Fingers Crossed

The Dartmouth men's ice hockey team claimed a 5-3 win over Colgate Saturday at Atlantic City in the consolation game of the ECAC Hockey Championship to improve to 19-12-3 and make one last statement in hopes of landing an NCAA bid. The announcement of the NCAA Tournament field will be made at 11:30 today on ESPN2. Read a recap of the Big Green's win and listen to coach Bob Gaudet's platform for inclusion in the tournament here.

The Manchester Union Leader's look at the field, based on the Pairwise rankings, has Dartmouth being knocked out by the ECAC semifinal loss to Cornell. For an explanation of how the field is chosen, click here.

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Dartmouth alum Ben True '08, the first Big Green runner to break the 4-minute mile, had a strong run for the United States at the world cross country championships in Spain today. (link) True was 36th overall in a field of 113 and first for the United States, which finished 10th in the team scoring. (results) Kenya won the championship.

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Former All-Ivy wide receiver Tanner Scott had two tries for the Dartmouth rugby team – including a 60-meter run – in a 31-26 win over the Barbados RFU development side. (Twitter feed)

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An arrest has been made in the shooting death of UNH football player Todd Walker in Colorado. (link)

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Holy Cross had good weather yesterday for the start of its spring football practice. (link) The team's spring prospectus is available here. The Crusaders were 6-5 last year (3-2 Patriot League), falling to Dartmouth, 27-19. According to their prospectus, they have six starters back on offense (including quarterback Ryan Taggart) and six back on defense.

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And Finally I: That Certain Hanover High Grad finished second among women, first in her age group and was listed 36th overall in a field of 615 runners in the annual Shamrock Shuffle 5K road race yesterday. Although there were problems collating the final results the clock showed 19:48 when she crossed the line as she continues to gear up for her first outdoor season since middle school. (An all-state softball player who never missing an inning in four varsity seasons, she had to fight off the urge to pick up a ball and fire it back in while watching the Dartmouth women's team practice in Leverone over the past month or so. ;-)

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And Finally II: That Certain Hanover High Junior survived the yanking of his wisdom teeth Friday and starts baseball practice tomorrow.

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And Finally III: Taking advantage of the super moon (article and video), Mrs. BGA joined me in a snowshoe last night here on the mountain. Although it was after 10 p.m. when we set out, when we emerged from our woods into the field that would lead us to the beaver ponds it was bright enough to read a newspaper with well-defined shadows. The moonlight glistening on the snow was astonishingly beautiful.