The Harvard softball team split two double-headers against Princeton and Cornell this weekend, demonstrating offensive power despite inconsistency.
In both losses—the first games against Princeton and Cornell, respectively—the Crimson struggled to string together hits and left runners on base in do-or-die situations. Against the Tigers, Harvard loaded the bases in the sixth and the seventh but could not bring a runner home.
After breaking the men's soccer team's career points record, Andre Akpan '10 has gone on to an MLS career that recently took him to New York.
Andre Akpan ’10 has been given wings.
The former Harvard forward was traded to the New York Red Bulls for a conditional draft pick this week, bringing a four-year stint with the Colorado Rapids to an end.
“Andre is strong, physical forward with MLS experience and will provide another attacking option for our coaching staff,” Red Bulls sporting director Andy Roxburgh said in a statement. “We are pleased to sign him and look forward to his contributions in the coming season.”
In this series of posts, The Back Page checks in with Harvard athletes already in the professional leagues in the United States or abroad, as in the case of former basketball player Keith Wright '12. Today, David Freed takes a look at Tampa Bay lightning center Alex Killorn '12.
After four straight games without a goal, Alex Killorn '12 has posted a goal in his last two games for the Tampa Bay Lightning. He had two straight positive plus-minus efforts for the first time since Feb. 23-24 against Pittsburgh and Carolina.
Killorn was drafted in the third round of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft by the Lightning before going to Harvard. In four years as a Crimson hockey player, he had 109 points on 524 shots and was a unanimous first team All-Ivy qualifier his senior year. He is Harvard's first 100-point scorer in eight years.
Killorn had an assist and two shots on goal in his first game in the NHL on Feb. 10. Since then, he has two game-winning goals—against the Toronto Maple Leafs (in just his fifth game as a pro) and two weeks later agains the New Jersey Devils—and six goals overall. He has recorded a shot in all but three games and has been getting more playing time as of late. After logging 20 minutes of ice time in just one game as a professional heading into the last week of March, Killorn has played over 20 minutes in three of his last four games, getting 19:27 on the ice in the other.
Sam O’Connor ’12 and Malcolm Howard ’05 helped the Harvard crew team win many a race during their time in Cambridge, but on Sunday they helped their team win The Boat Race.
The Crimson alums led the Oxford team to a victory over Cambridge in the annual Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, which is known as The Boat Race in Britain. The race, which attracted thousands to the banks of the River Thames and millions more on television, is one of the most celebrated and historic sporting events in England. O’Connor and Howard helped give Oxford its 77th victory in the 159-year history of the race.
Howard, who took home an Olympic gold medal in 2008 in men’s eights and silver in the same event in 2012, rowed stroke for Oxford, while O’Connor was in the fourth seat. The team completed the 6.8-kilometer course in 17:27 for a length-and-a-half victory over the rival Cambridge squad.
O’Connor, whose younger brother James is the captain of the Harvard heavyweights, became just the 10th New Zealander to race in the event.
The two were not the only Harvard connection to the event, though. Ben French ’11 rowed in Oxford’s Reserve Boat, and his boat took home victory by a third-of-a-length over Cambridge in their division.
The three rowers are all studying for their graduate degrees at Oxford.
Junior guard Siyani Chambers and company will have a busy schedule ahead of them as the team attempts to repeat its Ivy Championship.
