Senior Day spelled another week of success for the Drexel University men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams, as both the men and the women defeated their counterparts from Georgetown University at their last home meet of the season, Jan. 21.

This year, the Dragons were celebrating 11 seniors, four men and seven women: Zoltan Gercsak, Ivo Pejovic, Sean Swartz, Reed Vennel, Rachel Bernhardt, Claudia Duguay, Jaclyn Goulet, Madison Kramer, Emily Lau, Therese Mastrandrea and Aubrey Murray.

The men’s team made its way to 12 first place finishes and broke two pool records on the day. Those record breaking events were the 400-yard individual medley and the 400-yard medley relay. Freshman swimmer Jason Arthur took home the record in the individual medley with a time of 4:01.51 and also contributed to the win in the relay; other relay team members included Ralph Cannarozzi III, Stathis Malamas and Sean Swartz.

In addition, the Dragons took home 10 second-place finishes and 11 third-place finishes to give them a final score of 160 to the Hoyas’ 113.

The meet was extra special for the women as well, as they swam to 13 first-place finishes, including six pool records at the Daskalakis Athletic Center.  They took down the Hoyas with a score of 166-126.

Record breaking times came from freshman Alexa Kutch in the 200 backstroke, sophomore April Forsthoffer in the 400-yard individual medley, senior Aubrey Murray in the 200 freestyle event, Emily Kosten in the 50-yard freestyle event, and two relays teams, taking home new records in the 200-yard freestyle relay and the 400-yard medley relay.

Since the beginning of the month, the Drexel women have set 12 new records out of the 19 previous pool records held at the beginning of 2017.

In addition to their first-place finishes, the women took 11 second-place finishes and 9 third-place finishes to take down Georgetown.

Next up for the Dragons is a swimming-only event at Lehigh University. Both the men’s and the women’s swimming squads will travel to take on the Mountain Hawks on Jan. 28.

Both the men’s and women’s Drexel University swimming teams blew their competition out of the water Jan. 15 as they swept their opponents.

For the men, that meant defeating the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Howard University with respective scores of 137-120 and 170-76.

The woman annihilated each of their competitors as well, beating Howard University with a score of 130-109, and Saint Peter’s University by a score 150-54.

The teams travelled to Newark, New Jersey, to compete in a wealth of races ranging from 50-yard events to relays. Both teams competed in a total of fourteen events during the course of the meet.

On the men’s side, Drexel took home 11 out of 14 first place finishes, and also grabbed five second-place finishes and six third-place finishes. On the women’s side, the Dragons grabbed first-place finishes in 13 of the 14 events, also adding second-place finishes in ten events, and nine third-place finishes.

The wins for the women added up to four sweeps, with Dragons taking all of the top finishes, in the 50- and 200-yard freestyles and the 100-yard backstroke and butterfly events. The team’s first place finishes also included the 50-yard backstroke race, the 50-yard breaststroke, the 50 and 100-yard fly events, the 50-, 100-, 500- and 1000-yard freestyle races, and the 200-yard freestyle relay.

For the men the number 50 was lucky, as they took first place finishes in all of the 50-yard sprint events, including backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle and fly races.  In addition, they took first-place finishes in the 100-yard breaststroke and freestyle events, 200, 500, and 1000-yard freestyle races, and the 200-yard medley and free relays.

The Dragons will next compete at the Daskalakis Athletic Center on Jan. 21. As their last home meet of the season, they’ll hold Senior Day celebrations prior to the start of competition. Drexel will face off against the Bulldogs from Georgetown University at 1 p.m.

In their most recent outing, the Drexel University swimming and diving teams traveled to Fairfax, Virginia, to compete in the Patriot Invitational held from Nov. 17 to Nov. 19. In the three-day outing, both Drexel’s men’s team and women’s team took second-place finishes overall.

At the end of the first day of competition, the men’s team found themselves tied for first place with an overall score of 212.

Their top-notch performance was led by freshman swimmer Jason Arthur, who broke a University record in the 200-yard individual medley as he finished with a time of 1:49.78.

The Dragons also grabbed a third place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Freshman diver Anthony Musciano also contributed to the Dragons’ day one score by registering a fourth place finish in the 1-meter dive.

