Who Needs Varsity, Anyway?

Here's a partial look at the clubbing scene at Harvard over the first semester (club sports, that is):

Harvard Table Tennis Club

The Harvard table netsters went 1-2 in the fall--beating Worester, 3-2, but dropping contests to BU, 5-0, and Brown, 4-1. Despite the losing record, club co-president Charles Sanders remains optimistic.

"We're really deep team, and if everyone can just pick their game up a notch we could start beating a lot of teams," Sanders said.

The table-tennis season climaxes over Spring Break at the National Collegiate Team Championships, which will be held at Princeton this year.

The club meets every Tuesday from 9:30 to 11:00 and Friday from 7:30 to 11:00 at the MAC.

Harvard-Radcliffe Ultimate Frisbee

The Disciples had a thin schedule over the fall, competing in only two tournaments.

Over the Columbus Day weekend the squad competed in a Sectional tournament that featured collegiate and post-collegiate club teams from all around the New England area. The Disciples finished with a 2-2 record but failed to advance to the Regionals.

The Ultimate squad also participated in an informal Beanpot Round-Robin tournament along with MIT, Brandeis, Tufts, BU and Boston College.

Harvard finished third, losing to tournament champions MIT in the semifinals.

"We're starting to play more cohesively as a team," co-captain Daryl Norcott said. "We have a couple of graduate-school players who still have a year or two of eligibility and their experience has helped a lot."

The collegiate ultimate frisbee season shifts into high gear in the spring. The Harvard squad is scheduled to play in several regional tournaments, including the Ivy League tournament and the Yale Cup.

The Disciples will travel to Wilmington, North Carolina, over Spring Break to compete in the Fastern tournament.

"Everyone is taking it very seriously and has shown a high level of commitment," co-captain Jonathan Katzman said. "We're conditioning over winter and should be even more competitive in the spring."

Harvard Mountain Biking Team

The mountain biking team sent representatives to three competitions over the fall semester where they races, rain or shine, across miles of cross-country terrain.

The team's best finishes came in the Boston Cup, and open tournament for collegiate as well as professional racers.

Co-captain Dumisani Bands finished 3rd in the sport division, and co-captain Forest Briscoe finished 7th in sport.

Bands and Briscoe, who co-founded the club last fall, along with seniors Walter Sipe and Boswell Wing and freshman Chad Nelson participated in the races over the fall semester.

"Everyone on the team is getting better," Briscoe said. "And some experienced racers are expected to join our team in the spring, so I'm interested to see how it goes."

Mountain biking has been rapidly growing in popularity, and the first-ever national collegiate championships for the sport were held recently in California.

"I think our numbers here will also start to go up once people realize that there is a mountain biking team here." Bands said.

The mountain biking team finished fourth last spring in the Eastern tournament and will be looking to improve on that performance next semester.

In our on going effort to keep you, the student body, informed of all athletics competitions, big and small, a column about the results of club team competitions will appear on a regular basis in the Crimson Sports section.