcoming season, and so are our competitors in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC).

Founded in 1971, NESCAC is composed of 11 prestigious liberal arts colleges, offers 14 sports for women and 13 sports for men and boasts six national championship teams from the 2015 through 2016 seasons. Middlebury won field hockey and women's lacrosse, Williams celebrated wins in women's cross country and women's soccer while, Amherst and Bowdoin took home titles in men's soccer and men's tennis respectively. The NESCAC led all conferences, with four schools that placed within the top ten of the Div. III Learfield Directors Cup, a measure of overall athletic achievement nationally.

The Daily is excited for another year of competition, and what better way to start than introducing you to the NESCAC teams the Jumbos will be squaring off against this year?

 

Bowdoin Polar Bears

Location: Brunswick, Maine

On the Field: The men's tennis NCAA championship season last year is especially impressive considering they were just the second Bowdoin team to win a national championship. Field hockey won three NCAA tournaments in four years, from 2007-10, and a fourth in 2013, making it the winningest team in Bowdoin's school history.

Mascot Madness: Although Bowdoin is plenty cold in the winter, that's not why their mascot is a polar bear. The Polar Bears trace their mascot's history back to 1909, when Admiral Robert E. Peary of the Bowdoin class of 1877 discovered the North Pole. 

 

Colby White Mules

Location: Waterville, Maine

On the Field: Although the Mules have not won an NCAA championship since 2002, their women's lacrosse team has recently seen some success. In 2009, the Mules won a NESCAC championship and were runners-up the following two years.

Mascot Madness: Colby adopted its mascot in 1923, after an editor from The Colby Echo wrote an editorial stating that the football team's success had made their "dark horse" status obsolete. Naturally, White Mule seemed a better fit.

 

Bates Bobcats

Location: Lewiston, Maine

On the Field: The Bobcats were unable to repeat either of their NESCAC crew championships from two years ago, snapping the women's two year streak. However, last season, Ahmed Abdel Khalek won the NCAA individual squash championship for the second year in a row, his last title before graduating.

Mascot Madness: The Bates Bobcat mascot was chosen in 1924 for its ability to fight despite its small stature. In 2013, the Bobcat received a makeover intended to convey confidence, fearlessness and valor. Bates will need all three to stay competitive in the tough NESCAC.

 

Amherst [No Current Official Mascot]

Location: Amherst, Massachusetts

On the Field: Amherst is the reigning NCAA champion in men's soccer, and in the pool, Emily Hyde, who graduated in 2016, swam to the top in the 200 meter breaststroke and intermediate medley. Men's and women's basketball were both able to make the NCAA semifinals, although only the women's team won a NESCAC championship last season. All of these accomplishments, in addition to an undefeated football season, make the former Lord Jeffs a team to beat in 2016-17.

Mascot Madness: Undergoing a shift in mascot,  Amherst College and its athletic teams, formerly known as Lord Jeffs, have ditched their old name due to the connection with Lord Jeffery Amherst, who in 1763 advocated for gifting small pox-infected blankets to Native Americans. While Amherst Athletics says there will likely be no official mascot released this year, that hasn't prevented people from voicing their opinions; there has been a call for the new mascot to be a moose, and there is also at least one student advocating for a purple-antlered dragon with a squirrel tail to represent the school. The mythical beast has our vote.

 

Connecticut College Camels

Location: New London, Connecticut

On the Field: The most recent addition to the NESCAC , Connecticut College, which joined the conference in 1982, has had mixed athletic success recently. No Camels team has claimed an NCAA championship since the school joined the NESCAC, but in the 2013-14 season, individual athletes took home NCAA championships in men's cross country, the 3,000-meter steeple chase for the second straight year and the 100-yard backstroke. Incoming first-year Ragna Agerup sailed the Olympic Class boat 49erFX for Norway in the Rio Olympics.

Mascot Madness: The Camels adopted their mascot in 1969 when the school went co-ed, but the new and improved version introduced in 2010 is easily worth a YouTube search for "Introducing the new camel.” Jury is out on whether or not the school will adopt “My Humps” as its fight song.

 

Wesleyan Cardinals

Location: Middletown, Connecticut

On the Field: Women's tennis junior Eudice Chong successfully defended her NCAA singles title last season, offering some reprieve for an athletics program that has neither won a NCAA title in a team sport nor had an individual champion in a men's sport. Wesleyan's notable alumni, however, include esteemed New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Chicago Cubs Jed Hoyer, who more than make up for any lack of collegiate championships.

Mascot Madness: In 1932, the Wesleyan football team was referred to as "the mysterious ministers from Middletown" in newspapers in Rochester, NY. The team, taking issue with their new nickname, played an active role in reaffirming the Cardinal as the school's mascot.

 

Trinity Bantams

Location: Hartford, Connecticut

On the Field: The Bantams men's squash team went undefeated from 1998 to 2012, winning 252 consecutive matches and snagging the longest winning streak of any sport in the history of collegiate athletics in the process. As if that were not impressive enough, the Bantams, in their 19th consecutive appearance in the finals, once again won the national men's squash title in 2014-15. Women's ice hockey, women's squash and women's lacrosse picked up NESCAC titles that same year. Neither Trinity squash program has ever failed to win a NESCAC title.

Mascot Madness: The Bantam is a particularly small breed of chicken named after a city in Indonesia. Trinity traces its Bantam heritage back to the Honorable Joseph Buffington, Class of 1875, who allegedly described Trinity as a "proud unfazed rooster" to the big shots of the "collegiate barnyard." Despite their mascot's small stature, the Bantams have certainly not allowed their larger opponents to squash them (even if they're Jumbo-sized, sorry).

 

Williams Ephs

Location: Williamstown, Massachusetts

On the Field: The Ephs are a force to be reckoned with in the NESCAC. They swept both men's and women's cross country, track and field, swimming and diving and rowing last year. The men's swimming and diving championship is the Ephs' 14th in a row, and while the women's team's streak sits at three straight championships, they have earned 15 of 16 NESCAC titles since the championship's inception in 2001. Women's golf, women's soccer, softball and women's tennis should not be left out either, as those teams also won NESCAC championships last year. It is no surprise, then, that Williams won the Director's Cup for the second year in a row in 2015-16.

Mascot Madness: "Eph" is actually a shortening of founder Ephraim Williams' name. The true Williams mascot is a purple cow. We would have made fun of them, but then we reread the above section.

 

Hamilton Continentals

Location: Clinton, New York

On the Field: The Continentals only fully joined the NESCAC in 2011, which perhaps explains why their best NESCAC performance is a runner-up finish in men's golf in 2008. You know you're not doing well when two Summer Olympic Games have been held since you've played in a championship game.

Mascot Madness: In 2014, Hamilton introduced a new mascot, "Alex," which pays homage to Alexander Hamilton in Continental uniform. In order to distract from the Continental's dismal athletic record, Hamilton tastefully introduced their new mascot to the sound of bagpipes and drums. A variety of Alex figure drawings are also available online in 12 different color schemes.

 

Middlebury Panthers

Location: Middlebury, Vermont

On the Field: Middlebury brought home NCAA championships in women's lacrosse and field hockey last year to break a national championship drought that extended back to the 2010-11 season. Of Middlebury's 35 national championships since 1993, 23 are in hockey and lacrosse.

Mascot Madness: The Middlebury Panthers' backstory is not particularly interesting — the name won a contest in 1922 that a local merchant sponsored. We suspect a connection to the pink panther, though we're no inspector Clouseau and as of yet have no confirmation of this.