“I was a little bit disappointed with my performance this cross country season,” Mackay said. “I definitely struggled in my training and racing didn’t feel as good as it felt the previous year. It was difficult mentally, and my goals shifted throughout the season because of that. I was okay with how I did at nationals, but obviously in ideal circumstances I think I could’ve performed a little better. I’m happy with how I handled the not-so-perfect circumstances.”

Mackay won her second-straight America East (AE) cross country title at the end of 2021, and she moved on to place third at the NCAA Division I Northeast Regional Meet. She took 52nd at the NCAA Cross Country Championships later that November, where she became the second female athlete in BU program history to compete at three NCAA championship meets. However, after traveling to the national indoor track and field championships in March of 2022, she grossed her fourth NCAA appearance.

“The indoor season was everything I wanted it to be,” Mackay said. “I ran a bunch of [personal records] in a bunch of events and once I got to the national championships I just didn’t perform to the best of my ability. That performance isn’t representative of what I think I’m capable of … I think it was a little bit of lack of experience and a little bit of nerves.”

Mackay competed in two separate events at the NCAA indoor championship. In the mile, she clocked in at 4:36.34 to take 12th in the first preliminary round. In the second race before the finals, Mackay took fifth and missed out on advancing by one-hundredth of a second, leaving her with second-team All-America honors. She also earned the same accolade in the women’s 3K, taking 15th with a time of 9:11.26. Mackay joins Erik van Ingen as the only two athletes in BU program history to have accumulated four All-America honors.

During her five-year span at Binghamton, Mackay said that her experience as a runner has imparted several different values that she’ll remember after graduating.

“There are several things running has taught me during my time at Binghamton,” Mackay said. “It has honestly shaped me as a person. It taught me to be both dedicated and to put my all into everything I do … It’s important to never take a race for granted as well. You never know [if] that race will be your last.”

Head cross country coach Annette Acuff has been with the Binghamton track and field program for over 22 years and has been present for the entirety of Mackay’s time at BU.

“[Acuff] stresses to be patient in training,” Mackay said. “That’s one of the main things I’ve been thankful for these past few years is how patient she’s been with me … She really values health and staying healthy.”

Mackay said her best moment at Binghamton was being part of the 2019 4×800-meter relay team that won the AE conference title and broke the previous school record, with a time of 9:02.67.

“My favorite moment was two outdoor [seasons] ago when we first won the women’s 4×800 [relay] at the outdoor [conference championship],” Mackay said. “After conferences in general is so fun because the team comes together, everyone’s cheering for each other, supporting each other and it’s the main meet where we come together as a team … I think there’s something really special about that.”

This outdoor season, Mackay has already begun to find her way onto the national stage. She is currently ranked 10th in the country in the 1500-meter event (4:13.57) and 22nd in the 800-meter race (2:04.47). She also set the meet record in the 800 at the 2022 AE Outdoor Conference Championships, and is set to compete at the 2022 NCAA East Region Meet later this month.

“I have a very good mindset going into the championship season,” Mackay said. “I feel very well prepared for regionals and I think I have a very good shot to make nationals … I’m feeling very optimistic and ready to go. I’ve learned a lot of important lessons throughout this year and I think it’s just going to help me in the end.”

“I think we did as well as we could do,” said Binghamton head coach Mike Thompson.

On the first day of the meet, sophomore Brandon Love and redshirt junior Aziza Chigatayeva picked up 10 points apiece for BU. On the men’s side, Love took home gold in the pole vault with a clearance of 14-09.00 feet, recording his first-ever AE title. Later that day, Chigatayeva recorded her third-straight 3K steeplechase title, registering a time of 10:32.83 to win the event by 14 seconds.

“[Love] was jumping really well,” Thompson said. “He could’ve jumped higher, but he decided he wanted to go straight to 16 [feet]. Honestly, he was jumping so well. He was jumping off poles he’s never jumped off before and he wasn’t used to.”

Chigatayeva’s counterpart in the men’s 3K steeplechase, junior Marty Dolan, also netted some points for the Bearcats with a second-place finish. His final time of 9:05.60 earned eight points to keep BU competitive with Albany and UMass Lowell on day one.

Heading into day two of the meet, Binghamton made less of an impact off the track but kept itself on the upper echelon of the leaderboard on the oval. The men’s team received an early six-point contribution by the 4×100 relay team and was immediately followed by 10 points courtesy of redshirt senior Dan Schaffer. The Bearcat beat out UMass Lowell graduate student Derek Holmes in the 1500-meter event by less than a second to win the title, posting a final time of 4:01.13. Despite the early success of the Bearcats, Albany later dominated the men’s 100-meter, 200-meter, 400-meter and 800-meter events to blow out UMass Lowell and Binghamton.

“We tend to have a lot of talent and a lot of good results,” Thompson said. “We just don’t have the depth. We just don’t have the numbers.”

The Bearcats received some consolation from the men’s 4×800 relay team as well as the decathlon efforts of junior Nick Malfitano. The 4×800 relay clocked in at 7:35.26 and was the front-runner for the majority of the race, earning 10 points for BU. Malfitano grabbed another 10, tallying a score of 6,265 in the decathlon over the course of the championship.

“In the 10 events in the decathlon, he had the best mark in six of them,” Thompson said. “Usually in the decathlon, you’re going to have an event or two where you don’t do very well, and he pretty much nailed every event.”

The women’s side also struggled to compete with UMass Lowell and Albany but showed some promise on the track, nonetheless. In Sunday’s 100-meter hurdles event, sophomore Jenna Chan finished second overall with a time of 14.06. Immediately following Chan’s performance on the straightaway, redshirt senior Emily Mackay was set to compete in the 800-meter event. Although her final time of 2:06.46 didn’t beat her season-best of 2:04.47, which currently situates her at 22nd in the nation, it earned her the AE record and title in the event.

“[Chigatayeva, Mackay or Schaffer], I don’t think they were going out to run crazy fast times as much as they were just being aggressive, but just making sure they were in position to win,” Thompson said.

The men’s team earned 112 total points to take third overall. UMass Lowell was second with 195, and UAlbany grossed 235 points. The women’s side earned 99 points overall for fourth place and was topped by UMBC, UMass Lowell and Albany.

Binghamton’s next competition is the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference/IC4A meet on Friday, May 13 to Sunday, May 15. The time and location for the meet are yet to be announced.

I was never truly lonely in the tangible sense, and neither are most people. Every day, I’m surrounded by living, breathing human beings who share a similar conscious experience walking this Earth. Of course, this was a drastically different reality during the COVID-19 pandemic, when human contact rarely exceeded the bright display of a computer screen, but that is just a two-year exception of a lifelong rule. Yet, it’s especially ironic that on a college campus housing thousands of students, I only felt more alone.

Psychological isolation is not the same as physical isolation.

The worst feelings of loneliness arise at times when you feel unwanted, even when it isn’t explicitly said. Sometimes, in the context of an individual’s life, you’re nothing but an idle bystander to them — those who you might consider acquaintances rather than friends. Sometimes, you simply feel it in the moment, like you’re being socially sequestered to another corner of the room where you can no longer bother anyone else. Sometimes, you never stop feeling it.

It begins as a foggy cloud of doubt in the mind, slowly burrowing its way to the stomach only to further hollow out the gut. The feeling meanders back to the mind and all logical functions of the brain fade into obscurity. In truth, there will always be those who love and care about us, but in that particular moment, you would never believe it.

For the longest time, I’ve lived this way. I sometimes blamed others for these feelings, but eventually pinned the blame onto myself. There are, and will always be, occasions where the feelings of loneliness and inadequacy resurface, but they grew increasingly harrowing leading into my final years of high school.

Of course, as a man, I was initially reluctant to discuss how I felt. I was specifically hesitant to talk about feeling lonely, among countless other things. In fact, I’ve never said any of this to a single soul. I was confident I could solve the issue on my own.

So, did I?

Well yes, but also no. Chances are, the feelings of psychological isolation will never go away. It doesn’t matter who I surround myself with or how they feel about me. Everything is in my head. I can acknowledge it all I want, but apart from sticking my brain in the garbage disposal and implanting a new one, I’m yet to discover a better method of realizing my place in the world.

The feeling first went away when I joined my high school track team as a junior. Not only did I begin to feel as though I had a purpose, but I was surrounded by a group of people who I felt had my back under any circumstances. I walked away from track and field having learned many things, but I most importantly I learned how to act like myself. I no longer lived in fear of being ostracized for acting authentically, and I quickly began my transformation into a different person altogether, despite staying exactly the same. That was the first time I truly felt wanted among others.

My track and field “career” was short-lived, as I decided not to pursue athletics at Binghamton University. After covering BU track and field for three years straight, I can tell you that high school Joe, with two sprained ankles and subpar personal records, stood little chance at competing at a Division I program. So, I was promptly thrust into the college experience with no extracurriculars and nobody that I knew. Back to square one.

As everyone knows, many of the people you meet at college will stress the idea that you need to do every extracurricular under the sun. I decided to subscribe to that notion, so I took my one year of high school journalism experience and joined Pipe Dream to cover track and field. The Sports editors in 2019 ecstatically put me on cross country, for which I’ve endlessly pestered head coach Annette Acuff for phone interviews for the past three years. She probably doesn’t know what I look like, who I am or even what my name is, but I cherish the 20-minute long interviews we’ve had together. They are, after all, what helped make me into the person I am today.

Working at Pipe Dream is when I unlocked the realization that where you’re wanted is where you belong. At the end of 2019, former Sports Editor Justin Zion coerced me into becoming an intern for the section, to which I said, “Absolutely not,” soon followed by a reluctant “fine.” Apart from joining the track and field team in high school, I consider that the best decision of my life.

Our section was quirky, to say the least. Between hourlong bouts of laser-focused editing, the weirdest and most ridiculous conversations you can possibly imagine somehow found their way to the Sports desk. That’s the stuff I live for. I felt so welcomed among the three-turned-four of us, and I soon saw those late nights at the office as the highlight of my week among my extremely hectic schedule. After finishing my work two or three hours in, they would tell me that I was free to leave. However, I wanted nothing more than to stay.

The COVID-19 pandemic pulled the plug for Pipe Dream. Justin graduated in the winter of 2020, so I never saw him after that final day in March. I was never given the opportunity to say goodbye or thank him personally. However, I take satisfaction in knowing that he will be successful in whatever he chooses to do, academically or otherwise, simply by virtue of his incredible talents as a student and his dedication to his craft. He doesn’t need any thanks or validation from me — he has everything he needs to be successful at New York University. Yet, here I am thanking him anyway.

As influential as Justin was, I truly think that the Assistant Sports Editors Ed and Sam were the ones who kept me committed to Pipe Dream. They were unexpectedly fun to be around and oftentimes left me crying with laughter — somewhat embarrassingly, I might add. I quickly saw them as friends, but once we reunited in spring of 2021, they felt like family to me.

I never felt more at home than when I was accompanied by Ed and Sam. I dreaded waking up to attend Zoom University five days a week, but I felt nothing short of excitement for the hours of editing I was about to do with the two of them. The feeling was almost foreign. I hadn’t experienced anything like it since my junior year of high school.