Day two of the competition found the Dragons in the lead. They’d run their score up to a 492, with their closest competition, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, trailing by 13 points with a score of 479.

Their jump ahead was attributed to four separate third-place Dragon finishes: sophomore Ralph Cannarozzi III in the 100-yard breast; freshman Jason Arthur in the 400-yard individual medley; freshman Anthony Musciano in the 3-meter dive; and sophomore Patrick Cobb, freshman Stathis Malamas, sophomore Luke Hanner and senior Ivo Pejovic in the 800-yard freestyle relay.

Unfortunately, on day three, the Dragons didn’t fare as well. Despite the fact that Jason Arthur broke another Dragon record in the 200-yard backstroke, and sophomore Joseph Brown and the relay team took home second and third places respectively in the 200-yard breast and the 400-yard freestyle relay, it wasn’t enough to keep the Dragons in first place. UMBC came back to narrowly take first place with a score of 710; the Dragons’ final score was 704.

On the women’s side, the results were quite similar. Following their first day of competition, the women found themselves in first place, leading the University of North Carolina at Wilmington 267 to 238.

Both the 200-yard freestyle relay and 400-yard medley relay teams saw first place finishes. Sophomore Emily Kosten broke a Drexel record in the 50 free, grabbing a second place finish. Senior Madison Kramer also earned a second-place finish in the 3-meter dive. The Dragons grabbed three additional third-place finishes.

At the end of day 2, the Dragons found themselves tied for first place as UNCW staged a comeback. Four Dragons took first place finishes on Friday: freshman Alexa Kutch in the 100-yard backstroke (also breaking a Drexel record), senior Rachel Bernhardt in the 100-yard breast (another Dragon record), Kosten in the 200-yard freestyle (for a third record in one day), and the 200-yard medley relay team. Their first places were accompanied by four third-place finishes as well.

UNCW took the lead on day three of the competition, resulting in a second place overall finish for the Dragons. First-place finishes for Drexel came from Kutch in the 200-yard backstroke (also setting a meet record) and the 400-yard freestyle relay team.

Next on the Dragons’ schedule is the AT&T Winter National Championships. Drexel will be sending four swimmers to the championship meet, which will be held in Atlanta from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. Those Dragons that will compete in Atlanta will be Bernhardt, Brown, Kutch and Joe Short.

If anyone has read any of my pieces before, there’s one thing that is hard to miss in my portfolio: I love basketball.

During my time as a sports writer with The Triangle, I’ve covered our own Drexel University women’s basketball team, and written columns on a variety of other basketball related topics, from a summary of a Golden State Warriors game, to a critique of LeBron James’ attitude, and a glowing praise of the first National Basketball Association female coach, Becky Hammon.

I’m back again with another basketball column. This time, detailing some things that I think others should know about our Team USA women’s basketball team.

With the Olympic games right around the corner, I’ve been anxious to watch some of the best of the best in women’s basketball get back to action. I grew up aspiring to be Elena Delle Donne, watching her do it all, from grabbing rebounds under the net to hitting threes on the perimeter. I love to take advantage of every chance I get to watch her play.

Donne’s team members are no joke either. They all hail from WNBA teams and the top notch college programs all over the country: the University of Connecticut, University of Louisville, and the University of Tennessee, just to name a few. The USA Olympic team roster includes some of the all-time greats, including Sue Bird, Tamika Catchings and a more recent star, Brittney Griner.

Among my friends and coworkers, there doesn’t appear to be much hype going into this set of Olympic games, and if there is, it’s not surrounding women’s basketball. The spotlight might be on swimming or gymnastics, or maybe soccer, or even the men’s game, but I wanted to shed a little light onto why the USA women’s basketball team might be a team you want to tune in and watch while they put on a show in Rio.

I’m just going to come out with the facts: the USA women’s basketball team hasn’t lost since 1992 — since then, they’ve been on a 41-game winning streak in the . They’ve won five straight gold medals, which means that this year, they’re aiming for their sixth. No USA olympic team has been this successful since the USA men’s basketball team, who kept their streak going from 1936 to 1968.

