College of William and Mary announces TRIBE SCRIBE: W&M's Weekend Warriors Enjoy Success
From April 4, 2023 post.
By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
The weather might have been off and on, but it was a beautiful weekend for William & Mary sports.
The women's lacrosse, men's (twice) and women's tennis teams and baseball all won. So did women's track in the Colonial Relays. Men's gymnastics had a dominant showing at the Eastern College Athletic Conference championship. And both the men's and women's golf teams posted solid performances.
One of the most thrilling moments came Saturday at Martin Family Stadium, where Justyce Barber's sixth and final goal gave Tribe lacrosse a 13-12 win over Delaware. It was a career day for Barber, who was named the CAA's Player of the Week.
It's a safe bet that no one in the stadium cheered louder than Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin '95, who is Barber's godfather. Justyce's father, soon-to-be Hall of Fame inductee Ronde Barber, would have been there if not for I-95 traffic.
"We had our golf tournament, so she had a lot of family and friends in town," W&M coach Colleen Dawson said. "She really stepped up big time. She's strong and powerful, definitely a super-talented attacker."
It was an important win for the Tribe, which is 2-1 in the Colonial Athletic Association for the first time since 2011. That was also the last year W&M made the four-team conference tournament.
"This is what we've been striving for since I've been here, to be a contender and work our way into the CAA tournament," Dawson said. "So being able to get a few very tough wins against great opponents has been awesome for our program."
Men's tennis also got back in the win column with a weekend-matches sweep against Elon and Navy. W&M defeated the Phoenix 4-2 Saturday in North Carolina and the Mids 6-1 Sunday at Mackesy Tennis Center at Millie West Courts.
"We've been really close all year," Tribe coach Jeff Kader said. "It doesn't matter who we play, we've been in positions to win but it didn't go our way. To be back in that position last weekend and finish against Elon, a team we'll probably end up seeing again in a couple of weeks, was a nice confidence boost.
"Then we got back pretty late Saturday night and made a pretty quick turnaround. All of our seniors got to play and everybody came through. A very encouraging weekend, to say the least."
The Tribe has matches remaining against Richmond (Wednesday) and VCU (April 18), both at home. Then comes the CAA Championships on April 27-30 at Mackesy/Millie West.
Women's tennis won its fifth consecutive match by defeating UNC Wilmington 6-1 at McCormack-Nagelsen Tennis Center. Hedda Gurholt came back after losing the first set to win her fifth match in a row at No. 1 singles.
And, over at Zable Stadium, a record-breaking performance by Amaya Johnson along with the dominant performances by 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams helped women's track win the Colonial Relays championship for the first time since 2009.
The Tribe finished with 136.50 points, nearly 50 points ahead of runner-up Brown.
Johnson ran the 100-meter dash in 11.96 seconds, a program record, and the 200 in 24.11. She was on both relay teams (along with Lizzy Gregory, Anna Kessler, and Melissa Cunningham in the 4x100 and Gregory, Carly Swierbut, and Emily Ervin in the 4x400) that finished first with W&M records.
All came on the track where W&M will host the CAA Championships next month.
"Being able to compete well on your home track is important, especially this year as we host the conference meet," said Alex Heacock, director of track and field. "It takes on some added importance there. It was a good prelim for that meet that will be coming up here in a month.
"We had a few school records, which was huge. But the really cool thing is that we saw every event group contribute. We won events in the sprints, in the distances, in the jumps, in the throws, and in the relays. That's how a strong team should be."
The Tribe men finished sixth out of the 38 teams that scored. Freshman Jason Nwosu finished third in the shot put, fourth in the discus, and seventh in the hammer throw for a total of 14 points. Chris Arias won the javelin with a throw of 64.15 meters. And Jackson Cooley came in second in the 100-meter dash with a program-record time of 10.53, the second straight week he's set a PR in the event.
Baseball continued its winning ways with a three-game sweep of St. John's at Plumeri Park. The Tribe rallied for a pair of one-run wins (4-3 and 3-2) on Friday and Sunday. Saturday was a 15-6 blowout in which third baseman Ben Williamson and center fielder Joe Delossantos each went 3-for-5 with a home run and three RBI. In the finale, Nate Knowles threw four masterful innings in which he allowed one base runner on 52 pitches.
In men's gymnastics, Christian Marsh won the Eastern College Athletic Conference rings championship with a season-high score of 13.7. He and teammates Aidan Cuy, Mark Fu, Trenton Peazant, Samuel Smith, and Evan Sikra earned All-ECAC honors.
In men's golf, Trevor Binau matched the fourth-best round in program history with a 6-under 65 (seven birdies, one bogey) at the Golden Horseshoe Intercollegiate. That tied for the best round of the tournament.
Logan Hunter tied for fifth overall at even par.
In women's golf, Mikah McDonnell (T-12th), Simone Senk (T-12th) and Avery Thompson (16th) finished in the top 20 of The Women's Intercollegiate at Prospect Bay.
All in all, a pretty solid weekend.
Original source can be found here.