For the first time in thirty five years (and only the second third time ever), men’s cross country reigns supreme in the Ivy League. The team won today’s Heptagonal Championships by only one point over Princeton, in the closest finish since 1982. Brendan Martin (5th), Kyle Merber (8th), Terrence Prial (12th), Justin Heck (15th), and Anthony Merra (20th) provided the winning top five for the Lions. 

On the women’s side, Columbia finished third behind Harvard and Princeton, with Jackie Drouin and Julie Quinn finishing 8th and 10th respectively. The teams next compete on November 14th in the NCAA Northeast Regionals.

Photo: Columbia University Athletics

The football team got its season off to a winning start last night with a 40-28 win at Fordham. Running back Ray Rangel ran for 125 yards, quarterback Millicent Olawale added another 95 yards on the ground and 167 in the air, and the Lions defense intercepted Fordham quarterback John Skelton three times, including a crucial interception returned for a touchdown by cornerback Jared Morine with under 5 minutes to play. The Lions host Central Connecticut State next weekend for their home opener.

In other sporting news, the field hockey team won its Ivy League opener, 2-0 over Brown, behind two goals from Catherine Campbell, and the volleyball team won all three of its matches in the Columbia Classic. Only the soccer teams were unable to record wins, with the women drawing Hofstra 1-1, and the men losing to Saint Peter’s 2-0.

- Photo by Columbia University Athletics

We’re a little late with this award, but congratulations to Michael W., the winner of the second-round of our commenting competition. Not only was his comment on our Pillow Fight photo album sufficiently epic, but he also showed great skill in actually leaving an email address, as per the rules.

For his wit and competent display of reading comprehension, Michael receives our grand prize package: a cotton t-shirt declaring his victory, and a used DVD of Dane Cook’s latest stand-up special (buying a second t-shirt has put us into chapter 11).

Didn’t make it this time? Stick around – the competition will resume during midterm week and finals in the fall.

The men’s golf team won their second Ivy League title in a row today, coming from three strokes back to beat Penn by one stroke. First-year Brendan Doyle made par on the ninth hole, while his Penn playing partner bogeyed, to keep the title in Morningside. They join the men’s tennis team as the 2nd Columbia sports team to medal this spring. 

In other sports results, the baseball team lost three of its four games against Penn, finishing 7-13 in the league and failing to qualify for the Ivy League playoffs. The track team competed at the Penn Relays, with first-year Monique Roberts winning the high jump, the men’s 4×800 team setting a new school record, and several other members setting NCAA qualifying times. Meanwhile, softball also lost three of four to Penn, and lacrosse had its three-game winning streak snapped by Dartmouth.

On the water, things were no better, with the men’s varsity eight losing their first race of the reason, finishing behind Boston University and Syracuse. The women’s varsity eight finished third as well, to Cornell and Brown (photo by Columbia University Athletics).

The men’s heavyweight eight won their fifth race in a row last night, defeating 14th-ranked Yale and Penn for the Blackwell Cup at Orchard Beach Lagoon, N.Y.

The Lions won the event with a time of 5:54.0, two seconds ahead of Yale and 13 ahead of Penn. The Varsity Eight has yet to lose this spring, and will compete next week for the Doc Lusins Trophy against Boston University and Syracuse. 

In other sports results, the lightweight eight finished second place in the Geiger Cup (losing to Cornell, but defeating MIT), Gabrielle Geronimos scored with less than 40 seconds to go for the women’s lacrosse team first Ivy win of the season (11-10 over Harvard), and both baseball and softball split their first doubleheaders with Cornell (photo by Columbia University Athletics).

- JCD

At tonight’s CCSC meeting, VP for Policy Adil Ahmed announced that, after a meeting with Dean Cristen Kromm, alcohol may be allowed in common areas next year. Currently, Columbia does not allow alcohol to be kept anywhere except in an overage student’s room, declaring the common area a “public space” (locks and doors not withstanding).  

Ahmed emphasized that the step “is still a plan,” and that the changes would have to be written into official ResLife guidelines over the summer. If it goes through, the change will be in place by next year, and denizens of EC, Hogan, and other popular senior locales could finally stop pretending that a second door suddenly made their alcohol private. A first step, perhaps, but we doff our caps to the councils. Now let’s work on that whole 40s thing.

- JCD

The march of scholarships continues. Three Columbia students have received prestigious Goldwater Scholarships, which are awarded yearly to approximately 300 college sophomores and juniors who are seeking a Ph.D in science and/or mathematics. This year’s recepients are Alex Perry CC ‘11, Noam Prywes CC ‘10, and Arianne Richard CC ‘10.

Each university is only allowed to nominate four students, and this is the first time in six years that Columbia has had three of its nominees selected. Perry is pursuing a Ph.D. in mathematics, Prywes in chemistry, and Richard in biochemistry. Congratulations to them!

The Columbia baseball team began its Ivy League title defense successfully, with two wins over Harvard. In the first game, the Lions won 8-3 thanks to a complete game from pitcher Joe Scarlata (5 strikeouts). Third baseman Mike Roberts and left fielder Anthony Potter hit back-to-back homers for the Lions in the second inning, and second baseman Jon Eisen drove in three runs. 

In the second game, the Lions eked out an 8-6 win. Tied 3-3 going into the bottom of the eighth, catcher Dean Forthun doubled down the line to score centerfielder Nick Cox, and Columbia went on to score four more runs, and hold off a Crimson rally in the top of the ninth. Starter Dan Bracey went 8 innings, with six strikeouts. (Image by Columbia University Athletics)

- JCD

- Columbia University Athletics

Looking better each weekend, the Columbia men’s basketball team won its third game in a row (and sixth in seven), holding off Brown 70-57. Junior guard Pat Foley scored a career-high 21 points, and freshman guard Noruwa Agho added 17 more, including 14 in the second half, to lead the team to an important victory at the start of a four-game, two-weekend road trip.

Even more impressively, the Lions remain in strong contention for the Ivy League title. Tonight’s win, combined with Cornell’s loss at Yale, puts the Lions (6-3) only one game behind Cornell (7-2)  in the standings, with five games left in the season. Although Cornell holds the tiebreaker by virtue of having beaten Columbia twice to start the year, the Big Red have lost two of their last three away games, and could easily stumble down the stretch.  

For the Lions, tomorrow night’s game at Yale (5-4) will be critical; last time, at home, Columbia won 53-42 behind strong 2nd half defense and a double-double from forward Jason Miller. You can watch (yes, watch!) the action on the YES network tomorrow night at 7.

- JCD

Against the predictions of the preseason pundits, the men’s basketball team continues to rack up the Ivy League victories, defeating Harvard 60-59 on Kevin Bulger’s last-second jumper. 

The Lions again used a K.J. Matsui three-pointer (one of five in the first half) to take a one-point lead into the half. Harvard, though, led for almost the entire second half, until freshman guard Noruwa Agho hit two free throws to give Columbia a 58-57 lead with 50 seconds left. After Harvard retook the lead, Bulger missed an open jumper with nine seconds left, but Columbia got the ball back, and Bulger made up for the miss to give the Lions their 5th win in 6 conference games. The team now has a 5-3 Ivy record, good for 3rd in the conference.

In other news, meteorologists expressed fear over the changing temperatures in hell.

- JCD (photo by Columbia University Athletics)