If you’re going by statistics, the women’s national basketball team is much more dominant than our current men’s team. So why can’t the ladies get the same attention that the likes of players like LeBron James do? Or why can’t they get some of the recognition awarded to fellow Olympian Michael Phelps? Or even members of the USA women’s soccer team? Why aren’t people more excited to get the chance to watch this awesome team play? Maybe I’m just a basketball fanatic, and I’m a girl, but I think that there should be some more excitement about this.

I’ve always struggled with the idea that women’s basketball gets a lot less recognition (and pay, and support) than their male counterparts, so this really doesn’t sit well with me.

The United States’ women’s basketball team is immensely successful on the national stage. If we’re sports fans at all, we should give them the support and recognition they deserve — not in the context of any other sport, but independently. They’ve surely worked hard enough to deserve it.

So, if you find yourself bored this upcoming Saturday morning, Aug. 6, switch on the TV and take a look at the way these ladies play. Watch them dominate. They’ll be kicking off their Olympic stint at 11:00 a.m. EST on NBC — and given their track record, watching them head towards their sixth straight gold medal might be worth your while.

Photo courtesy Drexeldragons.com

While most Drexel University athletes finished their seasons at the beginning of summer and are currently preparing for the coming season, there was one Dragon rigorously training and competing through the end of June.

That Dragon is rising senior swimmer Rachel Bernhardt.

Bernhardt had a particularly standout season this year, embodied through a number of different accolades.  She was named the Colonial Athletic Association’s Women’s Swimmer of the Year, and was the first Dragon to ever win that honor. She was the first Dragon to grab a gold medal in the CAA championships, which she earned in the 100m and 200m breaststrokes, breaking Drexel University records for both. She was named Drexel’s athlete of the week twice in March — and that’s not all.

The swimming season ended in March, but Bernhardt didn’t stop. She had qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials.

A stellar season earned Bernhardt a spot at the swimming Olympic Trials that took place in Omaha, Nebraska at the CenturyLink Center. On the first day of the trials, June 26, she hit the water for the 100m breaststroke preliminary race and on June 30, she got back in the pool for the 200m breaststroke.

Her 100m breaststroke race was impressive — she came in first in her heat of 10 swimmers with a time of 1:10.27, 19 hundredths of a second faster than her qualifying time. Her time placed her 43rd overall out of 125 swimmers.

In the 200m breaststroke, Bernhardt placed 74 out of a total 124 swimmers, with a time of 2:35.75.

Although her season ended at the trials and she won’t be making an appearance at Rio de Janeiro, there’s no disputing that Bernhardt capped off a great season that’ll carry into a great senior year.

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Senior Rachel Pearson takes a shot in an early season game against the College of Charleston. Photo courtesy Drexeldragons.com

The Drexel University women’s basketball team got double digit performances from three players as the Dragons topped No.10 seeded Towson University in the first round of the Colonial Athletic Association playoffs March 10.

Towson met Drexel after upsetting seventh seed, the College of William & Mary, in the preliminary round of the tournament March 9.

The win for Drexel means the end of the season for the Towson Tigers, who will finish the season at 7-24 overall.

Redshirt junior Meghan Creighton, junior Sarah Curran, and sophomore Kelsi Lidge netted 16, 17, and 13 points respectively, to help the Dragons to their 71-54 win at the Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, Md. Creighton scored 13 of her 16 points in the second half.

Going into the second half, the game was still within reach for Towson, who only trailed the Dragons by two points before the break at a score of 33-31 — but the Tigers just couldn’t claw their way back.

Drexel outscored Towson by a 15 point margin in the last two quarters.

The Dragons shot impressively throughout the game: 56.3 percent for the entirety of the game, and an even higher 63.6 percent in the second half. There was more to the win than a good day offensively; the Drexel defense kicked it up in the final stretch, and held Towson to just eight points in the final quarter of the game.

The win means that the Dragons, now 18-12 on the season, will advance to the semifinal round of the tournament, and will play at 4 p.m. March 11. They will take on the winner of a matchup between No.3 Hofstra University, and No.6 Northeastern University.

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Photo courtesy commons.wikimedia.org

At the beginning of the season, things were looking bleak for the Philadelphia Flyers. Like many of the other teams in Philadelphia, they were losing more games than they were winning. The lack of good sports teams in the city left Philadelphia sports fans with little to hope for and endless frustration as they watched all of Philly’s sports programs lose game after game.