Here I am now. Sports Editor. God help me. As much of a thorn in my side it’s been running this section, I’ve loved every minute of it. Now, it’s no longer just Ed, Sam or Justin. Twice a week, I’m surrounded by an entire Pipe Dream family full of people who genuinely enjoy my presence. Sometimes they don’t. Yet, in my head, I don’t experience that same feeling of loneliness that I’ve felt my whole life.

In Marvel’s “Thor: Ragnarok,” Odin said that “Asgard is not a place — it’s a people.”

I have no natural passion for journalism, or even sports in general. The people at Pipe Dream are what keep me motivated and always have been. I’ve since discovered that I do my best work and, most importantly, am happiest where others want me. I like to believe that’s where we all belong. The best versions of ourselves exist in the context of our genuine connection to those around us.

To those reading who feel as I do, or are similarly lost in some other respect, you’ll always be wanted and loved by others, even when you don’t realize it. It may seem hopeless at times, but your true place in the world is somewhere. It’s just a matter of finding it. I never thought mine would be as Sports Editor for a student-run paper at BU, but that so happens to be where I was brought to.

With this novel philosophy in mind, I’ve introduced our new roster of editors to what I had hoped to be a both professional, yet welcoming atmosphere. I’ll never be able to replicate the same feeling the 2020 trio gave to me, but I sure gave it my best effort.

Now with Jack, Ian and Carbs (not the food) having been successfully roped into this organization, I can finally move on past my three-year run at Pipe Dream. I have the utmost faith in the three of them to carry the section into future generations of Evan Drellichs and Tony Kornheisers. At the very least, I can rely on them not to burn the office down.

I’m ultimately led here, almost a quarter of the way through my lifespan. Thinking about my future, I honestly have no idea where I’m going to end up. My resume essentially boils down to a messy combination of biological science, sports journalism and a depressing summer working at an outlet store Häagen-Dazs. However, I think I’ve got an idea of where to start.

Joe Tonetti is a senior majoring in biology and is Sports Editor. He was previously Assistant Sports Editor from 2020-2021.

The Pipe Dream Bearcast continues its fourth season as junior middle hitter Anna Sprys sits down with the Pipe Dream Sports desk.

This episode was hosted and edited by Sports Editor Joe Tonetti and Assistant Sports Editor Jack Oh. Postproduction work was done by Tonetti, and all video taken during production is attributed to Managing Editor Sarah Teper. A special thank you to Anna Sprys and Athletics Communications Assistant David Johnson for their support of the show.

The women’s distance medley team broke the previous program record in the event on Friday afternoon. Although the four-woman squad only took eighth place overall, the team’s time of 11:12.15 beat out the previous mark of 11:37.87.

Earlier that Friday, the women’s 4×100 relay also performed well on the oval. The Bearcats initially ran a time of 47.21 to finish fourth overall and qualify for the finals on the following day. On Saturday, however, BU beat out its previous mark to clock in at 46.62 for a fourth-place finish and its second-best time in program history. The 4×100 record was set in 2014 and still stands at 46.17.

The men’s distance medley relay was unable to replicate the same success of its teammates earlier that Friday. The team’s time of 9:48.54 earned it 10th place overall. Ole Miss won the relay with a time of 9:29.45.

BU’s next meet is the 2022 America East Track and Field Championships from Saturday, May 7 to Sunday, May 8. The meet is set to start at 9 a.m. at the Frank H. Livak Track and Field Facility in Burlington, Vermont.

Redshirt seniors Dan Schaffer and Emily Mackay brought down the first two BU records at Virginia. Schaffer beat out his previous time of 13:45.20 in the 5K after clocking in at 13:36.23 to finish in the silver-medal position, only losing the race by less than one second. Mackay took on the 1500-meter race and finish third overall, registering a time of 4:13.57. Her time was almost four seconds better than the mark she set last year.

“[Schaffer and Mackay] are both very fit,” said Binghamton head coach Mike Thompson. ”But it’s more about getting sharp and racing. They ran how we would’ve expected them to run if they were feeling good.”

Redshirt junior Aziza Chigatayeva continued Binghamton’s historic performance at Virginia. In the 3K steeplechase, Chigatayeva recorded a time of 10:14.31 to take fifth in the event and post another program record for BU.

“I think [Chigatayeva] is right where we hope she would be,” Thompson said. “It was a very solid race for her, so honestly I think [Schaffer, Mackay and Chigatayeva] are on track to have a great season.”

While three BU records were set in the distance events, the fourth and final mark of the Virginia meet was set in the women’s 4×400-meter relay. The fourth-placed team registered a time of 3:41.88 that eclipsed the previous record which had stood for nearly a decade.

“There’s a lot of talent on that relay — some of the best long sprinters we’ve ever had,” Thompson said. “I wasn’t surprised to see them shatter the record. I’m hoping they can run faster. Not only are they really talented, but they’re disciplined, focused and they train hard. All four of them. They really are the total package.”

Although junior Marty Dolan was unable to set a record in the men’s 3K steeplechase, he still registered a time of 9:08.10 that landed him a third-place spot in Virginia. Junior Marcrene Jeannot also represented Binghamton at the meet with a 49-07.25-foot performance in the triple jump that rivaled but didn’t surpass his previous best in the event. Jeannot finished seventh in the event.

“It is good to see [Jeannot] have another really solid competition,” Thompson said. ”With consistency comes personal bests, [and] he has been very consistent this year so I’m looking forward to how he does at the conference meet.”

At Bucknell, only one Bearcat walked away in a gold-medal position. In the 400-meter hurdles, graduate student Andriy Prokopiv earned Binghamton’s lone first-place finish, clocking in at 55.06 to win the event and net 10 points for his team at the competition.

On the men’s side, juniors Cian Galligan and Nick Malfitano also recorded strong performances for BU at Bucknell. Galligan took second overall in the men’s 1500-meter event with a time of 3:50.41, and Malfitano also took silver in the 110-meter hurdles, clocking in at 14.98 to finish just ahead of his teammate, junior Adrian Rippstein. The Binghamton men earned 74 points while Mount St. Mary’s posted 106 to win the meet.

Senior Madison Krochina was the only BU woman to take second place on Saturday. Krochina earned eight points for Binghamton after posting a distance of 157-02 feet in the hammer throw. She helped contribute to the overall Bearcat point tally of 32 to push her side into fifth. Bucknell dominated the women’s competition, earning 200.5 points for a decisive first-place team finish.

“As a whole, the team is in a pretty good place heading into a couple weeks out from the conference tournament,” Thompson said. “I think we’re in a good spot.”

The Bearcats are set to resume competition next weekend at the Penn Relays taking place from Thursday, April 28 to Saturday, April 30. The first race is set to start at 9 a.m. at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“We knew going into today’s competition that it was going to be a tough match,” said Binghamton head coach Stephanie Allen. “For us, it’s important to have that type of game where we get uncomfortable, we get challenged and hopefully we take something away from it.”

Stony Brook (11-2, 4-0 America East [AE]) has only lost two games this season, both coming at the hands of top-five teams early in the season. In conference play alone, the Seawolves have the most goals, shots and points per game, and have yet to give up more than six goals in any of their AE matchups. Although Stony Brook is ineligible to compete in the conference playoffs, it remains at the top of the standings while Binghamton (6-7, 1-3 AE) sits in fifth.

Despite the early efforts of junior goalie Emily Manning to keep Stony Brook off of the board, the Seawolves were proficient at finding the net in the first quarter. SBU peppered 17 shots at Manning and scored on six of them. The Bearcats only mustered one shot in the first quarter after struggling to get the ball out of their half of the field.

Following two more Stony Brook goals in the second quarter, BU scored its first goal of the match. The goal came courtesy of junior attack Kenna Newman, who snuck the ball past the SBU goalkeeper with just under seven minutes remaining in the period. BU scored a second six minutes later but conceded another two goals to the visitors in the process. At halftime, the Seawolves were up 10-2.

Binghamton posted another scoreless quarter in the third period. Although Stony Brook only took six shots compared to BU’s three, the Seawolves capitalized on four of them to bring their total to 14 to conclude the third quarter.

“The confidence piece, moving our feet and limiting turnovers on [the offensive] end,” Allen said. “[Stony Brook] pressure and do a really nice job on the defensive end, putting teams in tough positions. [We turned] the ball over under our own regard a couple times and I just thought that if we kept our head up, kept our feet moving we could’ve converted on a few more assists and potential looks on cage.”

The Bearcats’ final goal came in the last 30 seconds of the game. The late-game efforts of junior midfielder Annabelle Conover allowed her to find the net and earn Binghamton a consolation goal. Although Stony Brook had already won the game with an 18-point tally as the final minutes of the clock waned, the BU bench erupted with excitement following Conover’s last-minute goal. It was her first goal of the season.

Although Manning gave up 18 goals to the visitors, the Bearcat also tallied 13 saves. Eleven of those saves were made in the first half.

“Effort was something I thought was there,” Allen said. “Our play at the draw, our play between the pipes with Manning were both really solid. Now it comes down to offensively converting on those possessions we get off of the draw and taking some better looks on cage, being a little bit more confident on the offensive end.”

Stony Brook outperformed Binghamton in almost every facet of the game. The Seawolves tallied 42 shots while the Bearcats only posted 10. SBU was also watertight on the defensive end, not allowing Binghamton opportunities to shoot and only turning over the ball eight times compared to BU’s 20. Manning’s 13-save game was the only key area in which the hosts outperformed their rivals.

“[The Seawolves] do all of the little things really well,” Allen said. “They’re very purposeful on both the offensive and defensive end. For them, it’s just smart lacrosse. Good IQs out there, and [they’re] really disciplined in the little things that come down to creating bigger opportunities for them.”

The Bearcats are scheduled to continue their home slate this weekend against New Hampshire on Saturday, April 23. First draw control is set for 1 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.

The Pipe Dream Bearcast returns after over two years as men’s basketball junior guard Jacob Falko sits down with the Pipe Dream Sports desk.

This episode was hosted and edited by Sports Editor Joe Tonetti and Assistant Sports Editor Ian Mills. Post-production work was done by Mills, and all video taken during production is attributed to Managing Editor Sarah Teper. A special thank you to Jacob Falko and Associate Athletic Director for Communications John Hartrick for their support of the show.

Junior Nick DeFelice was the first Bearcat to top the results on Saturday. After sparsely competing for Binghamton during his time with the program, DeFelice registered a time of 9:35.91 to win the 3K steeplechase. In high school, DeFelice was an All-American in the event and took sixth place overall at the 2019 New Balance Nationals.

Sophomore Jenna Chan also walked away with gold on the track. Chan won the 100-meter hurdles in a 24-athlete field with a time of 14.58 to record her second victory of the outdoor season. She also took second in the long jump at the meet with a distance of 17-06.25 feet and was only beaten by her teammate, graduate student Brittany Korsah. Korsah jumped a distance of 17-08.00 feet to take gold, finishing ahead of 33 other jumpers who recorded a mark, including Chan.

