Four years ago, the football team finished the season with two straight victories to avoid ending the year winless. The men's soccer team stumbled to a 1-4-2 Ivy League record that fall, just a year after winning the conference crown. The previous winter, the women's basketball team went 5-22.
What a difference a few years - and the Class of 2006 - has made. Brown ended the school year with four teams - football, men's soccer, women's basketball and men's tennis - claiming Ivy League championships. The University had five women's indoor track stars honored as All-Americans, and the Bears were represented at the NCAA Wrestling Championships by 157-pound Michael Savino '06. The men's tennis team qualified for the NCAA tournament after knocking off the 45th-ranked University of Pennsylvania, and the men's crew team ended Harvard's four-year unbeaten streak with a dramatic half-second victory on the Seekonk River.
Put simply, the Class of 2006 will go down as one of the most successful classes in the history of Brown athletics.
Things started off on the right foot this fall when the football team won its first-ever outright Ivy League championship. The Bears, who finished 6-1 in league play, were led by 19 seniors, all of whom made key contributions during the team's season-ending, eight-game winning streak.
Wide receiver Jarrett Schreck '06 torched Harvard for 223 yards and two scores in Brown's only conference defeat, and made the All-Ivy first team. James Frazier '06 played well both at defensive end - his usual position - and at linebacker, first moving to the position when filling in for injured Zak DeOssie '07 in the squad's victory over the University of Rhode Island. Pat Curran '06 and Steve Storrs '06 anchored the best defensive line in the league and combined for 8.5 sacks on the year.
But the most prolific of those 19 seniors was Nick Hartigan '06, who set the Ivy League career record for scoring and ended his career as Brown's all-time leading rusher, including 1,727 yards in his farewell campaign. Hartigan was a unanimous selection for the Asa A. Bushnell Cup, given to the league's Player of the Year, named a first-team All-American by four different groups and was given the University's Fritz Pollard Award for being the outstanding male athlete of the year.
A key element of the secondary was tri-captain and cornerback Jamie Gasparella '06, who was second in the Ivy League with seven interceptions. Gasparella believed that the seeds for the championship season were sown during that difficult 2002 season, when the 19 members of the Class of 2006 were first-years.
"As more time passes, the significance of what we accomplished, on and off the field this season, has sunk in more," Gasparella said. "Being a part of the team that helped restore Brown's strong tradition of success was a goal of the whole team, but especially the senior class."
In the meantime, the men's soccer team won its eighth Ivy title in the past 12 years with a 5-1-1 record (11-5-2 overall), and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament. On the same day that the football team romped over Columbia to win the conference title, the soccer team bounced URI in the first round of the NCAA tournament with a dramatic overtime win.
Down 1-0 with barely 20 minutes remaining, Keith Caldwell '06 drove home a free kick to even the score. A golden goal four minutes into extra time set up a date with the University of Maryland two days before Thanksgiving. Thanks to the play of its stingy back line, Brown kept the eventual national champions on the ropes for 90 minutes before falling 1-0.
In the gym, the volleyball team finished third in the league at 9-5 (12-13 overall). The Bears were anchored by two of the most decorated players in the history of the program: co-captains Leigh Martin '06, the program's all-time leader in assists, and Lauren Gibbs '06, fourth all-time in kills. The field hockey team, led by team MVP Kristen Vincent '06 and Coaches' Award winner Brooke Townsend '06, finished in a tie for second in the Ivy League.
Not even the frigid New England winter could cool off Brown. The women's basketball team continued Bruno's roll, picking up where the football and men's soccer teams left off, running up a 12-2 league mark (18-10 overall) and going undefeated at the Pizzitola Center for the first time in school history.
The team was led by its two captains, guards Colleen Kelly '06 and 2006 Ivy League Player of the Year Sarah Hayes '06. Kelly finished as Brown's career leader in three-pointers, while Hayes established herself as one of the University's most well-rounded basketball players ever. She led the team in scoring, rebounding and steals and was given the Marjorie Brown Smith Award as the University's outstanding female athlete of the year.
Not to be outdone, the women's ice hockey team also made a run at the NCAA tournament. The Bears fought their way into the championship game of the ECACHL playoffs after earning the conference's third seed with a 10-6-4 record (15-13-5 overall) and almost knocked off Harvard in the final, losing 4-3.
Behind the steady play of Maria Heinhuis '06 on the blue line and Keaton Zucker '06 up top, the Bears boasted a blend of offensive and defensive talent that came together late in the season. Arguably, the team's biggest win of the year was its first, when the Bears handed then-No. 3 University of New Hampshire a 3-2 loss. It proved to be the only regulation loss the Wildcats suffered during the regular season.
On the slopes, the ski team started the year slowly, struggling to replace three of its top skiers from 2005. With their season on the line, however, the Bears performed their best. At the USCSA Eastern Regionals, the Bears won the giant slalom, almost three seconds ahead of the second-place team from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Two weeks later, at the National Championships, Brown came in fifth.
On the mat, while Brown's wrestling team had a down campaign, Savino finally got a taste of national competition in his final collegiate campaign.
