Tufts Captures Rowing Title

Plus: Casiero Named CMO. ETBU v. Belhaven in SFB Final. Baseball Final Four. Requiem for B-SC.

Author

Steve Ulrich
June 03, 2024

JUNE 3, 2024 | written by STEVE ULRICH

The news that you need to know about non-scholarship college athletics and those that love it.
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TOP STORY
1. Tufts Captures Rowing Title

“Behind a dominating performance from the first varsity eight, the Tufts University Women's Rowing team won the 2024 NCAA Division III Championship on Saturday morning at Harsha Lake in Bethel, Ohio.

The NCAA Championship is awarded to the team with the highest point total from the first varsity and second varsity races at the NCAA regatta. Tufts won the first varsity race and was second in the second varsity competition. The Jumbos earned 54 points, ahead of Wesleyan University and Williams College who tied for second with 47 scores. It is the first national rowing championship for Tufts.”

» First Eights. The Jumbos’ first varsity eight finished first, covering the 2000 meters in 6:51.162 which was three seconds better than Wesleyan (6:54.334). The Jumbo first varsity champions are coxswain Hannah Jiang, Rose Tinkjian, Janna Moore, Shira Roberts, Emma Mahoney, Summer Maxwell, Samara Haynes, Karen Dooley and Emma Lyle.

» Second Eights. Williams captured the second varsity boat race, hitting the wire in 6:56.229 - nearly two seconds faster than Tufts. Ariana Oppenheimer coxed the boat, with Courtney FitzMaurice in stroke seat, followed by Audrey Riddle, Riley Galizio, Prairie Resch, Sophia Clavenna, Carolyn Fortin, Molly McWeeny, and Ava Rust in bow.

SOFTBALL
2. Casiero Named NCAA Chief Medical Officer

“The NCAA has announced Dr. Deena Casiero as its new chief medical officer. Casiero is currently the senior associate athletics director for sports medicine and head team physician at UConn.

As chief medical officer, Casiero will serve as the primary liaison to the Association on matters of student-athlete mental and physical health, safety and performance. She also will oversee the operation and management of the Sport Science Institute and work collaboratively with the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, which is the membership health and safety committee for the NCAA. Casiero will be a member of the senior staff and serve as a direct advisor on health and safety matters to the NCAA president, NCAA leadership and NCAA members.”

» Driving The News. “Casiero joins the NCAA senior management team after having spent the past nine years at UConn overseeing departments such as athletic training, strength and conditioning, sports nutrition and athlete mental health.”

» #WhyD3. “Casiero received her undergraduate degree in athletic training from Springfield College in 1999 and graduated with a medical degree from New York Medical College in 2006. She has been a member of the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports since 2021 and currently holds the position of vice chair.”

» Quotable. “"Deena brings expansive expertise and comprehension of collegiate sports' health and safety, ideal for the role of chief medical officer," NCAA President Charlie Baker said. "Her dedication in leading cross-functional teams will prove invaluable as she champions the well-being of student-athletes within the growing arena of sports medicine."“

SOFTBALL

3. Tigers, Blazers Advance to Final

It will be host East Texas Baptist and Belhaven for the DIII softball championship beginning Tuesday in Marshall, Texas.

The Tigers advanced with a 5-2 victory over Rowan, while Belhaven took a pair of decisions from top-ranked Linfield, 6-0 and 4-3.

Courtney White and Tauryn Cummings each had three hits for ETBU, while Avery Holland twirled a complete-game six-hitter in the circle.

Katie Jo Richardson and Allie Gordon each blasted three-run home runs for Belhaven to support the three-hit pitching of Kennedy Carruth to force the winner-take-all game. Carruth’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh plated Sarah Stockstill with the winning run to advance the Blazers.

BASEBALL
4. Final Four

The DIII baseball championship is down to its final four teams in Eastlake, Ohio.

Eighth-seeded Lynchburg takes on Misericordia at 10 a.m. needing just one win to advance to the final. The Cougars must defeat the Hornets twice to move to the final round.

No. 2 seed Salve Regina meets Wisconsin-Whitewater at 1:15 p.m. in the same situation needing a win, while the Warhawks must register a pair of victories. UWW ousted tournament darling Birmingham-Southern, 11-10, to end the Tigers’ magical run which outlasted the school which officially closed on Friday.

OP-ED
5. The Men Who Murdered Birmingham-Southern, Part I

by Conner Hayes, 1819 News

“On May 31, 2024, Birmingham-Southern College (BSC) ceased operations and closed its doors for the first and last time.

We can only speculate what BSC will become. A HBCU? A government hospital or storage facility? An Amazon Fulfillment Center?

BSC was pronounced dead and DNR (do-not-resuscitate) over the last several years by an Alabama Legislature largely unsympathetic to its plight. But we only see the tip of the iceberg.”

» Situational Awareness. “BSC’s present plight is attributable to a toxic affliction - financial malfeasance - that has worn away at the institution’s foundations for almost 50 years. There are three men primarily responsible for BSC’s messy ruin: Dr. Neal Berte, Dr. David Pollick and Alabama State Treasurer Young Boozer III.”

» Of Note. “Berte’s most disastrous decision, however, was taking BSC into NCAA Division I athletics. Berte did not prepare or present BSC’s board with a financial projection of the implications for moving into Division I athletics, and there was no board discussion when this move was adopted, only a motion by Berte and an obligatory show of hands.”

» Worth Noting. “Pollick’s game plan, meanwhile, was to grow the dwindling enrollment. Very similar to Berte’s goals: build a prettier campus and they will come. The efforts to beautify BSC, a gleaming “light on a hill” in a not so savory area of town, only destroyed it.

NEWS
6. Lightning Round

» 🗞️ News. “Albright College announced the elimination of dozens of faculty and staff positions in an effort to ensure stability during a challenging time for the school. The school plans to cut 29 current staff and faculty positions, in addition to 10 staff positions and 14 faculty positions left vacant from resignations and retirement.”

»  🗞️ News. “Under an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has agreed to stop restricting athletes’ rights to remain eligible to compete when they transfer from one institution to another.”

» 👩‍🎓 Elite 90. Smith’s Maddy Beer was named the recipient of the Elite 90 award for DIII women’s rowing.

TRANSACTIONS
7. Comings and Goings

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