Along with Korsah, sophomore Marcus Johnson topped the field in the long jump. Finishing first for the first time in a collegiate long jump competition, Johnson jumped a distance of 22-09.00 feet to beat out the other 19 athletes who recorded a mark on Saturday.

Next up for BU is the Bucknell Outdoor Classic. The two-day event is scheduled for Friday, April 15 and Saturday, April 16. The first day of the meet is set to start at 5 p.m. at the Christy Mathewson Memorial Stadium in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.

“We played with a lot of passion and intensity, and we finally strung both ends together for 60 minutes,” said Binghamton head coach Stephanie Allen. “We wanted to redeem ourselves from last year and the last time we played them. I thought we did that pretty well today.”

The Bearcats (6-5, 1-1 AE) have only beaten UMBC (7-5, 1-1 AE) three out of the 19 times the two teams have met. Binghamton’s last victory over the Retrievers was in 2018 on its home turf. Before Wednesday’s matchup, BU had never beaten UMBC on the road and had never scored more than 16 points against it.

Senior attack Emily Masera scored the game’s first goal within the opening minute. UMBC responded with a goal of its own three minutes later, but the Bearcats managed to drive another two shots into the net before the seventh minute, giving the visitors a 3-1 lead.

Just before the start of the eighth minute, the Retrievers initiated a flurry of goals by both sides. Within the span of five minutes, Binghamton put two more goals on the board, and UMBC added another three to its first-quarter tally to head into the break down by one. BU still led 5-4.

Binghamton found the back of the net five more times in the second quarter. However, the Retrievers were hot on its tail. UMBC managed to score another four goals in the second frame, capitalizing on four of its six shots in the period. Although they were up by two, the Bearcats were not out of range for a UMBC comeback.

At the start of the second half, the Retrievers quickly made up the deficit, scoring two goals before the third minute to even the score at 10-10. BU responded with two goals, but each time Binghamton struck the back of the net, UMBC followed suit. Eventually, with just over four minutes left on the clock in the third quarter, the Retrievers took the lead, 13-12.

The UMBC lead was short-lived, however, as Binghamton went on a 4-0 run to close out the quarter and later extended its uninterrupted scoring streak to 8-0 in the final frame. UMBC scored one final consolation goal at the buzzer.

“I think [the win] is a huge momentum swing,” Allen said. “We played a tight contest against Albany, and the score doesn’t quite reflect [how] we matched up to them. Today kind of showed us what we’re certainly capable of doing, and hopefully that carries through to the rest of conference regular season.”

Binghamton’s early scoring efforts were led by freshman attack Marisa Tancredi, who bagged four goals before halftime. She found the net a fifth time in the third quarter.

“We had [Tancredi] coming off the bench today doing an outstanding job,” Allen said. “Today, they knew it was going to take all of them playing together to put up this type of performance against UMBC. I thought they followed the game plan very well.”

Alongside Tancredi, junior attack Kenna Newman and freshman attack Olivia Muscolino each scored four goals individually. The attacking trio of Tancredi, Newman and Muscolino accounted for 13 of the team’s 20 goals.

“We’ve got a really balanced attack and we’ve got eight scorers in today’s game that are all posing themselves as threats out there,” Allen said. “It makes it really difficult to defend when you’re not dialed in to just one or two players.”

BU’s next matchup is scheduled against UMass Lowell on Senior Day. The Bearcats have never lost to the River Hawks in their six matchups since 2015.

“[UMass Lowell] is a team that we’ve beaten in every matchup in the past, but they’re not an easy team,” Allen said. “They’re a team that’s really gritty, they’re probably the most talented [now] we’ve ever seen as a program. It’s gonna be important for us to step out and be our best.”

The home matchup is scheduled for Saturday, April 9. First draw control is set for 1 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.

The two first-place finishes came from junior Marty Dolan and sophomore Josh Stone. Dolan emerged victorious in the 3K steeplechase, beating out the second-place runner by four seconds with a final time of 9:08.79. Stone’s 10K race was tighter at the line, but the Bearcat still took gold with a time of 29:45.04. Each of the two athletes scored 10 points for Binghamton at the weekend meet.

“The steeplechase, for [Dolan], we don’t have it indoors, [so] it helps him out because that’s his main event,” said Binghamton head coach Mike Thompson. “[Stone] is a great long-distance runner. Having those two events outdoors really allows them to shine a little bit more than they did indoors.”

Thompson seemed pleased with the progress that the Binghamton distance team has made since returning to a full season of competition.

“[Stone] is a great athlete, a great runner,” Thompson said. “I’m not surprised to see him do this well. Of course, he’s still very young, so it’s exciting to know that he’s going to be around for a while. The distance group in general has been doing very well this year. The junior class, the group that’s in their third year of college, we knew they were really talented when they came in … I think the combination of them having a relatively normal season with the fact that they’ve now been running in college for three years, we’re starting to see the results — the ability that they’ve always had.”

Binghamton also competed well off of the track. On Friday morning, senior Jake Restivo put Binghamton on the board after earning five points in the long jump. Although his jump of 22-11.25 feet was not close to his personal best performance, he managed the leap on his last attempt down the runway to rocket him into a scoring position.

“It was a solid performance for [Restivo],” Thompson said. “It was really an average distance for him, but he competed really well.”

In the men’s triple jump on Saturday, junior Marcrene Jeannot registered a personal best jump of 49-10.00 feet to finish second overall. Jeannot remains the second-best triple jumper in BU’s Division I history, only behind former triple jumper Matt Baker, who graduated in 2021.

“It was good to see [Jeannot] jump the furthest that he’s ever jumped,” Thompson said. “Last week, it was freezing at Lafayette so there was no chance for anyone to do extremely well because it was just too cold. [Jeannot] looked great. I’m happy with him. He’s motivated, he’s focused and I think he will do much better this year by the end of the season.”

Jeannot’s triple jump counterpart on the women’s side, graduate student Brittany Korsah, went home with bronze in the event. Following a jump of 39-08.00 feet on her second attempt, Korsah tied with the second-placed athlete from George Mason who was awarded silver for having the next-best jump between herself and the Bearcat.

“It was the most consistent [Korsah] has been in a long time,” Thompson said. “Even though it wasn’t her furthest jump ever, it was good to see her jumping well on every jump. When consistency happens, eventually big marks come.”

The Binghamton men’s team at William & Mary finished ninth out of 40 scoring teams and the women took 15th out of 38 competing schools.

The highest-placing BU athlete at Towson was senior Madison Krochina who took second in the women’s hammer throw with a distance of 162-86 feet. For the men’s side, senior Spencer Thomas delivered the strongest performance, taking third in discus after registering a 153-11-foot throw.

“I think [the throwers] looked pretty good going into the spring season,” Thompson said. “It’s nice to see our distance runners doing well, men and women. That’ll help our team outdoors. The hammer looks pretty solid too on both sides. I’m pretty happy with where we’re at.”

There was no team scoring at Towson.

Binghamton is next scheduled to compete at the Lehigh Invitational on Saturday, April 9. The meet is set to start at 10 a.m. at the Goodman Track and Field Complex in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Editor’s Note: Marty Dolan is a member of Pipe Dream staff as Assistant Fun Editor.

“The campus is saddened to learn of the death of Harpur College [of Arts and Sciences] student Robert Martin, who played goalie on the [BU] men’s lacrosse team,” the B-Line read. “The University wishes to convey its heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and teammates.”

Martin, a graduate student enrolled in Harpur College, was a goalie on the men’s lacrosse team. After graduating from Corcoran High School in Syracuse, New York in 2017, Martin had attended BU to continue his athletic career. As a fifth-year student at the University, Martin has been on the men’s lacrosse team longer than anyone else on the roster. Not including BU’s 2020 season, Martin appeared in 24 games.

During his sophomore season in 2019, Martin started nine of the University’s 13 official games. Against Hobart College, Martin was crucial in keeping his team in the game, making 10 saves despite only playing half of the match. Martin made 64 total saves that year.

The America East Conference expressed its condolences in a Twitter post on Saturday afternoon.

“We pass along our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Robert Martin as well as the entire @BU_Bearcats & @binghamtonu communities,” the post read. “Our thoughts and prayers are with you as we all mourn his loss.”

The New Jersey Institute of Technology’s men’s lacrosse team, which BU was scheduled to play Saturday night, also expressed their condolences on Twitter, joining several other lacrosse teams.

“In moments like this, we’re all one lacrosse family,” the post read. “Sending our condolences to Robert’s loved ones and the [BU] program.”

Both the BU men’s and women’s lacrosse teams postponed their weekend matchups following the news.

This is a developing story and will be updated as Pipe Dream receives more information.

Students in need of counseling services or support can contact the University Counseling Center at 607-777-2772 and the Office of the Dean of Students at 607-777-2804. Faculty and staff in need of support can contact the Employee Assistance Program any time of day at 1-800-822-0244.

“I want to thank Commissioner [Brad] Walker and the Board of Directors in the [AE] for giving this incredible opportunity to the student-athletes, coaches and staff at Bryant University,” said Bryant Director of Athletics Bill Smith, per bryantbulldogs.com. “The [AE] consists of universities and programs that excel nationally on both the field of play and in the classroom. We are honored to become a member of this outstanding conference and will work diligently to make them proud.”

Previously, Bryant competed in the Northeast Conference (NEC) which it joined in 2008 after becoming a Division I program. The Bryant men’s basketball team recently concluded a historic season highlighted by a trip to the NCAA tournament where it was dispatched in the First Four by Wright State. The Bulldogs ended their season with a 22-10 overall record led by senior guard Peter Kiss who led all of Division I in scoring. The Bryant baseball team has also won the last nine NEC regular-season titles, including a 21-4 run in conference play last year. The school has won two NEC commissioner’s cups while earning seven straight commissioner’s cups on the men’s side.

Bryant was invited to join the AE soon after Stony Brook announced its departure from the conference. The Seawolves officially decided to join the Colonial Athletic Association earlier this year and are set to make their move official in July of 2022. With Hartford looking to transition to a Division III model, and therefore leaving the AE, by 2025, the AE conference will be left with only eight programs. Bryant’s inclusion will bring the number of AE teams to nine after Stony Brook and Hartford officially depart the conference.

Bryant is scheduled to continue its current conference competition until the end of the 2021-22 academic year.

“It was a little bit of a sloppy game,” McKeown said. “I thought all-around UMBC’s a really tough team. They fight really hard, they’re disciplined, they don’t give up clearly. We knew that, we saw that and we told our guys to expect that … I was glad to see us respond to some adversity there when they went on a run.”

Adversity struck for Binghamton (4-4, 2-0 America East [AE]) 10 minutes into the third quarter, as the hosts conceded a goal that ended their four-goal run, bringing the game to a 10-4 lead. The goal sparked a 5-0 run for UMBC (2-4, 0-1 AE) that spilled into the final frame. With every goal the Retrievers scored, the away fans grew louder, and UMBC cut down Binghamton’s lead to 10-8 with all of the momentum in its favor.

“Defensively, we could’ve covered the inside a little bit better,” McKeown said. “That gave them some opportunities … The exciting thing for us is I don’t know if we’ve put all phases together in one game. I think that’s what the goal is and that’s what we’re working toward.”