However, unlike the unlikely 76ers team, who is in absolute last place in the Eastern Conference, and an Eagles squad that’s already out for the season and doesn’t even have a head coach, the Flyers seem like they might be turning things around to give Philadelphia fans a taste of hope.

As of right now, they have regained a victory ratio above 50 percent at 19-15. They have also won the past four games in a row, starting their longest streak of the season thus far.

Most recently, the Flyers defeated the Boston Bruins 3-2 at the Wells Fargo Center Jan. 13, thanks to Wayne Simmonds, Mark Streit and Jakub Voracek. Going into the third period, the Flyers were trailing the Bruins, 2-1. However, the Flyers scored goals less than two minutes apart in the third period to grab the comeback win.

Voracek’s goal marked the 400th goal in his National Hockey League career.

Even if you’re not a hockey fan, it’s nice to have a team to root for. Some sports fanatics from the likes of ESPN are even considering the possibility of a playoff berth for the Fly Guys. While that might be getting ahead of ourselves a little bit, it’s a really nice idea.

I guess what I’m trying to say is let’s not get our hopes up, but if you’re longing for a win in the city of Brotherly Love, the Flyers might be your go-to team, at least for the time being.

The post Flyers jump to 4-0 streak, spark hope for playoff berth appeared first on The Triangle.

Photo courtesy Drexeldragons.com

While the weather has finally gotten cold enough to be winter-like in Philadelphia, the Drexel University women’s basketball team is off to a hot start in the new year, grabbing a win in the first game of their Colonial Athletic Association season. On Jan. 3, the Dragons defeated the College of Charleston at home in their CAA opener. The final score was 66-54.

But first, we have to rewind and see what the Dragons were up to while we were all home for break.

Over our term reprieve, including the win on Jan. 3, the women’s basketball team went 3-3 in their contests. While .500 might not seem like the best percentage, what has to be considered is who the Dragons competed against—and the schedule was a stacked one, facing some of the best women’s basketball programs around.

Throughout the break, Drexel saw the likes of some major basketball programs, tipping off with teams from Hampton University—who defeated the Dragons last year in Women’s National Invitation Tournament play, Saint Joseph’s University, University City rival—the University of Pennsylvania, Quinnipiac University, a top-25 ranked Syracuse University, and finally, most recently, the College of Charleston.

The Dragons grabbed their additional wins versus Hampton and Quinnipiac, and took their losses to their Philly rivals from Saint Joe’s and Penn, and power-house, Syracuse, who is 11-3 on the season. The games against Saint Joe’s and Penn were close, however, with Drexel only finishing the games seven and five points behind their opponents, respectively.

In addition, our winter break saw the CAA award two Dragons player of the week honors. The week of Dec. 28, junior Sarah Curran was the award winner, earning the accolade for posting a double-double against Quinnipiac. Curran had 22 points and 12 rebounds.

Most recently, at the beginning of this week, Rachel Pearson earned this honor for the Dragons.  Her award made the CAA player of the week a Drexel competitor for the second week in a row.  Pearson earned her award by scoring north of 20 points in two games back-to-back, with 22 versus Syracuse and 28 against Charleston. Against Charleston, she netted a notable eight three-pointers, which matches her with a previously set record for amount of three’s in a single game.

Next up, the Dragons will engage in their second CAA game of the season against Northeastern University at the Daskalakis Athletic Center Jan. 8 at 7 pm.  At 1-0 in conference play, Drexel basketball fans will hope to see the team take another win on the home court and keep the conference streak going. Before the weekend closes Jan. 10, the team will travel to the College of William & Mary for their first away CAA game.

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Justin Best, right, is an incoming Drexel University freshman on the crew team. Best is competing at the at the World Rowing Junior Championships this summer. (Photo courtesy – Drexel Dragons)

Justin Best’s last name makes for an easy pun. Headline writers will rejoice in the ability to call him the “best” at what he does — row. And luckily for him, his last name is anything but a misnomer.