"Seeing myself progress each year toward my goal (of earning a spot in the national competition) really showed that hard work pays off," he said. "It was a nice way to end my career with a trip to nationals."
In the pool, diver Jessica Larson '06 ended her storied four-year career as one of the best divers in the Ivy League. Larson was a first-team All-Ivy selection after winning the 1-meter event at the Ivy Championships and qualified for the NCAA regional competition. Fencer Ruth Schneider '06 ended her stellar career by becoming the first Brown fencer to earn All-Ivy honors, as the team competed in the conference for the first time. After battling illness during her final season, she went out with a 24th-place finish at the National Championships, the third time she'd competed at the event.
Men's squash captain Breck Bailey '06 became the first Bear to win the Skillman Sportsmanship Award, the highest honor in the sport at the college level. He was given the Dave Zucconi Award for sportsmanship and fair play at the year-end awards banquet.
The indoor track squads also received some incredible performances from their senior stars. There was talk of having to build a longer landing pit after Brittany Grovey '06 jumped 43 feet, 4 1/2 inches in the triple jump at the indoor Heptagonal Championships in late February. She qualified for nationals and set a Brown indoor record with her leap. Grovey earned All-American honors at the national competition with a jump of 43-1 3/4.
Joining Grovey on the All-American indoor track team was the women's distance medley relay team. Kelly Powell '06 ran the 800-meter third leg of the national event in a personal-best time of 2:10. Running the 1,600-meter anchor leg, Anna Willard '06 posted a time of 4:45 to seal Brown's eighth-place finish and All-American status at nationals.
On the men's side, Ray Bobrownicki '06 became only the third competitor ever to take three high jump titles at Heps. Jake Golenor '06 breezed to a win in the shot put, with his toss of 55 feet, 1/4 inch, winning him the title by more than two feet. Brown's runners were prolific as well. Dallas Dissmore '06 capped off his indoor career with a win in the 500.
When the weather once again turned warm, Brown maintained its athletic dominance. Brown's last Ivy League champion of the school year, the men's tennis team, bounced back from an early season defeat to Penn to edge out the Quakers for the Ancient Eight's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Bears' opening-round match-up with the University of Notre Dame on May 12 marked the second consecutive year and fourth time in five years the team made the national championship tournament.
The men's crew upset No. 3 Harvard at home in early April. Brown defeated a Crimson boat that had not lost a dual race in over three years - and was the three-time defending national champion - behind the leadership of coxswain Patrick Yu '06 and rower Steven Van Knotsenburg '06. Ranked fourth in the country, the Brown varsity eight was ranked second in the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges heading into the Eastern sprints on May 21.
The women's crew was not far behind the men, moving up to fifth in the country after upsetting then No. 4 Yale on April 30 on the Seekonk River. The varsity eight, led by stroke Deborah Dryer '06, closed out the dual race season with eight straight wins after starting 1-2. They similarly were ranked second entering the Eastern Sprints on May 13.
On the softball field, Brown has been steadily improving after bottoming out with a 7-38-1 record in 2001. Leadoff hitter and offensive catalyst Mary Seid '06 strung together a 15-game hitting streak for the Bears as Brown finished tied for third in the Ivy League with a 6-6 mark. Seid, who finished third in the Ivy League with a .389 average, was given the Bessie H. Rudd Award for promoting Brown athletics during the year.
The baseball squad, led by co-captains pitcher Shaun McNamara '06 and first baseman/left fielder Danny Hughes '06, continued its recent run of solid league play. Paul Christian '06, who finished with a career batting average of .343, hit eight home runs to bring his four-year total to 32, tying him with John King '79 for the most in Brown history, while McNamara finished his career with 167 strikeouts, seventh all-time. Hughes hit .331 to bring his career average to .308. The Bears finished with the third-best record in the league at 12-8 (16-24 overall).
At outdoor Heps, both the men's and women's track and field teams placed third. For the women, it was again Willard and Grovey who led the way. Grovey won the triple jump by more than a foot and a half, also finding time to take third in the long jump. Willard set a meet record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, was a member of the first-place 4x800-meter relay along with co-captain Kelly Powell '06, and took second place in the 800-meter run to boot.
Ray Bobrownicki '06 cleared 7-1 in the high jump, adding a third outdoor title to go with his three indoor wins. Kent Walls '06 took Brown's other first-place finish, winning the discus in addition to taking fourth in the hammer throw. Herald Sports Staff Writer Hugh Murphy '06 competed at Heps for the first time, taking second place in the javelin behind teammate Paul Rosiak '07.
Of all the University's teams, the one constant was the presence of strong senior leadership. From Hartigan on the football team to Hayes and Kelly on the hardwood floor, the Class of 2006 inspired and pulled for one another across the board.
"The success that the Brown sports teams had this year speaks volumes about the type of people that Brown recruits," Gasparella said. "Across the spectrum of sports, the senior class really supported one another on and off the field. It is great to be a part of the Brown athletic family, and I think that what people did in 2005-06 will be the standard for Brown teams in the future."