BU stopped the bleeding with just under three minutes left to play. A goal by freshman attack Matthew Keegan allowed the Bearcats to regain control of the game, and senior attack Kevin Winkoff found the net less than a minute later. The Bearcats rode out the clock to win the match.

At the start of the game, UMBC drew first blood, slotting the ball between the legs of redshirt junior goalie Teddy Dolan to take a first-quarter advantage. On the next possession, however, Binghamton found the back of the net thanks to a close-ranged shot from senior attack Daniel MacKinney. With just over nine minutes left in the first quarter, Winkoff bagged a second goal for BU and his first of the game to give the hosts a 2-1 lead heading into the second period.

“Winkoff is doing a great job leading us,” McKeown said. “The guys are sharing the ball well and when we do that and get the ball moving, it makes it really tough for the defense.”

BU continued its scoring run in the second quarter, netting two more goals before UMBC found the net five minutes into the period. The Retrievers, however, garnered no momentum from their goal, as sophomore midfielder Ethan Insinga responded with two straight goals for the Bearcats. UMBC found the net once again with less than two minutes until halftime, but the visitors were down 6-3.

Although Binghamton struggled late in the game, it established a strong lead during the third quarter, scoring four more goals thanks to Winkoff, MacKinney and Keegan. Keegan tallied two goals by the game’s end, and MacKinney and Winkoff posted three and four goals, respectively. The Bearcats were able to consistently find the UMBC net despite losing 18 of 24 face-offs.

“Credit to their [faceoff], I thought he did a really good job,” McKeown said. “I’m just pleased to see us be able to win without getting those faceoffs. Sometimes we relied on that in some past games, but today we weren’t able to.”

Despite conceding five late-game goals, Dolan kept Binghamton in contention after making 10 saves, including five critical stops before halftime.

“We gave up some tough looks,” McKeown said. “I definitely don’t fault [Dolan]. Sometimes we get lucky, and he makes those types of saves, but that’s not something we’ll be talking to him about.”

Earlier in the season, UMBC beat both Utah and Drexel, which were both nationally ranked at the time. The Retrievers were handed their conference-opening loss by the Bearcats, who are now one of two teams in the AE which are yet to suffer defeat in conference play.

BU’s next opponent is No. 19 Lehigh in a nonconference matchup.

“[Lehigh is] going to be a really tough opponent, they face off incredibly well and we’ll definitely have our work cut out for us,” McKeown said. “It’ll be a great challenge to defend our home turf.”

BU is set to host the Mountain Hawks on Tuesday, March 29. Faceoff is set for 5 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.

“To have won that as a program, we haven’t gotten that in a while, certainly a long while on the road against [Albany],” said Binghamton head coach Kevin McKeown. “It couldn’t be a better way to start off conference play.”

Binghamton (3-4, 1-0 AE) seized control of the game early in the first quarter. The Bearcats drove three goals past the Great Danes (1-5, 0-1 AE) before they mustered a response, tallying their first goal in the eighth minute. Despite breaking BU’s scoring streak, Binghamton relinquished no momentum in the first period, as senior attack Daniel MacKinney scored a fourth goal for the visitors less than a minute later. Binghamton soon scored a fifth and ended the quarter with five different Bearcats on the board.

“[The offense] did a great job at sharing the ball,” McKeown said. “We gave the offense a lot of opportunities and [they] took full advantage of it. It was a program record for goals.”

Although the Bearcats scored two more goals in the second quarter, the Albany offense began to stage an early comeback against the away side. The Great Danes’ initial four-point deficit was cut down to just two as the hosts tallied four goals to outscore BU. The scoreboard read 7-5 at halftime.

After opening up the scoring in the third quarter, Binghamton regained full control of the game, tallying six more goals by the end of the frame. MacKinney added another two goals to his tally in the third-period offensive push. Although Albany outshot the Bearcats 11-10, the Great Danes only mustered two goals as redshirt junior goalie Teddy Dolan made four saves when the hosts put shots on goal.

MacKinney brought his goal tally up to five in the final frame as Binghamton went on a 5-3 run to close out the contest. Senior attack Vincent Basile also completed his hat trick three minutes into the quarter. Albany had no response to the BU offense after getting outshot 14-8 during the period and struggling to overcome an already steep six-point deficit after the third quarter.

Senior attack Kevin Winkoff contributed to the team’s offensive efforts, scoring two goals of his own and adding on four assists. Winkoff currently has 18 goals this season and is tied for first in the AE in goals per game with 2.63.

The Bearcats are slated to host UMBC next weekend. The Retrievers have beaten both nationally ranked Drexel and Utah during their nonconference season and were picked fourth in the AE preseason coaches’ poll right behind Albany.

“We’ve been continuing to get better in practice every week,” McKeown said. “The teams that you end up playing in the playoffs are the ones that get better throughout the years. We’re taking it one week at a time. We have a really good team coming to our place next week.”

The matchup against UMBC is scheduled for Saturday, March 26. Faceoff is set for 1 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.

Mackay earned her first two All-American honors in 2021. Her first-ever recognition was at the 2021 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships in March, and her second came at the subsequent NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships. She was named first-team All-American at both meets.

On the first day of the meet in Birmingham, Mackay stepped onto the oval for the women’s mile preliminaries. Heading into the meet, Mackay held the fastest mile time in the country of 4:30.94 which she established in February. However, Mackay was unable to replicate her nation-leading performance, running a time of 4:36.34 to take 12th in the 16-woman field.

“No one was running their [personal best] in that heat, everyone was just trying to run strategically and not overly exert themselves,” said Binghamton head cross country coach Annete Acuff. “[Mackay] certainly did run fast earlier in the season, but that wasn’t the goal going in … [It was] just to make sure she made it through.”

Mackay was pipped at the line by another athlete, leaving her one-hundredth of a second from qualifying for the final in the women’s mile event.

“[Mackay] had no idea anyone else was close,” Acuff said. “Her goal was definitely to try and make sure she was in the top three because then you don’t leave anything to chance … That can happen at an elite level because everyone is good … It’s tough getting beat at the line.”

In the first round of the women’s mile, seven of the athletes who finished above Mackay broke the previous Birmingham CrossPlex facility record time of 4:35.62 set in 2016. However, no athlete in either the women’s mile preliminaries or final came within two seconds of Mackay’s personal best in the event that she accomplished in February. The women who finished eighth and above in the final earned first-team All-American honors, while Mackay’s placement earned her a second-team accolade.

“[Mackay] was pretty disappointed, it’s unfortunate,” Acuff said. “There’s nothing she could do about it. Luckily, she had the 3K that she had a chance to compete in as well, so we were really glad that she entered in the 3K.”

Mackay was less experienced competing in the 3K event on a national level. Going into the race, the Bearcat was ranked ninth in the nation with a 3K time of 8:54.45.

“This was her first time competing in that event at the indoor national meet,” Acuff said. “You can’t replicate a national-level competition until you get there … It was a very gritty, tactical 3K on the women’s side. That’s usually not about running fast times … [Mackay] has very little experience racing in the 3K as a whole.”

The 3K race included four members of the nationally ranked NC State team. While Mackay made early attempts to stay in contention with the rest of the field, the Bearcat soon fell behind as the race drew to a close. She registered a time of 9:11.29 to take 15th and earn second-team All-American honors.

“There was a lot of movement and a lot of tactical racing, and she kept herself in it as long as she could,” Acuff said. “Unfortunately, [Mackay] ran out of gas the last quarter, but she worked hard to keep herself in it as long as she could.”

Mackay concludes her indoor season with both nationally ranked times in the 3K and mile, as well as the 5K and 800-meter race. In the 5K, the Bearcat is ranked 20th with her time of 15:44.93 from back in December of 2021, and in the 800-meter event she ended the season in ninth overall with a BU program record of 2:03.49.

“Her times were fantastic this season and she gained a lot of experiencing racing in some elite fields,” Acuff said. “We didn’t necessarily expect her to run as fast as she did … From a speed [and] fitness perspective, she had a fantastic indoor season … Outdoors, we’ll focus with the [800-meter race] and the 1500, at least that’s the plan right now, but she won’t compete until later in April.”

While Mackay is slated to make a late appearance for the Bearcats during the outdoor track and field season, the remainder of the team is scheduled to kick off its competition at the Raleigh Relays from Thursday, March 24 to Saturday, March 26 at the Paul Derr Track Facility in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“[Hofstra] is a team that a lot of our guys are familiar with, just being from the area,” said Binghamton head coach Kevin McKeown. “They generally have a lot of talent … I thought we matched up pretty well with them. I was optimistic about how we would stack up and our guys came out and did a great job, brought a ton of energy.”

The Bearcats (2-3) went down 2-0 early on. Although Hofstra (3-4) continued to lead past the 10-minute mark, the defensive efforts of senior defender Drew Furlong put Binghamton back into the driver’s seat. After brushing off a sixth-minute advance by the Pride, BU regained possession and found the net with 8:35 left on the clock. After junior faceoff Matthew DeSouza won the following faceoff, the ball journeyed its way into the head of senior attack Kevin Winkoff’s stick less than a minute later and the Bearcat fired a shot into the goal. The game-tying goal was Winkoff’s 11th of the season.

“After scoring the first two [goals], I feel like we kind of settled in,” McKeown said. “It being a one-goal game, it was still a toss-up there.”

Senior attack Daniel MacKinney capped off Binghamton’s first-quarter scoring efforts, providing a third goal in the 11th minute. Hofstra, however, responded in the final minute of the period with another goal to keep the game even at 3-3 heading into the second frame.

Both teams continued to play an even game throughout the second quarter. The Bearcats scored first, but Hofstra quickly replied 10 seconds later. After less than a minute, BU tallied its second goal of the period, and the Pride was slower in its response. The Hofstra goal came late in the half, just before a final Binghamton goal allowed the visitors to establish a 6-5 lead at the break.

In the third quarter, Binghamton completely pulled away. For the extent of the period, the Bearcats maintained control of the game and capitalized on their momentum to spark a 6-0 run spanning over 14 minutes. The Pride found consolation in a final goal with 42 seconds remaining on the clock, but a scoreless fourth quarter for both sides allowed BU to decisively close out the match.

“We talked about the third quarter a lot recently,” McKeown said. “[Against] Marist, we had a three-goal lead at halftime. Lafayette, we had a three- or four-goal lead at halftime. Both of those evaporated. We wanted to play better in the third quarter, and we clearly did.”

McKeown credited the efforts of DeSouza and Furlong on the defensive end. DeSouza won 19 of 22 faceoffs and combined with Furlong for a two-man tally of 18 ground balls.

“You see [DeSouza] only losing three face-offs all game, one in the second half,” McKeown said. “It takes a lot of pressure off the defense just from having to defend … [Furlong], who was on the wing for a lot of face-offs, was huge too. He picked up a ton of ground balls … They were a good tag team up there.”

Winkoff scored his second goal of the game during BU’s 6-0 run in the third quarter. Winkoff is currently averaging 2.67 goals per game, good enough for fourth among all players in the America East.