The incoming freshman member of the Drexel crew team is competing this summer on Team USA’s rowing team, which is no small feat. He’s competing on the global stage before he even turns 18, at the World Rowing Junior Championships in Rio de Janeiro. The championships take place August 5-9.

This isn’t Best’s first contest with Team USA, either. Last year, he competed with the team in Nova Scotia for the CanAmMex Regatta in the men’s eight boat. The team won gold in his race. At the same regatta, the USA women’s four and women’s pair medaled as well.

This year, Team USA and Best are stationed in Rio de Janeiro for the World Rowing Junior Championships. His competitions began on August 6, and races continue through August 9. The competition will be held on the same course, Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas, Ipanema Beach, as the Summer 2016 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games rowing events in Brazil.

The World Rowing Junior Championships is hosting teams from a whopping 54 countries. The U.S. is sending 13 different boats to compete in the event, in hopes of moving up the ranks to defeat reigning Junior Champs, Germany, and second place team Romania.

Thus far in the competition, the two qualifiers in the men’s eight competition, the one that Best is rowing in, were Germany and Italy.

Italy edged out the U.S. by .39 of a second in the preliminary heat. However, the U.S. will still have a chance to compete in another heat to earn a spot in the final race.

On the bright side, a gaggle of other U.S. boats have already earned spots in their respective final races. Those boats include the women’s pair, the women’s four, the women’s eight, the women’s quadruple scull and the men’s pair.

Best is a local champion, who is coming to Drexel from Unionville High School located in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, located just a few minutes away in Chester County.

Results and updates for the regatta will be updated at www.worldrowing.com. Drexel crew will return to action in search of another successful season September 19 at the Rumson Regatta on the Navesink River, New Jerey.

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San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon is coaching the team’s Summer League squad, the first woman to do so. (Photo courtesy – San Antonio Spurs)

This past week, the San Antonio Spurs made an announcement that will change the world of men’s sports forever.

The team’s assistant coach, Becky Hammon, a former WNBA standout, will be the head coach for the Spurs during this year’s NBA Summer League Season. The Spurs made the announcement July 3.

The promotion is a huge one not only for Hammon, but for female basketball players and coaches worldwide. Hammon will be the first female head coach for the NBA summer league ever.

The summer league takes place in Las Vegas each year, and the season began July 6. In their next summer outing July 11, Hammon and the Spurs will face the New York Knicks.

Before her recent promotion, Hammon had already made headway in bringing female involvement to the men’s sports world. This past year, she became the first full-time female assistant coach during the Spurs’ regular season. Her contributions helped the team achieve a 55-27 record in that time.

Even before her coaching career took flight, Hammon was an impressive athlete who served as a role model for many, especially women involved in sports.

The 38-year-old’s career is full of awards and accolades. Before WNBA, she played college ball at Colorado State University, where she was named an All-American in addition to having set a series of school records. In her college career, she scored more than 2,700 points.

After graduating, Hammon played 16 seasons for the WNBA, playing first for the New York Liberty from 1999 to 2006 and then for the San Antonio Silver Stars from 2007 to 2014 when she retired. Her professional career was also decorated with awards, most notably six WNBA All-star awards, two All-WNBA First Team selections, and two All-WNBA Second Team Selections. In 2007, she led the WNBA in total assists.

During the entirety of her WNBA career, Hammon played more than 10,000 minutes and scored more than 5,000 career points.

She also competed in Olympic level basketball twice. Because she wasn’t chosen for the U.S. team, she competed with the Russian team, where she has dual citizenship. In 2008, she helped Russia to a bronze medal. She also competed in the 2012 Olympic games, again playing for the Russian team.

Hiring Hammon as the head coach of the summer league squad has many fans wondering if sometime in the future, a woman could be hired as the regular season head coach of an NBA team.

Not everyone is happy that Hammon, a woman, will be serving as the head coach for a male team — a fact that will probably make critics a little tougher on the Spurs team that will be competing this summer season.

But much like she said last August when hired as the Spurs’ assistant, Hammon is certainly up for the challenge — and nothing worth it comes easily.

“Nothing in my life has really ever been easy. I’ve always been someone who did it uphill,” she told reporters last season. “I’m up for challenges. I’m up for being outside the box, making tough decisions and challenges.”

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