Friday was a great day to be a 6-seed in a division at the 2023 National Collegiate Men’s Team Championships held at Trinity College and Wesleyan University. Three of the four sixth-seeded teams upset their quarterfinal competition today, each clinching a berth in Saturday’s divisional semifinals.
The match of the day featured one of those 6-versus-3 upsets in the Potter Cup National Championship Division, with hosts Trinity outlasting a valiant comeback effort from third seeded Princeton. Trinity captured an early lead in the first wave and then earned two marathon victories to go up 4-1.
Princeton would not go away easily, however. Back came the Tigers with two victories of their own to reach 4-3, but Trinity’s Julius Benthin held off his Princeton opponent if five grueling games to clinch the fifth team point and the win. The final match, which had not begun at the time that the team match was clinched, was abandoned via an executive decision by the tournament director due to time constraints.
Williams College, the 6-seed in the Hoehn Division, started off the string of upsets this morning with a strong victory over Chatham University, which was seeded the highest it has ever been in program history. Williams reached five wins at 5-2 before Chatham earned the last two individual victories.
The Summers Cup (C Division) also featured a 6/3 upset with Hobart College storming past Bates College in the afternoon’s other notable match. Hobart won the three matches that lasted five games and paired that with the strength at the top of their lineup to earn the victory.
The Conroy Division, staged at Wesleyan University on Friday, saw all four top seeds move on to the semifinals. Conference foes Bowdoin and Wesleyan as well as Navy and Dickinson will compete on Saturday for a spot in the Sunday’s final at Trinity.
All results from today’s matches, plus links to the draws, are listed below.
Potter Cup – National Championship Division
(1) Harvard University def. (8) Cornell University – 8-1
(2) University of Pennsylvania def. (7) Drexel University – 7-2
(6) Trinity College def. (3) Princeton University – 5-3*
(4) Yale University def. (5) University of Virginia – 6-3
(1) Columbia University def. (8) Franklin & Marshall College – 9-0
(2) Dartmouth College def. (7) Tufts University – 6-3
(6) Williams College def. (3) Chatham University – 5-4
(4) Western University (Ontario) def. (5) University of Rochester – 5-4
(1) MIT def. (8) Hamilton College – 7-2
(2) Amherst College def. (7) Colby College – 5-4
(6) Hobart College def. (3) Bates College – 6-3
(4) St. Lawrence University def. (5) Middlebury College – 5-4
First Round:
(8) Fordham University def. (9) Vassar College – 7-2
(7) Denison University def. (10) Bard College – 8-0*
Quarterfinals:
(1) Bowdoin College def. (8) Fordham University – 9-0
(2) U.S. Naval Academy def. (7) Denison University – 7-1*
(3) Dickinson College def. (6) Connecticut College – 9-0
(4) Wesleyan University def. (5) Haverford College – 9-0
* Double default in the scoring