“[The offense] is getting better and better each game,” McKeown said. “We got a few goals in transition as well which gives a lot of energy and juice to the sideline.”

The win against Hofstra marks the end of Binghamton’s four-game away slate.

“We’ve had some long bus rides, and the guys have handled it well, but it’s always nice to be at home,” McKeown said. “We’ve got a big senior class, and we’ve got a lot of guys who’ve played a lot of games there, so the guys feel comfortable there. We’re looking forward to getting back on the home turf.”

The Bearcats’ upcoming home game is scheduled against Fairfield on Sunday, March 13. Faceoff is set for 1 p.m. at the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.

“I’m really happy with our team’s effort,” said Binghamton head coach Kyle Borshoff, per bubearcats.com. “This is the best EIWA’s we’ve ever had. I couldn’t be happier for the four qualifiers and for [DePrez’s] third championship.”

DePrez made quick work of his first opponent in the round of 16, pinning him in 13 seconds. In the quarterfinals, DePrez earned a 7-0 decision to move onto the semifinal round, where he was paired up against Navy junior Jacob Koser. DePrez faced off against Koser earlier in the season during BU’s home meet against Navy. The competitive 197-pound bout in late January spilled into overtime where the Bearcat came out on top. DePrez replicated his close dual meet victory at the EIWA matchup, recording a 6-5 decision after giving up two late points from stalling.

“It feels good to get this one,” DePrez said, per bubearcats.com. “It’s been a long year compared to last year, as far as bumping up to 197 and getting back to the full season. I feel good and am excited to compete in Detroit.”

While DePrez headlined the Binghamton side at the tournament, three Bearcats made early exits from the championship. 125-pound true freshman Nick Curley, 133-pound senior Anthony Sobotker and 157-pound sophomore Tyler Martin all failed to advance to the quarterfinals and found little success in the consolation brackets.

Redshirt sophomore 184-pounder Cory Day and 149-pound redshirt senior Nick Lombard both placed eighth after the first day of the tournament. Day lost in the round of 16, but advanced far into the consolation bracket before finally falling to a 6-3 decision right before the semifinal bout. Lombard made it to the quarterfinals but was downed in a 12-2 decision and relegated to the consolation bracket, where he was also defeated just before the semifinals.

Sophomore 141-pounder Ryan Anderson made it all the way to sixth place at the tournament. The Bearcat climbed to the championship semifinals where he lost 6-1, and then lost again in the semifinals of the consolation bracket in a 2-0 decision.

After earning a narrow 3-2 decision in the round of 16, 165-pound sophomore Brevin Cassella fell 5-3 in his subsequent quarterfinal matchup against his Cornell opponent. Following two close bouts in the consolation bracket, Cassella looked to advance to the finals but was downed by his Bucknell opponent after a single takedown allowed the Bison to come away with a 2-0 decision.

In the 174-pound bracket, junior Jacob Nolan was dispatched early on in the tournament, losing the quarterfinals in a 9-2 decision. However, Nolan bounced back in the consolation bracket, moving past all of his opponents and eventually landing a spot in the third-place bout. The matchup went into overtime as the two wrestlers were drawn 1-1 by the third period, and a final takedown by Nolan’s opponent handed him the 3-1 loss as the Bearcat finished fourth.

Apart from DePrez, 285-pound redshirt senior Joe Doyle went the farthest at the competition. In the round of 16, Doyle dominated his opponent, scoring 14 points against him before finally earning a pin in the second period. In the quarterfinals, Doyle lost 3-1 to his opponent from UPenn. Doyle, however, swept the consolation bracket, including the final matchup, where he earned a 4-0 decision over the UPenn wrestler who relegated him to the loser’s bracket earlier in the competition. Doyle ended the tournament in third.

The Bearcats finished sixth overall out of 17 teams competing at the EIWA tournament. This mark tied for the best finish in the program’s history. BU tallied 79.5 points and was only five points behind Columbia but was still far behind first-place Cornell which had 153.

Doyle, DePrez, Nolan and Cassella all earned automatic bids to the NCAA tournament later this month. The national championship is scheduled from Thursday, March 17 to Saturday, March 19. The tournament will take place at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan.

“We look at this meet as a meet for people who want to go,” said Binghamton head coach Mike Thompson. “We’re not going to this meet trying to score. We’re not trying to kill our athletes to try and do well at the meet. If we did that, we could’ve placed a lot higher on both sides.”

On the first day of events, the women’s side put Binghamton on the board in both the 60-meter hurdles and 200-meter dash preliminaries. In the 200-meter event, graduate student Nia Joyner took sixth overall with a time of 24.47 to advance to the finals on the following day. Meanwhile, sophomore Jenna Chan took third in the first round of the 60-meter hurdles in 8.66 seconds and subsequently finished sixth (8.71) in the semifinals later in the day. For the men’s team, only senior Jake Restivo managed to crack the upper echelon of the leaderboard, posting a jump of 23-02.50 feet to place fourth in the hotly contested long jump.

During Sunday’s string of events, BU continued to perform well on the individual level. Joyner took to the oval in the 200-meter final and ran a time of 24.37 to finish seventh. Chan, however, was able to take fifth in the 60-meter hurdles final in 8.62 seconds for her best time of the meet.

“[Chan] didn’t run quite as well as she did at [the conference meet], but her time in the finals was one of her best times ever,” Thomspon said. “She was a little sick going into the weekend, so she had to deal with that as well. She had a great season.”

Redshirt junior Aziza Chigatayeva was the last of the Bearcats to post a substantial finish on the overall. The Bearcat took third in the 31-competitor field of the 3000-meter run, clocking in at 9:26.36.

In both the men’s and women’s triple jump, the Bearcats posted their best performances of the weekend. In the women’s side, Joyner managed to take eighth place, but her compatriot, graduate student Brittany Korsah, nearly won the event with her jump of 40-10.25 feet. Her second-place finish was narrowly bested by a margin of a quarter of an inch from the gold-winning competitor.

“The triple jumpers all did well,” Thomspon said. “[Korsah] jumped out of her mind. That’s the best she’s ever jumped, and she hadn’t triple jumped well in a couple of years … [Joyner] was jumping extremely well but kept fouling. The mark that she got eighth with, she was jumping much better than that.”

The men’s team took fourth and fifth place in the triple jump on Sunday. The fourth-place spot was occupied by junior Marcrene Jeannot, who jumped a distance of 48-08.25 feet in the event. Sophomore Marcus Johnson followed up in fifth, hitting the pit at 48-06.75 feet on his fourth attempt.

“[Jeannot and Johnson], they jumped pretty well,” Thomspon said. “Both of them were having trouble with their approach and getting on the board. Despite that, they still jumped really well. Jumpers, and athletes in general, when their average performance ends up being close to their best performances, that’s when you know they’re ready to break through. I’m looking forward to outdoors.”

Neither redshirt senior Dan Schaffer nor redshirt senior Emily Mackay made an appearance at the meet over the weekend. Thompson said they did not compete because Schaffer is beginning to focus on the outdoor competition, while Mackay is gearing up to compete at the NCAA indoor tournament next weekend.

Mackay is set to compete at the 2022 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships on Friday, March 11 and Saturday, March 12. The meet is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. at the Birmingham CrossPlex in Birmingham, Alabama.

“It was a tale of two halves,” said Binghamton head coach Levell Sanders. “I thought in the first half, we didn’t defend. We gave up way too many points … In the second half, we came out and guys were actually able to stop [UMBC]. We were able to go on a run. Once you get stops on the defensive end, we were able to go and score.”

The Bearcats (11-16, 8-10 America East [AE]) started out strong in the first half, going toe-to-toe with the Retrievers (16-13, 11-7 AE) and eventually building a promising six-point lead twice within the first 11 minutes. The Binghamton lead, however, soon began to fade as poor defending from the away side fueled a late first half advance by UMBC to close out the frame with 46 points in contrast to BU’s 37.

“Once you let a player hit a rhythm, it becomes a lot harder to stop them,” Sanders said. “We let [UMBC] get a rhythm in the first half and then that carried on into the second half … We gotta execute better down the stretch. We had a ton of close games this year and we can’t close the games out.”

Binghamton’s offense in the first half was spearheaded by junior forward Ogheneyole Akuwovo who tallied 12 points before halftime. Akuwovo was on the court for less than 10 minutes before being subbed off in the first period and rarely returned to the court in the second.

“[Akuwovo] had two fouls, and we didn’t want him to pick up his third foul in the first half,” Sanders said. “When he came back in in the second half, he immediately gave up a basket on a play that we went over a million times … We took him out of the game, and we put another person in. That group actually was the group that brought us back into the game.”

Down by nine points after the break, Binghamton spent the majority of the second half chipping away the UMBC lead. With just over seven minutes left on the clock, the Bearcats shrunk the Retrievers’ lead down to one point.

Even with BU right on its tail, UMBC never gave up its lead. As soon as Binghamton came within one point of tying the game, the Retrievers knocked down two deep threes. Sophomore guard John McGriff responded with a 3-pointer of his own, but a layup from UMBC marked the beginning of a free throw streak by the hosts. As the Bearcats scrambled to catch up, UMBC put away nine free throws in the final five minutes of play to outpace BU and emerge victorious in its last regular season game.

“We had already put ourselves behind, we already had [UMBC] feeling good from the first half,” Sanders said. “Second half, we almost had to play perfect. We got it down to one, [but] they came out and they hit a three. Then, we missed a layup. They came out and they hit another three. Next thing you know, it goes from one to seven.”

With the defeat to UMBC, Binghamton is locked into the No. 6 seed in the AE playoffs. The Bearcats will play either UNH or Hartford in the No. 3 seed depending on the outcome of Thursday night’s matchup between the Hawks and UMass Lowell.

“If I think back to the preseason where everyone had us projected — we were projected 10th — and right now we’re sitting in the sixth place,” Sanders said. “We should still feel good about ourselves and not feel any pressure about what place we’re gonna be in. What we’ve seen this year with our league is there’s not that much difference between the two seed and the seventh or eighth seed. Everybody can beat anybody on a given day. We gotta remain confident, we gotta remain focused.”

BU’s first playoff game is slated for Sunday, March 6 with the time and location yet to be announced.

“I thought both sides performed extremely well,” said Binghamton head coach Mike Thompson. “We were hoping for second on the women’s side and thought we had a chance to win, but that ended up not being the case. Despite not getting second, I thought they performed very well. It just wasn’t meant to be.”

Both the men and women finished third overall. However, on day one of the meet, the men ended the night in second with the women trailing behind in sixth.

The men got off to an early start on Friday after sweeping two separate field events. Senior Casey Gribben opened up the field scoring for BU after earning his third-straight AE pole vault indoor title with a winning clearance of 15-09.00 feet. Senior Jake Restivo immediately followed suit in the next event, recording his first-ever AE crown in the long jump with a leap of 23-10.75 feet on his fourth attempt. Restivo not only earned 10 points for his school but also posted Binghamton’s first-ever AE title in the long jump.

The Bearcat men sporadically tallied points as the day went on, but Binghamton’s next big contribution did not come until Friday’s final event. In the men’s 4000-meter distance medley relay, Binghamton was stuck trailing UMass Lowell heading into the last leg. However, just as UMass Lowell graduate student Derek Holmes began to round the final lap of the race, redshirt senior Dan Schaffer shot past the River Hawk, leaving Holmes in the dust as he crossed the finish line with a mile split of 3:56.13 and an overall relay time of 9:42.02. The BU time broke a 13-year-old AE record in the event.

The Binghamton women’s 4000-meter distance medley relay also emerged victorious on Friday afternoon. Unlike the men’s race, however, the women’s relay was not close. BU pulled away with a time of 11:37.87, which was 27 seconds ahead of second-place UNH. The gold-medal finish earned 10 points for the Bearcats to propel them into sixth as the day came to a close.

Heading into day two of the meet, the women swiftly pulled themselves out of sixth and toward the top of the leaderboard. In the 200-meter dash final, two Bearcats competed to tally eight points. In the following 400-meter dash, three BU athletes took to the oval and tallied another 17 points. Then, in the 500-meter race, senior Stephanie Cassens won her first-ever AE title, running a time of 1:12.84 to finish less than a second off of the conference record in the event.

“Everyone who was in position to win did win for the most part,” Thompson said.

Redshirt senior Emily Mackay prolonged Binghamton’s momentum on the oval, winning the 800-meter race with an AE and BU record time of 2:03.49. Her title-winning performance is currently ranked ninth in the nation. Even though UMass Lowell and UNH won the following two events, respectively, BU showed no signs of cooling down. Shortly after redshirt junior Aziza Chigatayeva and Mackay took first and second in the women’s 3K event, sophomore Jenna Chan won the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.61 after running a school-record time of 8.55 in Friday’s preliminaries.

“If you look at the personnel on these teams, I’d put them up there with some of the best teams we’ve ever had,” Thompson said. “The women’s team, this probably is the best team we’ve ever had.”

The women finished with 122 points, right on the tails of UMass Lowell which had 126.5 in second place.

“I’m very proud of how we performed this year,” Thompson said. “Year after year at the conference meet, we always seem to perform at our best. I’m always proud of that, I’m always proud of the people on this team because they do work hard … This group is as good of a group, men and women, that we’ve ever had. Maybe the best teams we’ve had.”

The BU men looked to hold on to second place heading into Saturday but were overtaken by UAlbany as the Great Danes dominated the sprinting events early on. Schaffer made up some ground after winning the mile with a time of 4:07.72 but was unable to contend with the point tallies of UAlbany or the sea of UMass Lowell blue trailing close behind him in the mile.

“Roster size has always been a problem for us,” Thompson said. “We’re never going to have rosters as big as Albany or [UMass Lowell], but we always have great individuals and we take a lot of pride in that. I feel like we do an exceptional job developing the people we have, and many times we just get beat by sheer numbers.”

UMass Lowell tallied 215 points to win the AE title. UAlbany was second with 172 points, and BU was far behind the front runners with 115 points.

With the AE championships wrapped up, Binghamton still has more indoor competitions lined up before it returns to the outdoor track.

“Preparation-wise, it’s just sharpening up,” Thompson said. “The volume of training will be lower. The intensity will still be there but much lower volume. [We’re] just trying to get sharp going into the final championship meets of the year.”

Binghamton’s next meet at the Eastern College Athletic Conference/IC4A is scheduled for Friday, March 4 through Sunday, March 6. The meet is set to start at 10 a.m. at the Boston University Track & Tennis Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

“I’m happy with the way we battled back and didn’t fold,” said Binghamton head coach Levell Sanders. “We came out and played in the second half, but against a team like Vermont, that’s not enough.”

Binghamton (11-14, 8-8 America East [AE]) was energetic in the first five minutes of the matchup, but the electricity faded as Vermont (23-5, 15-1 AE) started to hit its shots and junior guard Jacob Falko hobbled off the court with a blow to his ankle, leaving BU’s top scorer in a boot for the remainder of the game.

“I’ve been in those situations before where your ‘leader goes down’, and it can happen,” Sanders said. “Your guys either do two things: we can rally or they’re looking around and seeing if he’ll come back. Those are things you can’t control. You gotta go out there and play. I don’t think it had an impact on them just taking the ball from us and pushing us around. That had nothing to do with it. Of course, you can miss a little bit of scoring from [Falko], but I don’t think that had much to do with how the game went, especially in the first half.”

The Bearcats’ offensive efforts came to a crawl as the Catamounts punished Binghamton’s mistakes, scoring 15 points off of turnovers to help build their 37-17 lead by halftime.

“First half, we were soft,” Sanders said. “We provided no response for Vermont. We looked scared … We were just giving them the basketball. We had 11 turnovers, they had 15 [first half] points off of turnovers. We let them push us around. They had 10 points from second-chance points. The first half, we looked like a [junior varsity] team out there.”

However, when the Bearcats retook the court after the halftime break, the energy in the Events Center began to resurface, and the hosts produced a 22-11 run to cut Vermont’s lead down to 11 points midway through the 11th minute of the second half.

“In the second half, I thought it was just about having some pride, going out there to compete,” Sanders said. “We battled back … When you get down by 20 against a team like Vermont, you gotta almost play perfect.”

At the heart of Binghamton’s second half performance were sophomore guard John McGriff and senior guard Christian Hinckson.

“It looked a little bit like when [Falko] was up in Vermont by himself, in terms of [McGriff being] the only guy who could really handle the ball and make plays,” Sanders said. “[McGriff] was out there by himself. I didn’t think he played bad. I think he had a solid game. He was defending, he was trying to break the defense down.”

By the end of the second half, McGriff had tallied 16 points and eight rebounds while Hinckson contributed an additional 11 points and six rebounds. However, as the Bearcats began to play more aggressively, both McGriff and junior forward Bryce Beamer fouled out of the game as the closing minutes began to fade.

“You have to be a little more aggressive, but then you become more susceptible to those drives and those fouls,” Sanders said. “We’re driving the same way they’re driving … We tried but it was just too big of a lead.”

Binghamton had posted 32 points in the second half compared to Vermont’s 29. The Bearcats also limited Vermont to just three points off turnovers compared to the 15 they allowed in the first half. The Catamounts are ranked first both offensively and defensively in the conference.

The Bearcats have just two games left in its regular season before the AE playoffs are set to begin. The first of the matchups is scheduled for this weekend against New Hampshire. On Wednesday night, the Wildcats slammed NJIT 83-55 away from home.

The UNH matchup is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 26. Tipoff is set for noon at the Lundholm Gymnasium in Durham, New Hampshire.

“We hadn’t seen [Princeton] play last year so [they] were a little bit of a new-look team having not seen them play since 2020,” said Binghamton head coach Kevin McKeown. “Defensively, they really challenged us to beat them and earn any slides that you want to get. On offense, they move the ball really well, attack the field really well.”

Binghamton (0-2) only found the net once in the opening quarter. After Princeton (2-0) drove five unanswered points past BU, senior midfielder Andrew Arce put a point on the board for the Bearcats with 46 seconds left in the period. However, Princeton snuck one more goal into the Binghamton net just before the quarter ended, giving the Tigers a 6-1 advantage as the buzzer rang.

“Arce, he’s coming back from injury and I thought he did a nice job,” McKeown said. “He’s a calming presence out there. He’s got really good skills … We’ve got some bright spots, but we have to be able to put a full 60 minutes together.”

At the start of the second quarter, the Bearcats were the ones to begin the scoring, quickly bagging two goals within seven seconds of each other in just the first minute of play.

“Early on we had to make some changes defensively, we left [redshirt junior goalie Teddy Dolan] out to dry a few times,” McKeown said. “We hit that point where we scored a couple in a row, we won some faceoffs … We were right in the game.”

Although BU managed to dent Princeton’s first-quarter lead, the Tigers scored eight straight goals after the first two minutes, including another last-second goal just as the half was about to conclude. The scoreboard read 14-3 and Binghamton had dug itself an 11-point deficit.

Despite Princeton’s lead, Binghamton played competitively in the third quarter. Offensively, the Bearcats managed to post three goals, two of which having been produced by graduate student attack Justin Roderka in the first five minutes. On the defensive end, Binghamton still looked shaky, allowing 18 shots to the Tigers compared to the six it registered during the period. However, thanks to a five-save contribution by Dolan in the third, the Bearcats kept Princeton to four points.

The final frame became BU’s most consistent quarter of the matchup. Both teams went even on shots and shots on goal, with each tallying 10 and six, respectively. Binghamton also kept Princeton to just four points for the second-straight quarter as it produced another three goals of its own. For each of the Tigers’ first two goals of the half, the Bearcats found a response within the following two minutes. However, Princeton’s 14-point performance from the first half kept BU from ever staging a comeback, and the Bearcats officially recorded their second loss of the season at the final buzzer.

Arce and Roderka were the only two Bearcats to register more than one goal on the night. The two-goal performance from each of the Binghamton athletes accounted for nearly half of BU’s overall goal tally.

Lafayette is the next team on Binghamton’s nonconference slate. The last meetup between both schools ended with a Bearcat win in triple overtime.

“We’re still really young, and it’s early in the season,” McKeown said. “We missed a scrimmage, and we missed a game last weekend, so we should’ve had a couple more goes under our belt that we weren’t able to have at this point.”

The matchup against the Leopards is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 26. Faceoff is set for 6 p.m. at Fisher Stadium in Easton, Pennsylvania.

“When I first came here when I was an assistant coach, I [thought] this place was like a gold mine,” Sanders said. “The campus was a beautiful campus. You’re a few hours away from New York City. We have great facilities. It’s a great academic situation. The University makes the city thrive. There are so many positives and so many pluses about Binghamton … When I talk to recruits, they might not know much about Binghamton, but when [I] get recruits and their parents out to see the campus, to see the place, everybody falls in love with it.”

Sanders was named an assistant coach to the program in 2019 while former head coach Tommy Dempsey was still at the helm of the team. Shortly following the men’s basketball team’s defeat to Hartford in the first round of the 2021 America East (AE) playoffs, Dempsey’s contract expired, and the former head coach officially departed from the program.

To replace Dempsey, former Binghamton Director of Athletics Patrick Elliott named Sanders interim head coach along with the decision to delay the search for new leadership until spring of 2022.

After his promotion in early March of 2021, Sanders quickly began to make his mark on the program after bringing both junior guard Jacob Falko and sophomore guard John McGriff to the program. In conference play, Falko currently sits at 16.4 points per game and McGriff has posted an average of 11.6 points per game thus far.

“We’re excited about [the contract] because it gives us the ability to lead this team for the next five years,” Sanders said. “More importantly, it allows us to go out and be able to recruit. That was the one thing that was holding us back. When you’re interim coaching, you’re recruiting against coaches that are long-term. They use that against you. Certain schools were using that against us, [saying,] ‘Why would you go there, the coach isn’t gonna be there next year, he’s interim.’ More than anything, that’s the part that really helps.”

Under Dempsey, the men’s basketball program totaled a 71-194 overall record and a 33-109 conference record. In Dempsey’s first season as head coach in 2012-13, the team only mustered a single AE win over Maine in a tight 57-56 victory. With Sanders at the helm of the lineup during the 2021-22 season, the team has posted eight conference wins thus far for the most it has had since the 2009-10 season when the Bearcats had just come off of an AE championship title and a trip to the NCAA tournament the previous year.

“Every coach does things a different way,” Sanders said. “Dempsey, I thought he did a good job of leading us. I’m a different person, and of course we do things a little bit differently … We’re laying the foundation right now, and that is going to help us for years to come. When you take over a program, that first year and how you lay the foundation is the most important because then everything that happens after that is based upon the foundation that you’re laying. If you lay a weak one, it’s not going to last.”

Despite spending most of his time in Binghamton as an assistant coach, Sanders is no stranger to leading a major program to success. For five years, Sanders headed Czech Republic team BK JIP Pardubice where he was named All-Czech Republic League Coach of the Year in 2017.

“The players I’ve coached overseas that were really smart players made me have the ability to know the game,” Sanders said. “When you’re coaching professional players, they have an opinion. I was 40 years old coaching guys that were 36 … It really helped prepare me and it helped me have the ability to see the game and know the game.”

Sanders had also played professionally in the Czech Republic before he began coaching and is currently the 11th-highest scorer in the nation’s history.

“It gave me a different perspective on how to see the game,” Sanders said. “I coached four years overseas, but I feel like I coached 10 years because of all of the experienced players that I was coaching that really helped push me.”

With three games left to play before the AE playoffs begin, Sanders is confident the team has more room for improvement thanks to both his players and his coaching staff.

“It’s an important year for us,” Sanders said. “We added three guys — good character guys, guys that wanna play for the team, play hard. I really like our team. I do think we can become even better, even this season. We still have a lot left, but none of this would be possible without the players and the coaches.”

Binghamton’s (6-18, 2-12 AE) last win came against UMBC on Jan. 29 by a 23-point margin. After downing the River Hawks (9-13, 6-7 AE) on Saturday afternoon, BU has two conference wins under its belt with four more games to play as it sits tied for last in the AE standings with the University of Hartford.

“This is the time you want to be playing well,” said Binghamton head coach Bethann Shapiro Ord. “We were right there every game, and to get over that hump today is huge and I’m so happy for our team because they work so hard with the best attitudes. I love coaching this team because there’s not one person that puts their head down, ever.”

Junior forward Jalyn Van Dyke opened up the scoring with a layup just outside of the first minute. Following another two-point contribution from Van Dyke, the River Hawks grabbed their first points and continued to find the Binghamton basket for the remainder of the quarter, tallying 12 points by the end of the period. The Bearcats, however, had totaled 15 points after the first 10 minutes to gain a three-point advantage.

Binghamton came out of the break firing on all cylinders. Although UMass Lowell opened the scoring in the second quarter, all of the game’s momentum was in favor of BU. The Bearcats drove a game-high 24 points past the River Hawks during the period, fueled by the energy from the Events Center. Van Dyke extended her point tally to nine, and junior guard Denai Bowman hit double digits to give Binghamton a 17-point lead.

Heading into the third quarter, BU’s offense started to cool off, giving the River Hawks a chance to cut down the deficit. While the hosts kept UMass Lowell to only 10 points in the second quarter, the River Hawks posted their game-high 18 points during the third period. Heading into the final frame, the away side was on a 10-0 run as the score read 52-40.

UMass Lowell’s unanswered scoring run spilled over into the fourth quarter, extending its streak to 15-0. However, Bowman landed a jumper in the paint to snap the run, and Binghamton was back on its feet. With the momentum back in the favor of the Bearcats, the hosts spent the remainder of the quarter driving the ball into the UMass Lowell basket, going on a 17-7 run past the 6:21 mark. With a sizable cushion from the first half of play and one final scoring flurry in the closing minutes of the game, the River Hawks were unable to come close to taking the lead.

“They believed in themselves, and they got over that hump,” Shapiro Ord said. “I keep saying, it’s going to be scary when we see them play four quarters. Now, still not four quarters, but we gave [ourselves] a cushion, thank goodness. But I’m really proud of the way they played and stuck together throughout the whole thing.”

Bowman spearheaded Binghamton’s best offensive performance of the AE season, earning 20 points for her side and adding seven rebounds and six assists.

“Bowman was tremendous,” Shapiro Ord said. “They’re putting their best player on her — they’re knocking her around. What she does for this team is incredible.”

Behind Bowman, three other Bearcats ended the game in double-digit scoring, including Van Dyke with 11 and junior guard Clare Traeger with 15. Both women also helped out on the defensive end, collectively tallying 10 defensive rebounds and three blocks for BU. Junior forward Birna Benonysdottir was the fourth Bearcat to contribute a double-digit score with 12.

“We’ve been saying all along that we need more than one or two people to be scoring, we can’t just rely on [Benonysdottir] and [Bowman],” Shapiro Ord said. “Traeger was attacking and knocking down some big shots, and [Van Dyke], she did a really good job. We need that.”

While junior guard Cassidy Roberts only snuck in an extra two points for the Bearcats, she registered six assists, four steals and helped her side stay in control of the game.

“[Roberts] is our general, and she’s doing a lot, too,” Shapiro Ord said. “She’s that glue that’s really running the show … The ability to be the coach on the floor with me, to really help and administer the help. She’s got a great basketball IQ that really helps this team.”

Binghamton will look to move back up the table in its next matchup against Hartford on Monday, Feb. 21. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m. at the Chase Family Arena in West Hartford, Connecticut.

“[Albany is] really playing well,” said Binghamton head coach Bethann Shapiro Ord. “They are really doing a good job of playing together, and they had four people in double figures. They were able to spread their points out a little bit. … We need a rest day, and then we’ve gotta get back to it.”

The Bearcats (5-18, 1-12 America East [AE]) got off to a rocky start. UAlbany (18-8, 11-4 AE) posted nine points in the first quarter before BU managed to find the basket. Binghamton finally got on the scoreboard after junior forward Birna Benonysdottir bagged a 3-pointer midway through the fourth minute of play.

“[UAlbany] did a good job defensively,” Shapiro Ord said. “They were doubling down on [Benonysdottir] and we started being a little bit loose at the back.”

Binghamton clawed back some points after Benonysdottir’s contribution, but the Great Danes got back on their feet and established a 17-12 lead heading into the first break.

In the first quarter, Binghamton matched Albany on rebounds with each tallying eight. As the game progressed, however, the Bearcats began a downward trend on the rebounding end. By the end of the game, BU allowed 14 offensive rebounds compared to Albany’s seven.

“We’re not gonna win a game when we give a team 19 second-chance opportunities,” Shapiro Ord said. “We can’t match them. We gotta get stops, and we can’t get stops when we’re having them shoot and get extra opportunities.”

Although BU only scored one less point than Albany in the second quarter, it squandered many of its second-chance opportunities after being out-rebounded by the Great Danes 12-6. Heading into halftime, UAlbany still led 33-27.

UAlbany maintained control of the game in the third period. The Great Danes scored the first points of the quarter just over 30 seconds in. Benonysdottir landed a free throw shortly after, but the hosts drove another five points past the Bearcats before they found an answer. Continuing to falter on the rebounding end, BU only registered five rebounds compared to UAlbany’s 11, which allowed the Great Danes to post six second-chance points in the third quarter alone, accounting for almost half of their 14 points that period. With 6:16 left on the clock, Albany posted its largest lead of the quarter with a 12-point surplus. Binghamton cut down the deficit heading into the break but was still 10 points behind at 47-37.

Binghamton was unable to surmount the deficit and failed to outscore the Great Danes in the final frame as they eventually developed a game-high 17-point lead. After giving Albany another 10 rebounds, the hosts ended the game with an overall 41-23 rebounding advantage over BU as well as 19 second-chance points in comparison to the Bearcats’ five.

While Benonysdottir was the strongest performer for the Bearcats with 14 points and seven rebounds, senior guard Hayley Moore contributed another 11 points to keep Albany from pulling away early on.

“[Benonysdottir] had seven rebounds, that’s huge,” Shapiro Ord said. “Tonight [Moore] knocked some threes down. She got to see the ball go through the net and all of the sudden [Albany] was worried about Hayley Moore, not backing off of her, which is great.”

Without a win under their belt since late January, the Bearcats are seated last in the AE standings. Hartford currently sits right above BU with only one more win.

“I’m proud of the way they don’t get on each other,” Shapiro Ord said. “They’re sticking together, they’re playing hard … I think these next five games are big ones. We really gotta step it up.”

Binghamton’s next matchup is scheduled against UMass Lowell on Saturday, Feb. 19. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. at the Dr. Bai Lee Court at the Events Center in Vestal, New York.

“We knew today was going to be a tough competition for us,” said Binghamton head coach Stephanie Allen. “Syracuse is ranked number three for a reason. Very talented and skilled team with a lot of depth. For us it was more about the opportunity and take away whatever we could from the game. While the outcome [was] certainly not something we wanted, it gave us some things to focus on as we [head] into our Colgate and Bucknell games later this week.”

Binghamton (0-1) has never beaten Syracuse (2-0). The Orange has won all nine matchups between the rivals and put 23 points past Binghamton on Sunday, tying for the most it has ever scored against the Bearcats in its history. The last time Syracuse met that scoring high was in 2007 in a 23-4 result.

The Bearcats held off the Orange in the first quarter of play, as neither team scored for the first three minutes. Once the clock hit 11:11, Syracuse began its scoring flurry, driving six unanswered goals into the Binghamton net heading into the final few minutes of the period. Binghamton registered its first point after 13 minutes of play thanks to freshman attack Olivia Muscolino. Sophomore midfielder Jesse Barer followed up on Muscolino’s initiative, adding another point off a free position to enter the break 7-2 in favor of Syracuse.

“It was nice to see some of our freshmen get on the board and make their mark,” Allen said. “We had a number of freshmen out there get minutes on this level and putting us in a good position as we head into the future.”

Syracuse nearly doubled its total in the second quarter. After freshman midfielder Abigail Carroll found the back of the net with 8:50 left to play, the Orange scored another six unanswered points to end the period 13-3.

Coming out of the halftime break, BU managed to limit the Syracuse offense to five points in the third quarter. Sophomore midfielder Madison Murphy added another point to Binghamton’s total during the period with Barer assisting her.

“If we can treat every game like it’s a Syracuse-level competition, we’re gonna be in a great position,” Allen said. “This was probably the hardest game that we’ll see in our schedule for quite a while, and for us to go in with our mentality today, I thought our [athletes] fought really hard and got some good experience.”

Binghamton continued its defensive efforts heading into the fourth quarter. In each of the first two quarters of play, BU conceded 11 shots. In the third, the Bearcats only conceded five shots and went on to hold the Orange to seven in the final frame. Of those seven shots, five found the back of the net. However, the Bearcats were able to respond, scoring within the initial four minutes and adding a last-second goal thanks to Murphy to further diminish the margin.

Allen credited junior goalie Emily Manning for helping keep Syracuse off the scoreboard as the Bearcat tallied seven saves.

“[Manning], while the score may not reflect it, she did an outstanding job of manning the net for us and really being a staple and director for us down on the defensive end,” Allen said.

Binghamton turned over the ball 17 times throughout the matchup. Allen said that the Bearcats’ struggle to handle the ball well will be a major focus as the season progresses.

“I think we looked a little scared at times out there against Syracuse’s defense today,” Allen said. “We just didn’t handle or take care of the ball today the way we should. Syracuse creating all of the turnovers, some of those were certainly on our end and mistakes that need to be cleaned up. I think that’s our number one focus, just taking care of the ball in possessions and cleaning that side of our game up.”

The Bearcats are slated to take on Colgate next. Their last encounter with the Raiders resulted in a 12-8 victory in favor of BU.

BU’s next game is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 16. First draw control is set for 5 p.m. at the Crown Field at Andy Kerr Stadium in Hamilton, New York.

“The men are disappointed coming up a bit short,” said Binghamton head coach Jerry Cummiskey. “UMBC swam really well. We far and away exceed how we competed, our times, performances this year compared to last. I don’t know how much more we really could have done.”

The four-day event kicked off on Thursday with senior Christopher Egan winning the 3-meter diving event with a score of 291.45 after posting 269.55 to top the preliminary event earlier in the day. Before Egan took gold, however, the Binghamton 800 freestyle relay won its first-ever AE title. The four athletes combined to produce a finishing time of 6:34.62 to break the previous school record by about eight seconds. The two victories propelled the men’s team to the top of the leaderboards at the conclusion of the first day. The women also sat in front despite not winning any of Thursday’s events.

“Our relays across the board, I think we had school records in four of the five relays,” Cummiskey said. “I think we had a scoreboard malfunction that might’ve robbed us from going five-for-five, but the relays were great. It was a top-to-bottom effort there.”

In the second day of the tournament, Binghamton started to fall behind. During Friday’s events, UMBC captured three titles to position itself at the top of the men’s leaderboard. Binghamton’s only response was a single individual victory to keep it in contention with the Retrievers. The lone title for BU came courtesy of sophomore Liam Murphy, who registered a time of 4:28.20 in the 500 freestyle. This marked Murphy’s second-straight conference title in the event as well as his second gold medal in the competition after anchoring the men’s 800 freestyle relay that won on Thursday.

At the end of Friday’s session, the women still hadn’t recorded any individual titles. The Bearcats sat in fourth place and were over 80 points behind crowd leaders UNH.

Binghamton opened the scoring on Saturday evening in the men’s 1-meter diving event. In the competition, Egan completed his AE sweep after scoring 304.90 points to earn his second gold medal of the tournament as well as the Most Outstanding Diver title. The decisive victory from the diving board gave BU another leg up over UMBC who were starting to lose some ground.

Back on the swimming side, two Bearcats posted individual titles. The first of the two victories came in the 400 IM event, as sophomore Henry Shemet clocked in at 3:53.14 to top the podium. Not only did Shemet’s time in the event break a 12-year-old meet record, but also a BU program record. The Bearcat’s record-breaking performance was later followed by senior Ryan Board’s victory in the 100 breaststroke. Board’s time of 54.30 broke his own record which he set at last year’s competition. The win earned him his third-straight title in the event.

While the women’s side still struggled to keep with its AE competition, sophomore Maddie Hoover placed third in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:51.56. Although the time didn’t win her the event, her preliminary time of 1:50.00 broke the BU program record in the 200 freestyle.

“We talk about the men and the men competing to win the conference; it’s an easier headline than the women there, but I think our women had a great meet for where we are right now,” Cummiskey said. “I’m really happy with how our women competed top to bottom.”

On Sunday, Binghamton approached the final stretch of the competition. Although the men’s side posted four second-place finishes, UMBC swept multiple events on the night, allowing it to grow its lead out to 921.5 points as the Bearcats sat in second with 874.5. NJIT was over 200 points behind Binghamton in third.

“We know there are places we’re stronger than [UMBC] and they’re stronger than us,” Cummiskey said. “I think we swam really well. We need to dig a little deeper and have a couple of things go our way … We certainly left a few things on the table, but UMBC swam really well.”

The women were unable to claw their way out of fourth, tallying 459 points as UNH ran away with the title with 814.5. This is the third year in a row the Wildcats’ have come away with the AE Championship.

The BU men’s team ends its season with a 6-3 overall record which includes a first-place team sweep at the Rhode Island Invitational. The women conclude their season with a 4-7 record.

“I’m really proud of the effort we had and the culture that we’ve been able to develop on both sides,” Cummiskey said. “We’re happy with the direction of the program. Everything we do swimming and diving-wise is a build-up to be at our best this weekend, but all of those stepping stones along the way have meaning and have value … We’re excited about the future. We don’t graduate a ton of seniors this year, we lose some good ones, but our goal is to be right back there competing on the men’s side and I think our women’s team, between the young talent we have on the team continuing to improve and the class we’ve got coming in next year, the women are going to take a significant step forward.”

“I just thought they were way better than us in every category,” said Binghamton head coach Levell Sanders. “We gave them way too many easy baskets in transition. We were way too soft [and] we weren’t physical enough. Offensively, we passed up some shots early and I thought we weren’t aggressive enough … We gotta get back to the drawing board and continue to get better.”

The Bearcats (10-11, 7-5 America East [AE]) failed to find their footing from the start of the game, only taking the lead once after senior guard Christian Hinckson sunk a 3-pointer within the first two minutes to post a one-point advantage. After Hinckson’s contribution, however, Vermont (19-4, 11-0 AE) quickly began to rack up points, going up by as much as 18 points in the first half. Although junior guard Jacob Falko tried to even the scoring with a nine-point contribution in the first period, the Bearcats’ lack of consistency allowed the Catamounts to head into halftime with a 35-20 lead.

“I don’t think anyone performed well,” Sanders said. “I thought [junior forward] Bryce Beamer came in and he fought. He was diving on the floor, he was fouling guys — he played hard as hell. [Beamer] was the one guy, to me, who I think competed and played as hard as he needed to play.”

Beamer’s major contributions came in the second half of the matchup, posting five points off a 3-pointer and a jumper from in the paint. The Bearcat was also called for four fouls. Despite his efforts to get the ball rolling again for Binghamton, the Vermont lead became insurmountable as the half went on.

“The one thing I was talking about a lot is that we gotta compete because if you don’t, you have no shot,” Sanders said. “We didn’t look confident. We looked like we were second-guessing ourselves. When playing against a team like Vermont, or any good team, you gotta be confident.”

The Catamounts shot 65.4 percent from the field in the second half, improving on the 48.3 percent clip they had in the first. Whilst Vermont’s offensive consistency allowed it to put 47 points past BU in the final 20 minutes, Binghamton had no response, only recording 37.1 percent from the field on 13-35 shooting. Additionally, only one Binghamton player tallied double digits as Falko ended with a game-high 14 points after being subbed out with 27 minutes of playing time. Five Vermont players posted 10 or more points.

Although BU played on the road Wednesday night, Sanders expects his side to compete in every game regardless of whether or not the lineup is playing on home turf.

“I would hope that our crowd would give us energy, but Vermont is gonna come out and play the same way,” Sanders said. “If we’re gonna be soft like we were today, it doesn’t matter where we play, it’s gonna be the same result.”

BU’s next opponent is UNH. Although the Wildcats are currently positioned at sixth overall, three of their athletes have averaged over 10 points a game in conference play thus far. Sanders also cites UNH’s consistency on the rebounding end as a threat to the Bearcats.

“[UNH is] a team that’s gonna play super hard, they’re gonna rebound the ball, they’re always one of the top teams in the country in rebounding,” Sanders said. “It’s gonna be a hard game … We wanna finish this season off in a good way, so we take this loss, learn from it, get better and start tomorrow preparing ourselves for the next game.”

The matchup against the Wildcats is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 12. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. at the Dr. Bai Lee Court at the Events Center in Vestal, New York.

“As a whole, the team is a little bit tighter,” said Binghamton head coach Kevin McKeown. “[The fire] was a growing opportunity and I think the upperclassmen grew a bit closer.”

The Bearcats ranked fifth in the 2022 America East (AE) men’s lacrosse preseason polls, projecting them just outside of a spot in the playoffs. However, with Stony Brook banned from competing in any AE playoff competition, Binghamton becomes one of six teams eligible to compete in the May tournament.

“I don’t think it’s where we’re capable of going,” McKeown said. “We have a really good group of senior leadership, we’ve got 11 seniors that I have a lot of faith in as players and people off the field … We try not to pay too much attention to the preseason polls.”

Ranked first in the polls was Vermont, who earned 36 total votes and is currently ranked 17th in the nation, per insidelacrosse.com. In the Bearcats’ penultimate matchup of last season, they beat the Catamounts 10-7 after driving four unanswered points past Vermont in the final quarter of the game to bust its near-perfect conference record.

“Vermont has been able to step up and win when it counts,” McKeown said. “It’s not like they blow people out. Every weekend in the [AE] is up for grabs. [Vermont] presents a challenge but a lot of our teams do as well.”

Last season, Binghamton posted a 5-4 record of exclusively conference matchups. Although the Bearcats beat UMass Lowell in their final game of the season, they failed to qualify for the AE tournament after UAlbany edged them out in the standings to take the final playoff spot.

Returning to the defensive end for BU are senior defender Drew Furlong and redshirt junior goalkeeper Teddy Dolan, who was named AE Defensive Player of the Year in 2021 and averaged 12.6 saves a game that year. McKeown named both men as team captains heading into 2022.

“They’re both extremely talented players,” McKeown said. “[Furlong] is a guy who’s really been hampered by injuries in the past two years … I really think he’s flying under the radar in terms of his talent and what he’s capable of. I think if he hadn’t had the injury trouble he’d be a preseason All-American candidate.”

In addition to Furlong, McKeown said that BU’s defensive midfield doesn’t receive the recognition it deserves.

“The defensive midfielders are a position group that doesn’t get a lot of attention,” McKeown said. “[Junior midfielders] Max Napoli and Luke Rosaschi are two guys returning from last year that played a lot. [Sophomore midfielder] Aaron Tebo is a local guy from Vestal that started to get in last year … I’m excited to see what those three guys can do.”

On offense, McKeown will look toward redshirt sophomore midfielder Thomas Greenblatt and senior attack Kevin Winkoff to help BU find the back of the net. Greenblatt bagged 16 goals and notched seven assists last season, while Winkoff added another 10 goals and six assists for the Bearcats in 2021. Heading into this season, Winkoff has tallied 33 total goals in his collegiate career.

“Winkoff offensively has been a key guy for us and a guy that we’ll lean on,” McKeown said. “We’ve got him down playing in attack where we’ve had him going back and forth in the midfield a lot in past years.”

In contrast to its 2021 schedule, Binghamton is set to open its season with seven nonconference games before AE play kicks off. Included in this string of matchups are games against Princeton, Bucknell and Hofstra.

BU’s first game of the season is scheduled against Marist on Saturday, Feb. 12. Faceoff is set for noon at the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.